I should have read through all the posts to this thread before buying the organic butter. I realize now that I have purchased the salted kind, which seems not to be adviseable for making ghee.  

Back to the store I go.

Luckily, butter is neutral for you.  Cheer up!

Vicki,

I have so many other things that I can't have so having butter certainly does make me happy. The only thing is, what do I put it on? Oh   rice cakes that's for sure.  

Weeeeee!!! I just made ghee for the first time.

I'm happy I read this thread first - that made the process so much more easy, and everything went very well.

There was some brown grainy stuff on the bottom of the pot and a lot of white/yellowish stuff floating around, but when I strained the ghee, it all went away and the ghee turned out beautifully - golden and smelling wonderful, and it tastes great.

I couldn't find any unsalted organic butter, so I had to use the unsalted conventional type. (Henriette, where do you find unsalted organic butter?)

Being used to the sligtly salty butter-taste, I'm contemplating putting some salt into the ghee I use to spread on bread - maybe some Himmalayan salt. I'm thinking, I could do that, when the ghee is room temperature. What do you think?

salt has quite a bit of water content.....(sea salt)

best not to contaminate your ghee cause it s sterile.
add salt only to the one you are using.....

Thanks, lola! I'll keep that in mind!

Poly it is so tasty by it self, so you will forget about salt soon as you try it.
But if you really like it salty then lola's advice is best.
But
If you mix it with Nutritional Yeast then you talking wonders!!!
Bon apetite.
Ion

Forgive me for being a tad dim here, is ghee the exact same thing as clarified butter then?  

They are not quite the same thing.  Cooking the butter it first becomes clarified butter.  If you continue to cook clarified butter it becomes ghee.

Can you explain the difference?
I mean what it makes the one better the other.
Ion

No I can't really explain the difference anymore then that, at least in detail without researching it. I do not know if one is really better then the other.

Here's my understanding of the difference:

Clarified butter is butter without milk solids

Ghee is what you get after removing the milk solids AND any moisture as well.

hence, when you heat butter, you first get clarified butter, and if you keep on heating, the water content will evaporate and you'll end up with ghee.

Clarified butter has to be salted to be kept without refrigeration, or it should be kept refrigerated.

Ghee however, can be kept at room temperature, as long as it is free of moisture..

my two cents
Yaman

Quoted from yaman

hence, when you heat butter, you first get clarified butter, and if you keep on heating, the water content will evaporate and you'll end up with ghee.

How long you have to keep on heating so you don't burn it.
The first time i think burn it a bit although the taste was nice.
The secont time because of the burning fear i ended up, i guess, with clarified butter.
How can I get the right one?

Ion,

Try the ghee movie:

http://www.leeveal.com/ghee.htm

cheers,
Yaman

I have found that using a low cooking temperature makes it much easier to make the ghee without burning it. It does take a little longer.  The other big advantage is that it is much easier to clean the solids at the bottom of the pot afterwards.

Okay.  I have been making ghee now for over a year and every time I make it it turns out quite golden (except for once when the heat was too high.    Right Don, lower is better).  Anyhow, mine always seems to solidify afterwards no matter how long it has been on.  Not totally to the way it is when it is butter, but more grainy.  Sometimes I use salted and sometimes unsalted.  Up here in the north I have not been able to find organic.  When someone says they drizzle ghee on their food is it still in the golden liquid form or have you heated it abit again or just put on the grainy ghee.  Am I doing something wrong?      

Thanks.

Debra

P.S.  I know Edna's Sarah used to do it in the oven.  Has anyone done it that way?

Hi Ion,
I love to make ghee, and I love to eat Ghee!  It makes my intestines very happy also!  I really notice a difference in how I feel when I don't eat it.

You asked about how long to cook it and how to tell when it's done....Here's part of one of my posts back in December:

"The ghee reaches a point where it needs to be monitered, in my opinion.
Once you get that "popcorn" smell, it is close to being done, and can quickly burn at that point.  I like to watch mine then, and tilt the pan every few seconds to check on the bottom of the pan.  I like the taste of ghee better when the solids on the bottom turn golden brown, but not leaving it until they turn dark brown.  

At the golden brown stage, the finished ghee will be a clear golden color and very delicious.  Once the solids turn dark brown, the ghee will darken also, and to my taste, it loses its subtle flavors.

I prefer to simmer my ghee, intead of cooking it at a rolling boil.  It gives me a bit more control at the end when it is so easy to burn."

I hope this helps.  Keep at it......It's worth it.  And it gets easier as you get the feel for it.  Also listen to the sounds it makes.  At first, it is a steady sound, like rain on the roof.  Later it become a off and on sound, but when it starts to get quiet, stay close to the pot and when the foam nearly disappears, start tilting the pan from time to time to look at the color of the sludge on the bottom of the pan.  If it is still white, it is not finished.  Golden brown is the idea!

smiles!

Has anyone viewed that Ghee movie lately?  The links in this thread don't work for me anymore.  

Quoted from debra

... Am I doing something wrong?      

Excellent questions in your post, debra. I've experienced exactly the same things with ghee, and have wondered about the "drizzling" thing also.

I'm looking forward to see what the others have to say about it.

Hi Poly & Others,

I've been seeking a low-temp way of making ghee so I'm going to try a wee experiment soon with raw foods.  Victoria thought that freezing might help because it killed the parasites in fish.

So I'm wanting to do such an experiment:
1) ghee made in a low-temp fashion (aka Alyson on this thread) + may add some flax oil and lecithin while it is in blender +
2) raw meat (likely beef), first frozen, then thawed +
3) blended with unheated honey ... http://www.reallyrawhoney.com ...

Like the Viking, I tend to think we alter much more in our foods via cooking than is commonly understood.  Maybe this might assist in restoring the balance that we had as newborns ... closer to our DNA.  Is there anything you would care to comment on?  Seeking ideas ...

John

Hi victoria!
Thank for the help.
What i have done the first time was Ghee, maybe a little darker due to high heat. Smell was right, taste was good, just the finall product was a little darker.
The next time wanted to be more carefull so i use slow fire but was not patience enough and stoped while the solids where stil white at the bottom.
From what understand now I must give a little time more.
Thanks a lot.  
Ion

Yaman the movie does not work for me either. Not now not before during summer that check it first.

Ah there really is a possibility here,

to get some low-temperature ghee.  I shall correct my blunder - who posted this #52 was Virginya - now we'll take her method and refine this with some lab-chemistry.

There is not, I believe even the necessity to heat the water to a boil.  At hot-enough water temperature the butter will melt and the fat will rise to the top and the lactose and milk solids will remain in the water.  Stir the fat to make sure!  Refrigerate the whole thing.  Then skim off the fat.  Repeat the whole process with new water + the skimmed fat.  And once more ... every bit of milk solids should be gone and you are left with pure milk fat ... obtained at pretty low temperatures.

Hopefully this'll work ........

John

But John, would using low temperature actually end up in getting ghee? I thought ghee is moisture free, and you cannot get that without higher temperatures..

Cheers,
Yaman

That yaman is ???????????

like you, I doubt very much if this could be called ghee.  What I was mainly attempting to do was to get rid off the problem-parts of butter while retaining some of the subtle fats that are lost in high-temperature boiling.

is there a problem with my method - really don't know ... I suspect not!

John

I don't think there is a problem with your method John. What I wonder is that, ghee is said to be rich in butyrates. And butyrates are beneficial.

Now are butyrates naturally present in butter or does high temperature boiling of butter yields butyrates?

Cheers,
Yaman