Ingredient

Ghee

Ghee is butter that has been simmered until its water has boiled off and its milk solids have separated and browned, then strained. What is left is essentially pure butterfat — which is why it keeps without refrigeration, why it can take a much higher heat than butter, and why it tastes nutty in a way butter does not.

Why removing the solids changes everything

Butter is roughly 80% fat, 16% water and a few per cent milk solids — proteins and lactose. Those minor components cause both of butter's limitations in a pan.

The water is why butter spits and why it cannot get much above the boiling point of water until it has all gone.

The milk solids are what burn. Proteins and sugars brown and then blacken at a relatively low temperature, which is why butter goes from nutty to acrid so quickly and why its usable smoke point is low.

Take both out and you have a fat that is stable at considerably higher temperatures, that does not spit, and that will not burn while you are browning something in it. You also have a fat with no water and almost no protein, which is why ghee keeps for months at room temperature where butter would go rancid — the things that spoil need water and protein to work on.

The trade-off: ghee cannot do the things butter does because of its water and solids. It will not make a beurre blanc, will not emulsify into a pan sauce the same way, and will not give a shortcrust the same texture.

Making it

Twenty minutes, and it is noticeably better and cheaper than most jars.

1. Put unsalted butter in a heavy pan over a low to medium heat and let it melt completely.
2. It will foam as the water boils off. Let it. Do not stir much.
3. The milk solids separate — some rise as foam, some sink to the bottom.
4. Keep it at a gentle simmer. The foaming subsides, the bubbling gets quieter, and the liquid turns clear golden as the water finishes leaving.
5. Watch the solids on the bottom. For ghee, let them turn a proper golden brown — this is what gives ghee its nutty flavour and it is the step that distinguishes it from clarified butter.
6. Take it off the heat the moment it smells nutty and the solids are golden. They go from golden to burnt quickly.
7. Strain through muslin or a fine sieve into a clean dry jar. Let it cool, and keep it covered at room temperature or in the fridge.

Ghee, clarified butter and brown butter

Three products from the same starting point, distinguished by how far you take it.

Clarified butter

Melted and the solids removed before they colour. Pale, clean-tasting, neutral. French technique. High smoke point.

Ghee

Simmered longer, so the solids brown before being strained out, and more water is driven off. Golden, nutty, aromatic. South Asian. Highest smoke point of the three.

Brown butter (beurre noisette)

The solids browned and left in. Nutty, with visible flecks. Not shelf-stable and not a high-heat fat — it is a flavour ingredient.

Niter kibbeh

Ethiopian spiced clarified butter, simmered with ginger, garlic, korarima and fenugreek before straining. The cooking fat behind most Ethiopian stews.

Smoke point

Butter is low, clarified butter and ghee are substantially higher — high enough for frying, searing and roasting where butter would burn.

Lactose and casein

Largely removed with the solids, though not entirely. People avoiding dairy proteins for medical reasons should treat that as a clinical question rather than a cooking one.

What to use it for

• Tempering spices. Hot ghee with mustard seeds, cumin and curry leaves is the foundation of an enormous amount of Indian cooking, and ghee's high smoke point is exactly why it is used.
• Frying and searing, where you want butter flavour at a temperature butter cannot survive.
• Roasting potatoes and vegetables, where it gives a nutty richness dripping and oil do not.
• On rice, dal and flatbread, spooned over at the end — a traditional finishing use as much as a cooking one.
• In sweets and baking across South Asia, where its flavour is central rather than incidental.
• For eggs, fried or scrambled.
• Not for emulsified sauces, which need butter's water and proteins.
• Not where you want butter's freshness — ghee tastes cooked, because it is.

Common questions