Clarifying butter is as simple as melting butter and letting the milk solids settle or rise out of the fat. Care should be taken not to burn the butter while heating it, so use a heavy pan that doesn't have any hotspots (see Common Materials of Cookware for more information on hotspots). When using salted butter, it is difficult to guess how much salt will remain in the clarified butter. A lot of the salt can be found in the milk solids as it settles or foams up, but the exact amount will be different every time. Use unsalted butter to remove any uncertainty (you can add salt to the clarified butter later to achieve the desired saltiness).
To make approximately 3/4 cup of clarified butter, melt one cup (225 g) of butter in a small saucepan (a 1-quart saucepan is shown in the picture) over low heat. With a good saucepan, you can just leave it there over low heat while doing something else and the butter will slowly melt. Turning up the heat will melt the butter faster, but the milk solids may begin to burn, so, resist the temptation. Instead, you can cut up the butter into pieces to speed up melting. Also, if you don't have a small saucepan, it may be best to use more butter. Too little butter in a large diameter pan will make it difficult to separate the solids from the fat later. 
When the butter has completely melted, continue to heat it over low heat. Some milk solids will drop to the bottom of the pan while others will rise as foam. As the milk solids rise to the top, they can be skimmed off. (Or, it can be removed when the butter cools.)Latest Articles
Alternatively, pour the hot melted butter through cheesecloth to filter out the foam and solids that have settled, catching the clarified butter in a jar.
Or, pour the hot butter into a container, allow it to separate while cooling and then refrigerate. After it has solidified, you can easily scrape off the hardened foam from the stiff clarified butter layer.Although pure clarified butter does not need to be refrigeration, I recommend you store your clarified butter in the refrigerator (some milk solids may still be present and may cause the butter to go rancid). Use the clarified butter as you would use regular butter (tablespoon for tablespoon) in recipes.
Robert Wolke, in What Einstein Told His Cook, suggests using the left over milk solids for topping popcorn. Sounds like a good idea to me! (Also, Wolke mentions that no lactose is in clarified butter, so lactose-sensitive individuals should be able to enjoy clarified butter without the uncomfortable effects those of us who are lactose intolerant are well aware of.)
Thanks!
Tirian
The recipe tells you to strain it:
<I>Gently pour into heatproof container through fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth.</I>
You would still need to get rid of the solids somehow.
Ghee and Clarified Butter are used interchangeably. You usually hear it referred to as Ghee in indian dishes and Clarified Butter in western dishes.
Traditionally ghee is made with milk (buffalo and sometimes cow) that has been allowed to develop some sourness before churning into butter. This provides more flavor to the butter.
The butter is then melted and water completely cooked off. Many recipes for clarified butter do not call for the complete evaporation of water in the butter.
So, I would say that ghee is a type of clarified butter, but not all clarified butter is ghee.
http://www.dreddyclinic.com/diet/ayurvedic/diet.htm#Ghee
P.S I enjoy your Blog very much.
http://tinyurl.com/cherk
when i make ghee from sticks of store bought butter(unsalted only), i simply let it melt over the low to medium heat. i use sound as the indicator for doneness. when it stops making the sound, i take it off the heat. i also skim the top..the foam, although i know that many people dont do that. if i want the butter to be more like beurre noisette, i let it brown or better still, i drop the sticks of butter when the pan is really really hot. the colour can vary from a milky white to a golden brown..and when overdone, a dark brown.
i have never heard of the sourness factor in traditional ghee. it might be true. i have also made ghee from the butter i churned from the cream. for a short time, a milkman used to stop by and deliver the milk straight from the udder. (btw, watching someone milk a cow is *fascinating*) after boiling it, i'd let it cool down. after it cools down, there will be a layer of cream. this, i deposit in a little container for about two weeks. after i have collected enough, the cream can be churned to seperate the whey and the butter. the seperated butter goes through the same process as the above method of making ghee from store bought sticks of butter.
i prefer buffalo milk which has more fat than cow's milk. the butter from the former is slightly yellow while the butter from the cow is 'white'.
towards the end, instead of straining the milk solids, i like to spoon the clear ghee into a seperate container. i sometimes add fresh curry leaves right after it is removed from the heat. it sizzles and adds a certain flavour dimension to the ghee that i cannot quite describe. it is delicious tho'...
-faustianbargain-
Love this site.
Michael
The term "curry", as we americans relate to it from the yellow 4 ounce metal tin named "curry powder", is a result of the British returning from India and wanting to duplicate an "average" of the spicy dishes they had experienced. Try here: http://redhotcurry.com/entertainment/books/sbasu1.htm . There are lots of web refs to expand the story.
Remember that real Indian cooks have dozens of seed spices on hand, and roast them and grind fresh for each unique meal. See "garam masala", as in:
http://www.food-india.com/ingredients/i001_i025/i003.htm
The 4 ounce can is one of many possible garam masalas.
The "Curry leaf" is a different item altogether. It is a leaf (a shrub with compound leaves). It has distinct but different culinary uses. A few links:
http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/kgk/2001/0901/kgk092901.html
http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/generic_frame.html?Murr_koe.htm
http://www.asiafood.org/glossary_2.cfm?wordid=3260
Note that the WORD in many languages is the phonetic "ka-ree". Thus, the sun-besotted Brits easily confused the issue, importing a wonderful product (a canned garam masala) with a cross-linked name.
Michael
thanks, jimjimjim9. i couldnt have said it better. very informative.
faustianbargain.
Here's how I do it: I cut up butter and melt it in a saucepot, but I keep it on the heat until all the water boils off and the milk solids start to dry and clump together. (I don't mean to gross anyone out, but at the stage I'm talking about, the milk solids look like flaky ear wax.) Stop the heat at this point if you just want plain old clarified butter; if you keep heating it, the milk sugars will caramelize, and you'll have beurre noisette, which is good but not suitable for some applications requiring clarified butter. Then, I let it sit and cool until it is less than 200 degrees Fahrenheit. (So it won't melt the plastic on my super fine wire mesh coffee filter.) Once it's cool, I pour it all through one of those super fine wire mesh coffee filters arranged over a jar or some other storage vessel, and scrape all the solids from the pot into the filter so the fat can drip out.
The benefits of this method include saved labor, and unlike Alton Brown's method, this method removes the milk solids much more completely.
The hare krishna cookbook "A Higher Taste" has a very detailed description on how to make ghee.
As for how long it keeps, I made some 8 months ago and have kept it in the fridge and its still good. Just remember to always use a clean spoon to scoop it out. Oh and store it in glass.
Ana53
The full post is here
Marc
Berkeley, CA
This allows you to pour more fat off before you start to pour milk solids as well. You'll still have to spoon some off, throw some out, or do some straining, but if you're in a hurry and you're willing to waste a little fat (as is nearly always the case in a restaurant setting) this is a great trick.
Hopefully this isn't a silly newbie question: How does clarifying the butter change it's nutritional value?
Thank you!!
This is a perfect alternative to no-stick "Pam" or whatever. Works wonders for omelets etc.
Someone asked about Ghee...I believe the difference is that ghee is heated to a point of fragrance sometime after melting but before caramelization. I think it's heated more. We should ask our Indian friends.
No, they aren't. Guest John is correct about what he said. Ghee is clarified butter that has been further heated and cooked until it has a more nutty flavor and is slightly darker in color.
Ghee uses the old 'Maillard reaction' to produce flavours from the milk proteins and lactose in the butter. The oil-liking flavours (nutty/roasted) are then extracted into the fat that remains to form the flavoured ghee.
just thoughts
Watt
Thanks,
Laurie