Conference turris::cooks

    Melt butter either in microwave or on top of stove.  Butter will
    separate, the top is the clarified butter.
    
    Anne

    Anne,
    
    Gee, don't I feel stupid! ;*)
    
    Thanks,
    
    Christime

    
    .1 is close, but that's not exactly true.
    
    Melt the butter (use slightly more butter than you'll need).
    
    Skim off the scum/foam that rests on the top, until there is no more.
    Then gently (so as not to disturb the solids lying on the bottom of 
    the container..I use a pyrex measuring cup so I can see it plainly)
    pour off the 'middle layer' which is the clarified butter.  The point
    of clarifying butter is to get rid of all the solids that cause it to
    cloud.
    
    It's a bit like decanting an old wine, well, you don't have to candle
    it, but it's still a fun challenge.  8^) 
    
    dm

    Does anybody here make and use ghee?  I never have but I think it would
    be very tasty.
    
    Ghee is common in Indian cooking.  You start the same as making
    clarified butter (in larger quantity, though) but you cook the
    remaining butter-oil for a long time, I think.  It's supposed to have a
    long shelf life, useful in India where butter is common but
    refrigeration is not.  They brush it on flat breads and sautee meals in
    it.
    
    Thanks,
    Laura

    First of all you must start with unsalted butter. The  butter is melted
    in a pan over a medium flame until the "bubbling" subsides but the
    color does not turn darker than a lite shade of brown (very lite).
    
    I used to make this for my daugher when she was little. Ghee goes well
    when brushed on "pita bread" or in most Indian cooking (calorie
    alert!!).
    
    Ghee can also be used for purposes than eating - I used to grind up
    almonds (soaked in water overnight) in a little milk and mix it with
    the ghee and use it as a "massaging" oil for infants. It is supposed to
    be good for the skin.
    
    Shaila

RE: .5, .6

Using unsalted butter is very important when making ghee.

It keeps for years in a refrigerator, but it does go rancid eventually.
Night before last, I had to throw out some 10 year old ghee that had turned
rancid.

--PSW

>Using unsalted butter is very important when making ghee.

 because...

I dunno... I remember hearing that salt in oil causes it to break down faster.
This was in reference to the stuff they used in a restaurant frier.  Also, in
reference to recycling the oil back in the days when my roomie and I had egg
roll parties.

Also, using unsalted butter give you a better idea of the freshness of the 
butter.  Salt masks the bitter flavors that happen as butter starts to spoil.

RE: .8

Reasons for using unsalted butter when making ghee:

1) As .9 mentions, the salt interacts with the butter fat and the ghee doesn't
quite come out right as a result.

2) Unsalted butter in general is of superior quality than the salted kind--
there's no salt to hide any shortcomings in the quality of the butter in
unsalted butter.

3) Recipes calling for ghee assume that it's unsalted.  If you use salted
butter, you have to adjust the salt level in the dish accordingly, which
can be tricky.

--PSW