What is Clarified Butter? (2024)

FAQs

What is Clarified Butter? ›

Clarified butter, sometimes lovingly referred to as liquid gold, is just butter with the milk solids and water removed. To clarify is to make clear, and that's exactly clarified butter is: clear butter. Clarified butter is very popular in French cooking, and its cousin, Ghee, is an Indian staple.

If it's for any kind of seafood, like dipping lobster, melted butter is just fine. If it's for frying or sauteing, clarifying butter would be a better option.

Ghee and clarified butter purchased at the store is unsalted. You can use salted if you prefer, but unsalted is handier because it's the standard in recipes so you don't have to worry about oversalting things because you have salted ghee.

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. This recipe first appeared on altonbrown.com.

Clarified butter is often made by melting butter, skimming off the foam, and leaving the water in the bottom of the pan. Ghee, however, is boiled rapidly over medium-high heat until the water in the butter bubbles and actually boils off and the milk proteins brown.

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.

Since clarified butter has been heated enough to remove the water, it has a higher smoke point — about 100 degrees Fahrenheit higher than melted butter. This means you can sauté and pan-fry with it, adding buttery flavor to more of your cooking.

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.

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.

If you (rightly) believe that it's important to know your fats, you should be aware that there are a few different kinds of clarified butter. Ghee, smen, and niter kibbeh are the primary types of clarified butter used throughout the world.

Which is healthier butter or clarified butter? ›

In terms of fat content, if we compare ghee and regular butter, clarified butter contains more healthy saturated fats; hence, it offers better support for saturated fat. Is ghee butter healthy? If you are at a fix about it, the answer is yes.

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

Like most things, making clarified butter at home is a great way to save money—guaranteed to be less expensive than purchasing a store-bought version.

Clarified butter can also be stored without spoiling, giving it a longer shelf life than whole butter.

Melt butter in 1-quart saucepan over low heat, without stirring, 10-15 minutes or until melted and solids separate from fat. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes. Skim off foam. Slowly pour off clear yellow liquid, leaving behind the residue of milk solids that has settled to bottom of pan.

Because clarified butter is free from the milk solids that burn and smoke during cooking, it has a higher smoke point than regular butter (upwards of 450° F), making it a high temp hero.

After all, this is just a refined, clarified version of what you've already been using. When making the swap, use a basic 1:1 ratio. For example, if the recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of butter, use 3 tablespoons of ghee instead.