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If you want to make your own ghee, I can help! Ghee is clarified butter, where the milk solids and water are rendered out and removed leaving behind the remaining pure butter fat and delicious nutty flavor, but is shelf stable at room temperature with no further processing. Anyone that makes their own butter or has found a wonderful deal on butter should know how to do this. Ghee has an indefinite shelf life and is a vital skill to learn and use to preserve food for your homestead. Now. I don’t turn all my butter into this lovely liquid gold, but I do flip some to ghee to be used for frying, on popcorn, and on steaks and such but I do not prefer to use ghee for baking. Those milk solids are needed for both flavor and good structure of baked goods. Can ghee be used? Absolutely, but as someone who already struggles with making semi-edible cookies, I don’t need to add another curveball in the form of ghee.

Ghee has a surprisingly higher smoke point, sitting around 485F, making it great for sautéing and frying. It has a nutty taste and a rich flavor. Some people that have dairy sensitivities can tolerate ghee since all the milk solids, casein, and lactose have been removed during the clarifying process.

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Why Can Butter When You Can Make Ghee?

I get asked this a lot and I’ll tell you the method to my madness. I don’t make a lot of ghee, but when I find myself with a bunch of butter, I only need so many jars on the shelves canned. And canned butter shelf life isn’t indefinite. I’ve kept a jar on the shelf for about 4 years and it was fine, but I’m not sure I would can enough that would be 5 years worth of butter and tie up all those jars in it. But you can! No use canning so much butter if I’m not going to use it. So, that means I’ll use some of a good sale I find or extra butter I don’t want to freeze into longer term storage by rendering it into ghee.

What Butter Should I Use

Use literally whatever butter you have as long as it’s regular butter… like butter from grass-fed cows. Not plants. Not vegetable oils. COWS. Or goats. Homemade. Store bought. Cheap. Expensive. Grass-fed butter. Not grass fed butter. Organic butter. Conventional butter. JUST BUTTER. Do the best and forget the rest. You can also use salted or unsalted butter, but I find that even purchasing or making butter and leaving it unsalted should be a crime. It’s always salted butter in this household and I will never do anything different. Just make it yourself because the price tag of store-bought ghee is INSANITY when it’s seriously the easiest thing to make yourself.

Let’s make homemade ghee!

Equipment You Might Want:

Heavy bottomed pan
Large metal spoon
Funnel
Fine-mesh strainer
Coffee Filter
Pint mason jar
Lid

Ingredients:

Butter

Step 1: Prep

Remove butter from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature. This allows the butter to evenly heat to prevent any burning. It’s an important step you really don’t want to skip.

Add butter to a medium saucepan.

Step 2: Render

Place over low heat. Melt the butter slowly, stirring occasionally to ensure even heating.

Once you have melted butter, you can raise the heat a bit. I tend to go low and slow so I can get the best nutty aroma without any chance of burning because butter ain’t cheap!

Bring the butter to a steady bubble and you’ll hear it make crackles and bubbling noises. That’s normal. You’re looking for browned milk solids and for them to sink to the bottom. As the butter renders, use a large metal spoon to skim off the foam that forms on top as the butter cooks into a separate bowl. SAVE THE SKIM because it’s amazing on pancakes, toast, and making cookies. Don’t toss it!

Keep a close eye on it because it can go from zero to burnt in an instant.

Once the milk solids are a nice golden color on the bottom of the pan, it has stopped talking to you (the bubbling and crackling sounds have stopped), the rendered butter has a nutty aroma to it, and you see no steam coming off the butter any longer, you are done cooking it. Shut off the heat.

Step 3: Strain

Using a canning funnel lined with a coffee filter or a lined strainer with several layers of cheesecloth, ladle the golden liquid and strain ghee into a clean glass jar. 1 pound of butter will fill 1 pint sized (16 ounce) jar.

Step 4: Storing

I let the ghee cool completely in the jar, uncovered. I then wipe the jar rim with a dry cloth and then vacuum seal a canning lid on top. This is just personal preference and not a necessary step. It needs no further processing past the clarifying/rendering process.

Ghee will store fine in a dark place away from direct sunlight at room temperature. I prefer to store mine in my basement cellar when it’s about 55 degrees F and it will store for a very long time.

Notes:

Mix those brown bits that you strained out into the skimmed foam from earlier and make the most amazing cookies of your life!

Cooking time will vary depending on the amount of butter you use per batch.

It’s pretty dang easy to make lovely golden ghee all by yourself!

How to Make Your Own Ghee (It’s Easier Than You Think)

Name: How to Make Your Own Ghee (It's Easier Than You Think)
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: Butter

4 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 30

Total Time: 35

Servings: pint

Author: Ruby – Red Feather Farm

Equipment

Heavy bottomed pan
Large metal spoon
Funnel
Fine mesh strainer
Coffee Filter
Pint mason jar
Lid

Ingredients

Butter

Instructions

Remove butter from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature. This allows the butter to evenly heat to prevent any burning. It's an important step you really don't want to skip.
Add butter to a medium saucepan or dutch oven.
Place over low heat. Melt the butter slowly, stirring occasionally to ensure even heating.
Once you have melted butter, you can raise the heat a bit. I tend to go low and slow so I can get the best nutty aroma without any chance of burning because butter ain't cheap!
Bring the butter to a steady bubble and you'll hear it make crackles and bubbling noises. That's normal. You're looking for browned milk solids and for them to sink to the bottom. As the butter renders, use a large metal spoon to skim off the foam that forms on top as the butter cooks into a separate bowl. SAVE THE SKIM because it's amazing on pancakes, toast, and making cookies. Don't toss it!
Keep a close eye on it because it can go from zero to burnt in an instant.Once the milk solids are a nice golden color on the bottom of the pan, it has stopped talking to you (the bubbling and crackling sounds have stopped), the rendered butter has a nutty aroma to it, and you see no steam coming off the butter any longer, you are done cooking it. Shut off the heat.
Using a canning funnel lined with a coffee filter or a lined strainer with several layers of cheesecloth, ladle the golden liquid and strain ghee into a clean glass jar. 1 pound of butter will fill 1 pint sized (16 ounce) jar.
I let the ghee cool completely in the jar, uncovered. I then wipe the jar rim with a dry cloth and then vacuum seal a canning lid on top. This is just personal preference and not a necessary step. It needs no further processing past the clarifying/rendering process.
Ghee will store fine in a dark place away from direct sunlight at room temperature. I prefer to store mine in my basement cellar when it's about 55 degrees F and it will store for a very long time.

Notes