Ghee vs clarified butter

Ghee is made from butter. If you have not tried it I think you should! Here is the differences between clarified butter and Ghee.

Ghee is cooked until all the solids (lactose, cholesterol) have settled on the bottom and are cooked until brown, which releases vital short chains of fatty acid known at butyric acid. The other point is that it is not done cooking until all of the moisture (water) is gone. What this does is it allows Ghee to be stored on the counter top, not the in the fridge. Unsalted butter is best to use. It has been stated to have CLA, all essential amino acids, etc.

Clarified butter is only partially separated, it simply has less lactose and cholesterol, not a removal. This doesn't do any good for someone who is lactose intolerant! Also it doesn't matter if it is salt or unsalted really. It can be made by putting butter in a jar, in the window on a warm day.

When I make Ghee I like to use a wide pot/pan. You want the temperature high enough to sink the solids, but not high enough to burn. If the solids don't sink and separate correctly your temperature may be too low and what will happen is it will create a layer that acts as a blockage for water (I think). Basically if it is to low you will have to turn it up and stir some but run a bigger risk of burning since the amount of heat to make the full process happen will of increased until it is back on track... If you notice this happening it is best to stir and turn the heat up right there and then. Funny enough it really only requires around say 3 out of 10 on most electric stoves, to give you an idea of how little of heat is really needed. You can play with getting it to a boil and turning it down but I avoid any chance of burning. It is good to scrape the top off, but don't bother until it has been going awhile. Consider using a grease guard as it will bubble as the water is cooked out of the solids. You will know when it is done, when it stops sizzling (all the water is gone) and the bottom is brown but not black. Then strain through cheese cloth/coffee filter into a container (you may want to put a metal utensil in in order to not break the glass container you may be using). You can let it cool before you poor it but be warned, it holds temperature for a very long time.

I love ghee, but as far as I know, heating fat won't seperate out cholesterol, good or bad. Could you post me a link? I'd like to read more about it.

My understanding is it still has saturated fat. However what causes cholesterol within the body, to which is actually harmful, is left in the solids. The concern being whether cholesterol oxides or not. However even though it has saturated fat the levels are not high, nor is saturated fat necessarily bad for everyone anyway.

It becomes a bit complicated, here is some discussion on it from a quick Internet search. Different people have found it to actually lower cholesterol to some point.

I think because I was too concerned about burning the solids my ghee is closer to clarified butter or at least somewhere in between ghee and clarified butter?

When I poured it off, the solids that had settled were still a very pale tan, not brown...
The butter I'm using is salted...does that matter?

I didn't notice any more water bubbling out though.

I don't know much about ghee, but as far as clarified butter, once the water is cooked off it can be considered clarified.  Continuing to cook past this stage begins to brown the solids and what you get might be referred to as brown butter or beurre noisette in French because of the flavor and color it begins to take on.  Not sure about any of the health claims above, so how much it is 'browned' is really about flavor preference.  Of course the solids can burn and you probably don't want that, so care has to be taken once the browning process begins. One of the big advantages of clarified butter/ghee is the high smoke point and that will remain the same after any amount of browning.

Salt should not affect this process, it will just separate out with the water/other solids.

thank you Mark!

that makes things much clearer!
...'clarified' even

I make my own ghee as well. I buy bulk butter and boil it in a pot. It is so much cheaper than buying it at the import market.

One thing I find helps is starting with an eating spoon full of water per pound (bit less than half a kilo) of butter. It's not exact, but it speeds up the separation and melting by increasing the surface area of heat reaching the cold butter. And since you are cooking out the water anyway, a bit more won't hurt. I have also used a dab of light olive oil (like you use for baklawa, the pastry with pistachio and honey).

You can also make flavored ghee by adding bay laurel, rosemary, or sprigs of zataar. This is good for grilling or making roasts.

You can also make sweet flavors, like rose using the fresh petals, or vanilla bean... that's good for pastry and cookies. Your guests would probably really enjoy it and it's no extra cooking time or liquid like the water extracts.