How to Make Toasted Ghee
It’s almost self explanatory just looking at the photos, but I’ll spell it out nonetheless.
Start with a Costco-sized package of Kerrygold, or 4 large silver bricks.
Put them in a pot with room for the butter to expand as it cooks. I take it right out of the freezer, peel it and put it directly in the pot. The paper comes off the butter more easily when it’s cold and there’s less waste. This recipe is suited to Kerrygold butter that just came out of the freezer. If your butter is not as cold, yours might need less time to cook.
Cook it on medium heat for about 20 minutes, or roughly 5 minutes per brick of Kerrygold.
You might have seen other recipes that say to skim it when the white milk solids rise to the top. Don’t take the bait! Wait.
You might have seen other recipes that say to stop cooking it and let the milk solids fall to the bottom once it forms a sort of “honeycomb” on top. You can do that, but it won’t be “toasted” ghee and it won’t be half as tasty. It also has a higher risk of tasting like rotten butter because there might still be a few milk solids lurking in the molecules of the fat.
I don’t actually know the exact time it takes to cook. I know it by smell. But start watching it around the 15 to 18 minute mark. Some of the cooked milk solids will be visible sticking to the sides of the pot. Once they are blackish brown, your ghee can be ready. Mine in this recipe are almost completely black. You can do it to “brown” point and you can go to “deep black” but IMO “brown” is not as flavorful and “deep black” tastes burnt. You can choose. For me, deep ebony/almost black is PERFECT. I highly recommend setting a timer. Ask me how I know this! lol. Suffice to say, I know what “deep black” tastes like from times I didn’t set the timer or was doing something else and didn’t pay attention to the smell.
Once it’s ready, let it cool. If you try to strain it immediately, there are a few risks: 1. You can break your glass jar. 2. You can melt an otherwise good plastic strainer and thus, your ghee. You don’t want plastic particles in your ghee. Sometimes I forget and leave it overnight, then it solidifies. At that point I just warm it up again until it melts, then strain it. I prefer to use a metal strainer. And technically, a strainer is not actually necessary. You can arrange your cheesecloth directly in a funnel over the jar, which I often do. Although the funnel is plastic. So…heat warning still applies.
You can strain it just by letting the solids fall to the bottom. This is an option if you eat your ghee quickly. But if you might end up storing it a while, use lots of cheesecloth. The reason some ghee smells bad is that it wasn’t cooked enough and wasn’t strained properly. My cheesecloth was still damp from the last use so I found the perfect use case for a scrap of linen fabric, folded over so there were 4 layers. The linen has a much tighter weave than cheesecloth, so I trust that the 4 layers will work well. I usually make sure there are SIXTEEN layers of cheesecloth for straining ghee. But, in our house ghee gets eaten really fast so there’s very little risk of an off smell. This is why when my dad asks me what I’m making for dinner, he answers himself by saying “fried butter.” Because I have a reputation for making “fried butter.” Everything I make is coated in ghee or butter. :)
The ghee will slowly strain through the cloth. In my case, it looks like I let mine cool just a bit too long, because a little of it solidified in the straining cloth before pouring through. I’ll find a use for that bit though. :)
