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How to make homemade ghee on the stovetop quickly and easily for a healthy cooking fat that is shelf stable and nourishing.
Knowing how to make ghee is simply a must for any Traditional Cook. Clarified butter as it is also known, has been used for thousands of years by Indian cultures. In fact, traces of ghee have been found on fragments of Indian pottery dating as far back as 6500 BC!
When in a liquid state and made from unheated butter, ghee is called butter oil. Dr. Weston A. Price discovered that butter oil and cod liver oil work synergistically to supercharge absorption of Vitamins A, D, and K2 known as the X-factor.
Dr. Price always carried flasks of cod liver oil and butter oil to the bedside of very ill patients. More often than not, he was able to revive them with a few drops of each under the tongue. Using cod liver oil or butter oil separately did not have the same deathbed reviving effects.
Benefits of Ghee over Other Cooking Fats
It is best to know how to make clarified butter oil or ghee yourself rather than buying from the store. Notice the picture above of a jar that I made myself with pastured butter from a local farm. It is so yellow!
Commercial ghee from the store is a pale yellow, indicating lower nutritional value from cows eating grain mix instead of fresh green grass.
Ghee from the store is also ridiculously expensive, so learning to make it yourself is not only a more nutritious way to go, it is very cost-effective.
I make clarified butter oil for about half the cost of what it would be to buy it at the health food store.
Unlike butter, ghee does not need refrigeration and keeps well on the counter or pantry for many months. Keeping a jar in the pantry for a quick veggie saute is very convenient!
Another benefit of ghee is that it is easier to digest as all the milk solids (proteins) have been removed from the butter. Very frequently, even those with a true dairy allergy find that ghee presents no trouble for them.
Another advantage to using clarified butter instead of plain grass-fed butter is that the grassy taste and sometimes cheesy smell of the butter is eliminated.
Therefore, by learning to make clarified butter oil from grass-fed butter, you will find that you now have a healthy fat for cooking that does not displease your family with a cheesy odor. This can sometimes happen with grass-fed butter alone.
Homemade Grass-Fed Ghee
The recipe and video lesson below covers how to make this healthy and indispensable fat for use in your own kitchen.
I also cover how to make clarified butter capsules. This is a convenient way to take butter oil with your daily dose of cod liver oil.
If you are spending money on high vitamin cod liver oil (this is the brand I’ve used since 2015) it is a must to be taking it with clarified butter oil. This supercharges the beneficial effects!
Note that it is not advisable to make ghee from homemade raw butter. The heating process causes a loss of the enzyme and probiotics in this special food.
Prefer to Buy?
If after reviewing the recipe and video demo below you decide to buy instead, I would recommend this vetted source as a premier retailer of quality grass-fed ghee. Plain, cultured, and herb-flavored varieties are all available including a coconut oil/ghee blend.
How to Make Ghee
This simple recipe for making ghee can be accomplished on the stovetop in just a few minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 lb butter preferably grassfed and organic
- 1 wide mouthed mason jar quart size
- 1 cheesecloth fine mesh
- 1 funnel
Instructions
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Place pound of butter in a medium sized pot or stove safe glass bowl. Turn heat on low and allow the butter to gently liquefy.
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Turn heat to medium-low and gently remove foam that comes to the top of the melted butter with a slotted spoon.
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After removing the foam, allow the melted butter to simmer on medium-low heat for 5-10 minutes longer to allow all the milk solids to settle out on the bottom of the bowl. You will know when the separation process is complete as the solids will be slightly brown on the bottom and the clarified butter will be completely clear and transparent.
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Line a funnel placed into the open end of a wide mouthed mason jar with a fine mesh cheesecloth.
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Pour the clarified butter into the funnel so that it is strained through the cheesecloth as it enters the mason jar.
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Allow the finished ghee to cool in the mason jar. When room temperature, fasten the lid on tightly and store in the pantry as a convenient and incredibly healthy cooking oil for all your kitchen needs.
Hi please can you clarify your comment. I’m confused by it. Thanks
Can use substitute ghee in baking recipes calling for shortening or is using Spectrum Organic Shortening a healthy choice?
If the shortening you are referring to is made of palm oil, yes that is fine.
Finally, a website to find the “real truth” to my questions… Thank you for all the research that you do to get to the facts!
Hi, so many recipes say the butter should simmer for 2-3 hours, what is the difference when it is made this quicker way?
Anna
You absolutely do not need to simmer the butter that long! Make the recipe as I present it and see how lovely the ghee turns out 🙂
Ghee is often cooked until the milk solids brown. That is provably more traditional. This gives the ghee a toasted, caramel like flavor. I like it better that way. Just don’t burn it.
Hi Sarah, is it safe to give small drops of ghee to newborn baby ? To help with digestion
Check with your practitioner about that.
HI, I recently made butter oil and over cooked it on accident (multi-tasking isn’t my thing) and was wondering if it still has it’s nutritional value? It’s an amber color instead of golden and has a pleasant toasty taste. I think I cooked it about 5 minutes longer than I should’ve. The milk solids were a darker brown instead of light brown. I really don’t want to throw it out. I don’t know how to tell if I oxidized it. Please help, thank you!
It’s probably ok, but it’s your call.
Hello,
I was just reading a blog post that said ghee and high vitamin butter oil are not the same thing. So if I make my own butter oil using this method, is it not as beneficial as buying the capsules? I’m confused!
Butter oil is made by heating the butter and skimming off the milk solids. Butter oil is raw and the solids are removed by centrifuge. So, butter oil has the enzymes and probiotics in the raw butter still in it while ghee does not.
Can you combine ghee and cod liver oil capsules or should you take them separately?
I was wondering where you get your fermented cod liver oil? Is it just oil or is it capsules? I can’t seem to find it in any of my health food stores. Thank you!! (: