Guest guest Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Jeanmarie, > , you don't boil butter when making ghee; you'd burn it. You > just heat it gently in a heavy pan, skimming the foam if you like, > until the solids drop to the bottom of the pan. Pour through > cheesecloth-lined sieve into a clean glass jar, and you're done. Easy- > peasy, very low tech. If you want to remove all the moisture from ghee, you have to bring the liquid to the boiling point of water, 212 degrees F. Otherwise it will have a very limited storage life. It won't burn if you do it carefully. You could evaporate the water on a lower setting but it would take much longer to get rid of all the moisture. I have post on my blog about making ghee: http://tinyurl.com/n8lhg6 The lady in the video has the oven temperature set at 250 degrees and nothing is burned. > If you do happen to let it get a bit hotter, you'll get some > caramelization. If you don't go overboard and let it burn, this > actually creates fantastic flavor and aroma. How do you caramelize butterfat? > I am guessing that a centrifuge is used to make butter oil when you > don't want to heat the butter at all, as for high-vitamin butter oil. > Does anyone have more information on what difference it makes to > centrifuge the butter? Butter oil and ghee are two different things. I think butter oil is made from centrifuged cream, and it concentrates a particular fraction of the fat that is normally found in cream and butter though in lesser amounts. I'm going on memory here so you might want to check the archives. --- “The trouble with people is not that they don’t know but that they know so much that ain’t so.†- Josh Billings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 , Thanks for the info on centrifuging. I didn't realize butter oil was made from cream not butter. I doubt I'll ever have occasion to use a centrifuge myself. <g> I have some high vitamin butter oil from Green Pastures and I keep it refrigerated, but it doesn't taste nearly as good as or have the mouth feel of either plain butter or ghee. Doesn't taste rancid, just very different. Ghee is so simple I wonder why people bother making videos as though it were some exotic, tricky technique. Before I made it the first time I just looked it up in several cookbooks to compare directions. Technically ghee and clarified butter are slightly different but people seem to use the terms interchangeably now. I found Harold McGee's explanation the most technically precise. Yes, the butter is heated to the boiling point of water so technically you can call it " boiling, " but that makes it sound like a rolling boil, which could get too hot. What I meant was a gentle simmer so the water bubbles to the top and evaporates without burning the butter and turning it bitter. I wouldn't make it when I was in a rush so taking an hour or two, I don't remember how long, isn't an issue for me at least. According to McGee's explanation of ghee making, the butter is heated to 190 degrees, not 212, to evaporate the water, and then it is raised to 250 to brown the milk solids, adding flavor and generating antioxidant compounds that delay rancidity. Caramelization would happen, I assume, from the browning of any residual lactose in the milk solids. It might be better to just say browning reaction. Whether it was technically caramelization or not, I couldn't say for sure, but when I overbrowned the solids while making ghee one time, the result was a wonderful caramel aroma and faintly butterscotch color, which is why I think it was caramelized and not a Maillard reaction (carbohydrate molecules reacting with amino acid molecules), which I'd think would yield a more meaty flavor. No commercial ghee I've purchased has ever had that heavenly aroma. I've made it both ways and prefer the caramelized version. Jeanmarie On Sep 1, 2009, at 7:46 PM, wrote: > Jeanmarie, > > > , you don't boil butter when making ghee; you'd burn it. You > > just heat it gently in a heavy pan, skimming the foam if you like, > > until the solids drop to the bottom of the pan. Pour through > > cheesecloth-lined sieve into a clean glass jar, and you're done. > Easy- > > peasy, very low tech. > > If you want to remove all the moisture from ghee, you have to bring > the liquid to the boiling point of water, 212 degrees F. Otherwise it > will have a very limited storage life. It won't burn if you do it > carefully. You could evaporate the water on a lower setting but it > would take much longer to get rid of all the moisture. > > I have post on my blog about making ghee: http://tinyurl.com/n8lhg6 > The lady in the video has the oven temperature set at 250 degrees and > nothing is burned. > > > If you do happen to let it get a bit hotter, you'll get some > > caramelization. If you don't go overboard and let it burn, this > > actually creates fantastic flavor and aroma. > > How do you caramelize butterfat? > > > I am guessing that a centrifuge is used to make butter oil when you > > don't want to heat the butter at all, as for high-vitamin butter > oil. > > Does anyone have more information on what difference it makes to > > centrifuge the butter? > > Butter oil and ghee are two different things. I think butter oil is > made from centrifuged cream, and it concentrates a particular fraction > of the fat that is normally found in cream and butter though in lesser > amounts. I'm going on memory here so you might want to check the > archives. > > > --- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Doesn't that pasteurize it though? On Sep 1, 2009, at 10:16 PM, Jeanmarie Todd wrote: > Yes, the butter is > heated to the boiling point of water so technically you can call it > " boiling, " but that makes it sound like a rolling boil, which could > get too hot. Parashis artpages@... artpagesonline.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Essentially, yes, though the homemade procedure may or may not meet temperature and duration standards for commercial production, I'm not sure. You can make ghee from raw butter but it's no longer raw when you've made it. It's still valuable. Jeanmarie On Sep 2, 2009, at 5:43 AM, Parashis wrote: > Doesn't that pasteurize it though? > > On Sep 1, 2009, at 10:16 PM, Jeanmarie Todd wrote: > > > Yes, the butter is > > heated to the boiling point of water so technically you can call it > > " boiling, " but that makes it sound like a rolling boil, which could > > get too hot. > Parashis > artpages@... > > artpagesonline.com > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 Jeanmarie, > , Thanks for the info on centrifuging. Not a problem. :-) > I didn't realize butter > oil was made from cream not butter. I doubt I'll ever have occasion to > use a centrifuge myself. <g> I have some high vitamin butter oil from > Green Pastures and I keep it refrigerated, but it doesn't taste nearly > as good as or have the mouth feel of either plain butter or ghee. > Doesn't taste rancid, just very different. Well it is different, and I'm still not sure what is being produced today is what Price made back then, and I don't have the time to research it since butter oil is out of my price range for supplemental use as opposed to medicinal use anyway. And I'm with you on the taste. Whatever constituents are concentrated (and whatever is left behind) as opposed to ghee definitely affects the mouth feel and taste. The opinion of many on this board is that if you eat enough butter, butter oil isn't necessary. Personally I would use it the way Price used it, as a therapeutic agent used in small amounts mixed with cod over oil. > Ghee is so simple I wonder why people bother making videos as though > it were some exotic, tricky technique. Before I made it the first time > I just looked it up in several cookbooks to compare directions. Everyone has a different way of learning. Some people are more visual than others. I like both approaches. I particularly like the oven approach so that I don't have to stand over the butter while making ghee. > Technically ghee and clarified butter are slightly different but > people seem to use the terms interchangeably now. I found Harold > McGee's explanation the most technically precise. Yes, the butter is > heated to the boiling point of water so technically you can call it > " boiling, " but that makes it sound like a rolling boil, which could > get too hot. What I meant was a gentle simmer so the water bubbles to > the top and evaporates without burning the butter and turning it > bitter. I wouldn't make it when I was in a rush so taking an hour or > two, I don't remember how long, isn't an issue for me at least. > According to McGee's explanation of ghee making, the butter is heated > to 190 degrees, not 212, to evaporate the water, and then it is raised > to 250 to brown the milk solids, adding flavor and generating > antioxidant compounds that delay rancidity. > > Caramelization would happen, I assume, from the browning of any > residual lactose in the milk solids. Yes I knew that. I made my comment tongue in cheek since it sounded like the fat itself was being caramelized :-)) > It might be better to just say > browning reaction. Whether it was technically caramelization or not, I > couldn't say for sure, but when I overbrowned the solids while making > ghee one time, the result was a wonderful caramel aroma and faintly > butterscotch color, which is why I think it was caramelized and not a > Maillard reaction (carbohydrate molecules reacting with amino acid > molecules), which I'd think would yield a more meaty flavor. No > commercial ghee I've purchased has ever had that heavenly aroma. I've > made it both ways and prefer the caramelized version. I wonder if the caramelized version keeps as long. I would be interested in trying it. I wonder if this would be problematic for someone who needs the pure butterfat. --- “The trouble with people is not that they don’t know but that they know so much that ain’t so.†- Josh Billings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 >> I'm not aware of any high tech low heat methods. Care to share? Unless >> you use a centrifuge, in order to make ghee you have to boil the >> butter. If by butter oil you are referring to what is produced by >> Green Pastures then yes that is not very common. But ghee, which also >> removes all the milk protein, is quite common. Ah, okay, I thought butter oil and ghee were the same thing. I can hardly imagine the differences are meaningful though. With coconut oil I think there is a slight difference in fatty acid profile between the centrifuged oil and the traditional fermented oil (going by what I recall from Wilderness Family Naturals), but it's still coconut oil either way. -Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 I don't how long it keeps, because I ate it so quickly, it was so delicious! I had about a pint of it, kept it on the counter, and used it to cook most meals. I think it was gone within 2 weeks or so. But I'd think it would be every bit as shelf-stable as any other ghee. I did strain it so the milk solids were no longer there. I think the caramel flavor and aroma (more aroma than flavor) just infused the butter through the longer-than-usual cooking time without there being any milk solids left in any appreciable amount. The making of it was a bit more complicated that I indicated because I was heating it as I did other things, let it get too hot, then cooled it down, it got too solid to mix easily with the coconut oil, so I had to re-warm it. Might have done that a couple of times, I don't remember now. Now I don't even remember for sure if it was a ghee- coconut oil blend like I usually make now, but I definitely liked the result of cooking it longer than usual, and perhaps initially at a higher temperature. So until I try it again I won't know for sure which part of the process was key, but probably heating it more than needed for plain ghee but not so much it turned bitter. I'm not sure whether the cycles of heating and cooling contributed anything. But hey, I like science experiments. Let me know if you come up with something like this. Jeanmarie On Sep 3, 2009, at 9:27 PM, wrote: No > commercial ghee I've purchased has ever had that heavenly aroma. I've > made it both ways and prefer the caramelized version. I wonder if the caramelized version keeps as long. I would be interested in trying it. I wonder if this would be problematic for someone who needs the pure butterfat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 Nice topic, :-). I do the caramelized version too. Basically, I put it on sim and let it simmer for 2 hrs, stirring every once in a while, until the liquid turns clear (not much foam) and the milk solids turn brown. The aroma and flavour are delicious. Yum ! I just love the process of making ghee. This also reminds me of my childhood in India. Twice every year, we used to visit my grandparents who used to live in a small village, and they used to keep a number of cows. They used to be taken for pasture out into the fields. Those days, chemical fertilizers were not available and were unheard of. Livestock manure was the primary fertilizer used. We used to get tons of fresh milk and we used to make butter, buttermilk, ghee, all at home. Ghee was the only medium for cooking. And the food was so delicious. The village was very close to hills that were clothed with forests. Leopards and bears were very common. And we also lost a few of our cows to leopards. Sighting a wild leopard was fairly common. Of course, all this has changed in the past 20 years. No > commercial ghee I've purchased has ever had that heavenly aroma. I've > made it both ways and prefer the caramelized version. I wonder if the caramelized version keeps as long. I would be interested in trying it. I wonder if this would be problematic for someone who needs the pure butterfat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 Lately, when I melt butter to clarify it, it seems to pop up the lid and explode all over...melted butter everywhere!!! I keep the heat on low and cannot figure out why this is now happening. We used to buy different butter, could this be the reason? Also, I've never gotten my clarified butter to the ghee stage. When you simmer the butter, do you do this with the cover on? Also, when the milk solids have browned and the oil is clear, do you still keep only the clear parts or do you do anything with the browned bits? Thanks for your help. Blessings to you, Ann patriciak4him@ <mailto:patriciak4him@...> gmail.com _____ From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of shake kvc Sent: Friday, September 04, 2009 3:58 PM Subject: Re: butter/ghee Nice topic, :-). I do the caramelized version too. Basically, I put it on sim and let it simmer for 2 hrs, stirring every once in a while, until the liquid turns clear (not much foam) and the milk solids turn brown. The aroma and flavour are delicious. Yum ! I just love the process of making ghee. This also reminds me of my childhood in India. Twice every year, we used to visit my grandparents who used to live in a small village, and they used to keep a number of cows. They used to be taken for pasture out into the fields. Those days, chemical fertilizers were not available and were unheard of. Livestock manure was the primary fertilizer used. We used to get tons of fresh milk and we used to make butter, buttermilk, ghee, all at home. Ghee was the only medium for cooking. And the food was so delicious. The village was very close to hills that were clothed with forests. Leopards and bears were very common. And we also lost a few of our cows to leopards. Sighting a wild leopard was fairly common. Of course, all this has changed in the past 20 years. No > commercial ghee I've purchased has ever had that heavenly aroma. I've > made it both ways and prefer the caramelized version. I wonder if the caramelized version keeps as long. I would be interested in trying it. I wonder if this would be problematic for someone who needs the pure butterfat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 Thanks for sharing your memories. I was fortunate enough to visit India once a few years ago. I spent just 2 weeks in Kerala and loved it. Jeanmarie On Sep 4, 2009, at 12:57 PM, shake kvc wrote: > Nice topic, :-). > > I do the caramelized version too. Basically, I put it on sim and let > it simmer for 2 hrs, stirring every once in a while, until the > liquid turns clear (not much foam) and the milk solids turn brown. > The aroma and flavour are delicious. Yum ! I just love the process > of making ghee. > > This also reminds me of my childhood in India. Twice every year, we > used to visit my grandparents who used to live in a small village, > and they used to keep a number of cows. They used to be taken for > pasture out into the fields. Those days, chemical fertilizers were > not available and were unheard of. Livestock manure was the primary > fertilizer used. We used to get tons of fresh milk and we used to > make butter, buttermilk, ghee, all at home. Ghee was the only medium > for cooking. And the food was so delicious. > > The village was very close to hills that were clothed with forests. > Leopards and bears were very common. And we also lost a few of our > cows to leopards. Sighting a wild leopard was fairly common. > > Of course, all this has changed in the past 20 years. > > > > No > > > commercial ghee I've purchased has ever had that heavenly aroma. > I've > > > made it both ways and prefer the caramelized version. > > I wonder if the caramelized version keeps as long. I would be > > interested in trying it. I wonder if this would be problematic for > > someone who needs the pure butterfat. > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 I've always left the lid off so as to monitor the progress and also to let the water content evaporate. If you keep the lid on, water pressure builds up. Once it stops bubbling and the solids drop to the bottom, you're done, for basic ghee. Definitely save the brown bits. They're used in making sweets in India, I've read, but you could use them in anything for a little browned butter yumminess. The foam that you skim off the top is the whey. The bits that drop to the bottom are the casein. Any bits you miss will be left behind if you filter through a cheesecloth. Jeanmarie On Sep 4, 2009, at 1:08 PM, wrote: > Lately, when I melt butter to clarify it, it seems to pop up the lid > and > explode all over...melted butter everywhere!!! I keep the heat on > low and > cannot figure out why this is now happening. We used to buy different > butter, could this be the reason? > Also, I've never gotten my clarified butter to the ghee stage. When > you > simmer the butter, do you do this with the cover on? Also, when the > milk > solids have browned and the oil is clear, do you still keep only the > clear > parts or do you do anything with the browned bits? > Thanks for your help. > > Blessings to you, > > Ann > > patriciak4him@ <mailto:patriciak4him@...> gmail.com > > _____ > > From: > [mailto: ] On Behalf Of shake kvc > Sent: Friday, September 04, 2009 3:58 PM > > Subject: Re: butter/ghee > > Nice topic, :-). > > I do the caramelized version too. Basically, I put it on sim and let > it > simmer for 2 hrs, stirring every once in a while, until the liquid > turns > clear (not much foam) and the milk solids turn brown. The aroma and > flavour > are delicious. Yum ! I just love the process of making ghee. > > This also reminds me of my childhood in India. Twice every year, we > used to > visit my grandparents who used to live in a small village, and they > used to > keep a number of cows. They used to be taken for pasture out into the > fields. Those days, chemical fertilizers were not available and were > unheard > of. Livestock manure was the primary fertilizer used. We used to get > tons of > fresh milk and we used to make butter, buttermilk, ghee, all at > home. Ghee > was the only medium for cooking. And the food was so delicious. > > The village was very close to hills that were clothed with forests. > Leopards > and bears were very common. And we also lost a few of our cows to > leopards. > Sighting a wild leopard was fairly common. > > Of course, all this has changed in the past 20 years. > > > > No > > > commercial ghee I've purchased has ever had that heavenly aroma. > I've > > > made it both ways and prefer the caramelized version. > > I wonder if the caramelized version keeps as long. I would be > > interested in trying it. I wonder if this would be problematic for > > someone who needs the pure butterfat. > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.