the wonders of Ghee

Yesterday, I made Ghee for the first time. Many people have never heard of Ghee, or if they have it is in relation to yummy Indian food- Ghee is a traditional food of India, used for cooking just about everything. It is essentially clarified butter, and it has a lovely caramelized, rich, buttery taste that I have grown to love so much I put it in my tea instead of cream. It has a very high smoke point (about 485 degrees) which makes it excellent for cooking at high heat (cooking vegetable/seed/nut oils at high heat is very bad for you and causes the oils to be converted into toxic substances- more on that in another post). We have been buying it from the store for a few months now and cooking with it and eating it, but it is quite expensive to buy and I figured that it couldn't be too hard to make at home- so I decided to give it a try. In India, cows are sacred, and very well taken care of- people drink their raw milk and make butter and Ghee and some other things from the milk, and the cows are raised in such a healthy environment that the foods made from the milk have high levels of vitamins and minerals in them- much different from our cows here in the states, for the most part. The Ghee I was buying was wonderful, and organic, but not made from butter from pastured cows. Pastured butter is a huge "health" food at the moment, especially in Paleo circles. The butter from cows who have been 100% grass fed (i.e. "pastured", meaning a life ranging and feeding on grass only- no grains, even organic ones) has the most vitamins and nutrients of any butter, specifically vitamin A and D and especially K. These are of course, vital nutrients, especially for pregnant women and small children. The draw back to butter is that many people are dairy and casein intolerant, and therefore can't eat that yummy pasture butter... here is where Ghee swoops in to the rescue- Ghee is created by cooking the butter at a low temperature and separating the lactose and the casein from the pure golden clarified butter, therefore eliminating the lactose and casein and making it safe for those with allergies, while still retaining all the nutrients. Woo hoo Ghee!

I have been increasing the amounts of healthy fats in my diet- using pasture butter, coconut oil, olive oil (only cold, never cooked), Ghee, and eating more avocado. The eczema that I have battled all my life, which got a bit better when I stopped eating gluten, is responding very well to this- I have noticed a huge decrease in symptoms since I started eating more good fats. Ghee is also reported to be helpful for your digestion, helping to lubricate and soothe the stomach and intestines, which I have also noticed. And, it tastes amazing. I really do make a cup of tea every morning with a spoonful of Ghee in it- organic black tea, a spoonful of ghee, and a tiny bit of raw honey. It's divine.

So onto the Ghee creation process:
You will need:
1lb of unsalted pasture butter (Organic Valley, Kerry Gold, etc) (or the best butter you can find)
small pan to cook the butter
cheesecloth or fine mesh sieve of some sort
funnel
mason jar for Ghee storage

Put the butter into your pot/pan, simmer on low as it melts. It will begin to sputter and pop, which is what it should do.  It will then begin to separate, with a white floaty layer on top, clear bright yellow butter in the middle, and a layer of white stuff at the bottom. These are the milk solids, the casein and the lactose that you are getting rid of. The sputtering and popping will start to stop, and you can skim of the top layer of solids, to reveal the lovely rich bright yellow Ghee in the middle. It should smell sort of like popcorn, a sweetish caramelized smell- if it still smells like butter, let it cook a little longer. Be careful not to let the milk solids on the bottom burn, that will ruin the Ghee. Once it has that beautiful sweet smell, that is when it is ready. Pour the Ghee through a sieve or cheesecloth into the jar, making sure no solids get into the jar and you just have the liquid Ghee. You can also sieve it and then put it back on the low flame and keep cooking the Ghee, if you are afraid you are going to burn the milk solids but haven't gotten that smell yet. That is what I did this first time, 'cause when I poured it off to separate it from the bottom milk solids it still smelled like rich butter, not like Ghee, but after another 10 minutes on the stove it got that lovely Ghee smell and I knew it was done. That's all there is to it! It took me about an hour total, but now that I know how to do it it will probably take less then that- and I got the beautiful jar of Ghee pictured above, for much less then a jar of it in the store.

Let me know if you try making Ghee, if you cook with Ghee, or if you give cooking with it a try- I promise it lends a very amazing flavor to foods, and is oh so good for you.