Making clarified butter and ghee
Also searched as: clarified butter, ghee, drawn butter, clarifying butter
In short: Clarified butter is butter without the water and milk protein. Without the parts that burn, it can take much more heat.
Like panning for gold: you wash away everything that does not shine and keep what is pure.
- 250 g butter
- small pot
- spoon or skimmer
- sieve lined with kitchen paper or a fine cloth
- clean jar
Hot fat: children only watch, and keep water well away.
Step by step: what happens
- 1Melt the butter over low heat and let it simmer gently
The water in the evaporates. It crackles as long as there is water left.
Evaporation - 2Skim the foam off the surface
The foam is milk protein rising to the top.
- 3Wait until it goes quiet and pale flecks settle at the bottom
Once there is no water left, the crackling stops. The remaining protein sinks to the bottom.
Evaporation - 4For ghee, keep heating until the flecks are golden brown
The milk protein browns and gives off a nutty aroma.
Maillard reaction - 5Pour through the cloth into a clean jar
Without water and protein, the fat only smokes at about 200 °C; butter already at about 150 °C.
Smoke point of fat
Result
About 200 g of clarified butter from 250 g of butter, because butter is around four fifths fat (as a guide).
Keeps for
Several months, cool and dark. Without water, germs find hardly anything to live on.
What to use it for
- Schnitzel, rösti and fried potatoes at high heat.
- Ghee for curries and for toasting spices.
Rösti
Wiener schnitzel
Making butterSources · 2
- Verbraucherzentrale Südtirol: Welches Öl zum Braten?
- Harold McGee: On Food and Cooking (2004)