How to Make Clarified Butter (First, Take Some Butter ...) (2024)

FAQs

How to Make Clarified Butter (First, Take Some Butter ...)? ›

Clarified butter, or ghee, is pure butterfat–butter with the milk solids and water removed.

Clarified butter, or ghee, is pure butterfat–butter with the milk solids and water removed.

When you clarify butter, you remove all the milk solids and water, but are left with the butterfat. This creates a higher smoke point, which makes clarified butter ideal for cooking and sautéing.

Here's an easy method for clarifying butter that yields more than the traditional saucepan method does and with less fuss. The butter is cut into several chunks and melted it in a narrow glass container in the microwave, without stirring. After it rises once or twice, it settles into three perfect layers.

Use clarified butter for frying and sautéing — it is excellent for cooking eggs, popping popcorn or cooking steak. Clarified butter also makes a mean hollandaise. Ghee is clarified butter cooked further to nutty golden perfection. It's basically an extreme version of clarified butter with a shelf life like uranium.

The takeaway. If you're only looking at calories and fat intake, it doesn't matter whether you choose ghee or butter. Their nutritional profiles are almost identical. But removing the milk from ghee does offer additional benefits, namely the absence of lactose and the higher smoke point.

How Long Does Clarified Butter Last? While ghee is shelf-stable at room temperature, regular clarified butter is not and will need to be kept in the fridge. But it has a longer life there with less risk of rancidity than regular butter because you have removed both the milk solids and the excess water.

Cooking with clarified butter has several benefits, particularly when frying. Milk solids are what cause butter to smoke and burn in cooking, so by omitting them, you are able to cook with butter at a much higher temperature and for a longer period of time. Milk solids also cause the butter to spoil, or become rancid.

An unopened jar of ghee could be stored in a dark place, away from sunlight at room-temperature (think kitchen cabinet) for up to nine months without concern. After the jar is opened, it can stay in its room-temperature cabinet for up to six months or it can be stored in a refrigerator for up to a year.

How to clarify butter quickly? ›

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Continue to cook over medium-high heat; an even layer of white milk proteins will float to the surface. Bring to a boil; the milk proteins will become foamy. Lower heat to medium and continue to gently boil; the milk proteins will break apart.

Pour hot water into a ceramic or glass cup or bowl (something that can fit over your butter). After a few minutes, dump the water out of the vessel and quickly cover your butter. The heat from the cup will soften your butter in just a few minutes. We'd be remiss if we didn't mention using your microwave.

Reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer the butter until the solids (tiny brown specks) sink to the bottom of the saucepan, about 5 minutes. Step 3. Pour the liquid butter through a fine wire-mesh strainer, lined with cheesecloth or a coffee filter, and discard the solids.