Ghee | Clarified Butter and some memories..
A very vivid childhood memory is of the butter vendor (vennaikaaran) pushing his loaded TVS-50 (trusted 2 wheeler) with bags of what was then pure coimbatore butter. Paati (my maternal grandmom) had made it a practice to use home made ghee made from butter – its grainy texture, the aroma when melted and poured on to hot paruppu saadam (dal-rice) is a memory that I cherish every single day.
Homemade Ghee and so many more memories..
So, we didn’t quite use store-bought ghee anytime at all, and the same was with hubby too. Soon after I married and moved cities, one of the first things on my agenda was to source readymade butter. Once, when I, in my gullible state asked for butter the storekeeper pushed me a packet of amul table butter. I asked him if he had anything else. He thought I was looking for low fat(?) butter and showed me Nutralite.
I told him this wasn’t the one I was looking for, but white butter. Exasperated that he was, he showed me margarine or dalda : which I promptly said I didn’t need.
So for 3 – 5 months, although we lived on store bought ghee (which we both detested), it was only when MIL came visiting us that she showed me where to get Coimbatore butter, filter coffee powder, sundaikaai (sun dried turkey berries) and the rest that goes into a Tamil household kitchen. And trust me, since that time, today when I walk into that store every month, the store keeper keeps out a packet of Coimbatore butter and Filter Coffee Powder first even without asking… may be he now reads me as a quasi tamil shopper 🙂
How to make Homemade Ghee at home from Butter
Anyways, todays post is not actually a recipe, but a step by step method on how to make Ghee out of butter. You can also hoard cream from boiled milk, churn it after fermenting to make ghee, but I find that as we use very low fat milk, there isn’t too much cream on top, and the process is not worth it. This post today will give you that golden coloured liquid – almost like ambrosia to the senses – while its hot and an aroma after its stored.
How to store Homemade Ghee
Please remember to store the ghee or any oil for that matter in a glass / stainless steel container rather than plastic to prevent it from getting rancid. The plastic canisters sold these days to store oil is just not the thing you want to have .
More DIY recipes you may like on the blog are:
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Time required to make ghee from 750 gm of butter : 20 mins.
Yields : approx 350 – 400 gms of ghee (depends on the solid fat% in the butter)
How to make Homemade Ghee at home in easy steps
- Bring the Store bought white unsalted butter out of the freezer
- Heat a deep bottomed / thick bottomed Cast Iron pan to medium heat
- Check out the video below for stage by stage tips and tricks to get the best golden, homemade ghee.
- Ensure the butter is brought to room temperature
- Place the butter in a moderately hot pan on simmer
- Once it starts melting, slowly increase the heat
- When the butter is fully melted, it gives out bubbles and a hissing noise.
- When the colour of the liquid starts to turn from white to mild yellow, turn down the heat.
- Testing point if ghee is fully done is that the hissing noise will stop and you will get a pure golden yellow liquid. The bubbles will also cease to exist. There is a nice aroma that wafts your kitchen at this point
- Filter the hot ghee into a clean sterilised glass jar
- Keep lightly covered for few minutes before locking it.
- Store at room temperature or in the refrigerator. Ayurveda says ghee should be melted for maximum effectiveness, before serving.
How to make Homemade Ghee at home from Butter
Equipment
- Kadai
- Strainer
- Ladle
Ingredients
- 750 grams White Butter (unsalted)
Instructions
- Ensure the butter is brought to room temperature
- Place the butter in a moderately hot pan on simmer
- Once it starts melting, slowly increase the heat
- When the butter is fully melted, it gives out bubbles and a hissing noise.
- When the colour of the liquid starts to turn from white to mild yellow, turn down the heat.
- Testing point if ghee is fully done is that the hissing noise will stop and you will get a pure golden yellow liquid. The bubbles will also cease to exist. There is a nice aroma that wafts your kitchen at this point
- Filter the hot ghee into a clean sterilised glass jar
- Keep lightly covered for few minutes before locking it.
- Store at room temperature or in the refrigerator. Ayurveda says ghee should be melted for maximum effectiveness, before serving.
Video
nice post kalyani
Nothing like home made ghee ..gud post
Very helpful post kalyani…
love home made ghee, it has got a wonderful smell 🙂
nice post.
I do the same way too..nothing will beat the home made ghee..
Homemade is always the best!
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I too make this all the time at home…:)
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Nothing like home made ghee……love it .
nice post!very informative.
i can smell that homemade ghee
Believe it or not I used to hate the melting butter smell.. Until recently I started making my own ghee coz it's so inexpensive and cleaner way. Now somehow I don;t mind the smell & LOVE the home made version. Nice step by step pics.
Nice one, can't beat home made ghee taste.
very useful post…
wow gr8 post kalyani and nothing can beat the home made ghee…
wow…that reminds me …i hv run out of ghee…got to go and make them…:-)
lovely post. I love your detailed photos. Did you know that unsalted butter from cows eating grass makes a much better looking and tasting ghee than butter that you get from cows that are feed with what-nots.
Ghee looks simple and fresh. I also follow a similar way. I add curry leaves or salt at the end of the process. Salt helps the ghee to settle down fast and curry leaves give a nice flavor. When you find, please go through my ghee preparation
-nithyascorner
Ghee looks simple and fresh. I also follow a similar way. I add curry leaves or salt at the end of the process. Salt helps the ghee to settle down fast and curry leaves give a nice flavor. When you find, please go through my ghee preparation http://nithyascorner.com/?p=3271
-nithyascorner
I like making ghee at home using butter. As I don’t get white butter readily, I just use the normal yellow one. Homemade ghee tastes so different.
yes homemade ghee is always aromatic na?
This is my biweekly job. Making Ghee. Your tips are great too. The test I have is drop a tsp of water in the boiling ghee. If ready it splutters
great to know there is a test for ghee too! will try it next time.
Nothing better than homemade ghee, and I too make this hear with unsalted butter. Wish I could make it from fresh cream as my mom makes. Loved your detailed recipe.
Thanks Renu. I also need to learn how to churn butter from curd as mom does and then make ghee:-)
Nice post. I make ghee regularly at home and it smells heavenly.
yes homemade ghee rocks right?
I remember amma making nei from coimbatore vennai. She would add vethalai bits while the ghee was simmering . My favorite part used to be the mix of wheat flour and sugar that amma would roast in the kadai at the end .
just made the wheat and jaggery balls with leftover nei in the kadai 🙂 these memories are so beautiful na
I love the flavour of homemade ghee. Though my kids don’t like the smell when ghee is prepared they are very happy to have the ghee once it is cooled down!
ha ha! Same story here, but the aroma once it is served with hot rice is somethign we all love 🙂
Making ghee at home can be a little tricky. You have made it look so easy with your clear instructions. It has come out perfect .
Thank you, nayna. Homemade ghee is truly superior and aromatic
now I’m curious to know what is so bad about Amul table butter. Here we only have salted butter, unsalted butter, margarine and whipped butter and other plant based margarine varieties made from avocado oil, coconut oil etc.
I’ve made the African version of ghee and it had so much more flavor than regular store bought ghee and would love to make homemade ghee on a regular basis but the cost of butter $$$
yes the homemade ghee is any day better, Mir ! I think the additives to table butter plus high salt content makes it unviable to make ghee from commerical table butter