Making Ghee

Most people I know today do not know how ghee is made from butter. It is a very simple process where large amounts of butter is heated continuously until a clear liquid is obtained and the solids separate out from it.

The process of making ghee takes me back to my childhood days when the aroma of fresh ghee used to fill the house every Friday morning. My mom used to make fresh ghee for the diyas (oil lamps) on Fridays. She used to light ghee lamps on every Friday. She never used the old batch of ghee because it was already used by us for cooking / eating.


The wafting aroma of fresh ghee used to get me and my sister running downstairs to the kitchen so that we could eat the remaining solids from the batch. We used to get both the fresh burnt solids / the burnt solids from the previous batch which would settle down in the ghee container and we wont get to eat it until all the ghee was empty. We used to call it "MaDDi". Although burnt, it was super yummy and both we sisters used to love it... me more than her :P

Preparation Time (none)
Cooking Time - 15 mins approx


Ingredients


Butter - 4 sticks (unsalted)
A pinch of salt (optional)

Method

Take a deep dish and put in on medium flame. Add 4 sticks of butter into it. Keep boiling for 15 mins. Check in intervals of 5 mins and reduce heat if you think the liquid is overflowing. Add the pinch of salt - its optional, but it gives a slight taste to the ghee.

4 sticks of butter in a deep dish

Ghee almost done !!

After about 15 mins, a lot of foam forms up at the top of the dish. Mostly ghee is done by this time. Blow through the foam and see if you can see a clear liquid below it. Another way to test if ghee is done is to put one drop of water into the foam. It should start sputtering, just like it happens when a drop of water falls into hot oil.

Clear ghee - see the solids at the bottom of the dish ??

Switch off the heat and ghee is done. Enjoy with hot steamed rice and rasam !!! Believe me, its an awesome combination :)

- So