How to make your own ghee

I decided to make my own ghee when I started a Keto diet last fall. At first, I got my first jar of store-bought ghee on clearance at my local regular old grocery store, which was Ancient Organics (so good) and at that time cost me $8 for a 12 oz. jar. But the next time I went to the store to pick up more ghee, I gasped when I saw the regular price - it was somewhere north of $20 for the same jar! That’s when I decided to try making my own. I thought $4 for a pound of unsalted butter sounded way better than $20 for a jar of ghee. And so my endeavor began.

I did fail the first few times, but I feel like I got it down after attempt #3. There were two secrets to my success: the first was making sure my butter was unsalted, and the second was learning about the specific temperatures to watch for. I followed this recipe from Jessica Gavin, and I finally had my first successful batch of ghee!

Put your butter in the pot

First put the unsalted butter in a pot. The amount doesn’t matter. But the unsalted part does! I think that was my mistake on the first few attempts - I used salted butter. The unsalted butter was my first successful batch. I chose President brand (French) or Kerry Gold brand (Irish), just because they are both imported from Europe, which has stricter agricultural guidelines, so I feel better about its purity.

Heat over low temperature

Put your heat on low and wait for the butter to melt, then it will eventually come to a boil, even while on low (2 out of 10 on my dial). It will become frothy on the top. Cook the butter on low with a thermometer in it and keep the temperature between 220º and 244º as the water is cooked off. The temperature is then elevated to above 266 °F so the lactose, casein and whey proteins experience the Maillard reaction. Be careful to make sure it doesn’t go over 350º, butter’s smoke point, or you will burn the milk solids. (As you can see here, I went over, and it was still fine.)

Watch for the foam getting toasted around the edges

Boiling, boiling, boiling… keep that butter boiling… but don’t stir it too much, wait for the process to run it’s course for the first 10 minutes before skimming off the foam. Some of the foam on top will fall to the bottom of the pot and get toasted up. This will take around 20 minutes to get to the point where you’ll get little toasties on top the foam, which is an indicator that the milk solids are getting to the toasting point (almost done).

Check the milk solids for color

Wait until the boiling of the butter slows down and the bubbles are smaller and less frequent. The little bubbles are water in the butter being cooked out. Eventually as the water gets cooked out, the boiling will be reduced to a simmering oil, all without changing the heat at all. You will start to see that the milk solids at the bottom, which started out almost white, turn brown as it toasts. That’s basically what ghee is - butter without water or milk solids that is essentially 100% pure fat. Removing the milk solids also gives ghee a higher smoke point.

Skim some foam off

As it cooks, the foam on the top slowly falls away to the bottom, and you’ll see more of the fat. Toward the end, you can skim off some of the foam.

Strain into a container

When the boiling has stopped, the bubbles are almost gone, the milk solids are toasted, and the ghee is done, you’ll strain it into your container. Take a small strainer, put cheesecloth in it to catch any foam and milk solids, and pour through the strainer into a ceramic or glass container. I suggest a wide-mouth container like a bowl, so you can access it with a spoon easier when it becomes solid. This glass bowl, that comes with a plastic lid, came from the Dollar Tree.

This is what the toasted milk solids at the bottom of the pan look like after you have poured out the ghee. It’s like the char of grilled meat. It is considered by some to be a treat, like licking the beaters after making cake batter. I actually took a silicone spatula and ate all that yummy goodness up! Crunch crunch!

Et voila! Ghee!

And there you have beautiful, homemade ghee. This is still in liquid form. After a few hours it will become solid and you can scoop it out with a spoon.

Now you can put your own homemade ghee into your Keto coffee or use it as a dairy-free “butter” in your cooking!