As I said recently, on our Whole30 program ghee (similar to clarified butter) is allowed. That is because ghee has no milk proteins. It's used widely in Italian, Middle Eastern, and Indian cooking. And it is better than butter for frying. Butter's smoke point is 392*F while ghee heats all the way to 482*F (higher than a lot of oils).
It can be expensive to buy but is SO easy to make. All it takes is a crock pot and containers to put your ghee into! When selecting containers, you need something with straight sides (canning jars just aren't the thing although they do work) and a lid.
As with most things, the better the product you start with, the better finished product you will end up with. But considering this was an experiment ~ I wasn't keen on possibly ruining a few pounds of expensive top-shelf butter.
I went to Sam's...
So four pounds of butter went into the crock pot.
I set the temperature on High and let it go (NO lid). The recipe I was following warned the first time doing this to keep an eye on it as some crock pots take only 3-ish hours and others can take up to 6 or 7 hours.
Took a while for it to come to a boil. That is when the foam started forming. Those are "impurities". I don't even want to know what they are...
Getting thicker...
FINALLY the foam is starting to brown.
You let it keep going until the foam AND the solids at the bottom are a toasty brown. It will smell soooo good. Once browned, turn off the crock pot and let it cool just a bit. Seems my crock pot is the 6-7 hour variety. I should have let it brown more but it was getting late. Time to be done.
Strain the ghee through a sieve lined with cheesecloth by ladling it from the crock pot. Skimming most of the foam off the top makes it a neater job.
When you get to the solids at the bottom be prepared to see some major funky looking stuff. I tried straining it out too but it clogged the cheesecloth way too fast. Next time I'm not worrying about getting every single drop of ghee.
And here is our finished ghee. So easy and so tasty that this will become a staple in our home.
With that much ghee is it shelf stable, need refrigeration, or do you can it?
ReplyDeleteIt is supposedly shelf stable for several months (not that is lasts that long around here!) or up to a year in the fridge. I'm keeping it in the fridge except for one jar that is in use.
DeleteAnd as I understand it, dairy products shouldn't be canned.
My screen crashed so I don't know if my comment sent. I am curious that with that much ghee is it shelf stable? Or do you refrigerate or can it?
ReplyDelete