Ghee?

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Dave Martell

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Any of you guys use this to cook with? If so, what type do you use? Also, what do you think of it in general?
 
I've used it a few times...homemade, though you can get jars of it in Indian grocers.

It's really just clarified butter. Much like other forms of butter, it's quite rich, but Ghee seems a bit more neutral to me.

Overall, I think it's too much trouble to keep around...I just use EVOO for everything :)

Also, all those saturated fats aren't the best thing for heart health.
 
I've used it a few times...homemade, though you can get jars of it in Indian grocers.

It's really just clarified butter. Much like other forms of butter, it's quite rich, but Ghee seems a bit more neutral to me.

Overall, I think it's too much trouble to keep around...I just use EVOO for everything :)


Also, all those saturated fats aren't the best thing for heart health.
+1
Very well said
 
Ghee is useful if you are doing high-temperature frying, as its smoke point is higher than most common oils. Whether it's worth the bother to make your own or the expense to buy it is up to you. I've switched over to coconut oil.
 
Ghee is useful if you are doing high-temperature frying, as its smoke point is higher than most common oils. Whether it's worth the bother to make your own or the expense to buy it is up to you. I've switched over to coconut oil.

+1. I like the flavor of the coconut oil much better. I did fried chicken in it for the BCS on Monday (BAMA!) and liked the sweet component(I still think lard is the best). I wouldn't recommend it thought because its prohibitively expensive ($30 for all the oil.) I did like telling my sister-in-law the yoga instructor "Don't worry, its healthy because we're using coconut oil and its good for you." with a greasy smile.
 
Ghee is useful if you are doing high-temperature frying, as its smoke point is higher than most common oils. Whether it's worth the bother to make your own or the expense to buy it is up to you. I've switched over to coconut oil.

Thanks Rick...I forgot about the smoke point.

The smoke point for coconut oil is the same as peanut oil though (450F vs 485 for Ghee) ....but is the predominant oil in some parts of India...so there's an "authenticity" point if you are cooking Indian cuisine :) And at room temp it's a solid and can be used as a hair product! Smells good too.

Mustard Oil is also common in some parts of India...and I was surprised to see the smoke point for that is 489F.

Safflower oil is 510F, and pretty common.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point
 
We use ghee for our hashbrowns. And nothing else. Not for the eggs or frying or serving with french toast... just for cooking the hashbrowns. It's totally asinine, lol.
 
i briefly worked at a place where our primary cooking fat was clarified butter. the food cost mustve been sky high. still scratching my head about that one, lol.
 
^ I may have labor beat. ... our primary cooking fat on meat station for ALL searing is duck fat. basting is just good butter but everything gets seared in duck fat. kinda blew my mind when i first started, but .. i just work there
 
The difference between ghee and clarified butter is that you toast the milk solids before clarifying ghee... tried to work out the flavor but its never turned out quite like the stuff my Nepali friend keep at home. Might be time spent on the heat, might be the breed of dairy or maybe its just additives in store bought stuff, but I quite like it.
 
Just replenished my supply today...I buy Laxmi brand. I alternate between coconut, peanut and ghee depending on what I'm cooking.
 
The difference between ghee and clarified butter is that you toast the milk solids before clarifying ghee... tried to work out the flavor but its never turned out quite like the stuff my Nepali friend keep at home. Might be time spent on the heat, might be the breed of dairy or maybe its just additives in store bought stuff, but I quite like it.

It's cultured butter, try using European style butter such as Plugra or one of the other fancy butters.
 
I use ghee at wk as a primary fat for all proteins. I find it especially good for searing fish skin. I probably wouldn't use it, except that I can get it for less than a dollar a liter.
 
The difference between ghee and clarified butter is that you toast the milk solids before clarifying ghee... tried to work out the flavor but its never turned out quite like the stuff my Nepali friend keep at home. Might be time spent on the heat, might be the breed of dairy or maybe its just additives in store bought stuff, but I quite like it.

So, beurre noisette without the solids?
 
Easiest way to clarify butter- Find the biggest clear container that fits inside your microwave.Fill it with butter and nuke on high for 5 minutes or so.The milk solids and buttermilk should separate,this will be obvious when it is ready,hence the clear container.Skim any thin layer of froth from the top and then slowly decant the butter solids into a clean container.Alternatively you can put the whole container in the fridge for a few hours and the butter solids will solidify,once this happens poke a whole through it and you can pour off the buttermilk.You can use the buttermilk for pastries,pancakes etc and the clarified butter will keep for ages in the fridge.It is particularly good for pan frying.
 
So I was given a container of ghee to try out and we used it for pan frying for two weeks as well as making popcorn in a kettle and I was VERY impressed with the high smokepoint, taste, and most of all the slickeryness of this stuff - nothing sticks.

I realize that ghee is otherwise known as clarified butter but I did some researching and found that there's some variations in how it's made that effect all is attributes quite significantly and hence my questions to you guys.

I'm now looking for some different brands to try to see if there really is a difference in attributes because I can say that the pricing is all over the place for this stuff. I'd also like to figure out if making it myself will yield the same results or not, seems by my research that this might not be the case.
 
I'll talk to some of my Indian friends to see if they have any particular recommendations.
 
I might get some more responses, but here's what I have so far:

The main preparation differences between Ghee and traditional western clarified butter are that with ghee you let the milk-solids brown which gives a nice nutty flavor, and sometimes other spices are added to make an infused fat. Fenugreek and curry leaves are more typical for this in the Southern parts of India.

Also, I was surprised to discover that in India Ghee is frequently made from yogurt instead of fresh milk. It's supposed to have a deeper flavor due to the fermentation products from the yogurt.

Finally, I was even more surprised to learn that the milk solids that are left behind from Ghee production are sometimes used to make desserts...and that I've had one of these desserts before!

Here are some videos from YouTube:

Vah Reh Vah
[video=youtube;oS9uYroj0LE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS9uYroj0LE[/video]

Vah Reh Vah has a very extensive playlist of videos on Indian food prep...his recipes tend to be the simplest version of each thing as he is trying to show the techniques not the frills...so they are especially good for beginners. Also, I just really like his attitude and how much he enjoys what he's doing.

Show me the curry
[video=youtube;6Pker6csSAg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pker6csSAg[/video]

This is the first time I've come across these ladies...their approach for this is different from VahChef's...but they also have a lot of other videos that might be good.

HTH!
 
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I have Purity Farms Organic Ghee in the fridge at all times. With that said, even though I thought I would use it because of the high smoke point, I don't really. I'd still rather use a high-smoke-point, neutral oil. I also don't care for it on low-to-med heat things like eggs. I just don't like the taste. Maybe it is my ghee, but if you don't have to worry about smoke point, then choose a butter you really like (lurpak, plugra, homemade...) and use that instead. Butter impurities mean nothing at that heat point, so I choose the butter that tastes best to you.

I find that I only use it in that mid-range, like searing scallops when I want a higher heat butter taste.

Just my opinion. I think I would like making my own better than store bought.

k.
 
I mostly agree with you K. The only time i have truly enjoyed it is with the spice powders Indians sometimes serve with rice....mix the powder with a little warm ghee, then mix into the rice.

Other than that, i think its more trouble than its worth.
 
Generally the oil we use for cooking coresponds with the dishes region. Because we do a bunch of French, clarified butter is our primary saute oil.
Although I have to admit I've been thinking about cutting costs and "cheating". (In Wisconsin we like our butter)
 
Ghee is what the farmers use around here to extract the active ingredients from herb to make medicinal baked goods.
 
Ghee is what the farmers use around here to extract the active ingredients from herb to make medicinal baked goods.

That's really interesting Mark. I haven't done any digging on it, but I'd bet that's a tradition that goes back 100's of years or more.
 
Ghee is what the farmers use around here to extract the active ingredients from herb to make medicinal baked goods.

Ghee is what the hippies use around here to extract the active ingredients from herb to make recreational baked goods.
 

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