Good Cooking Fats, Part I: Ghee

We all know that olive oil is great for us. The problem is that it doesn’t hold up at high temperatures. So what to use for high heat cooking? There are a few good choices, but today we welcome: ghee!

Ok, so ghee is made from butter, and butter is dairy, and dairy is…well, it’s definitely not paleo. Primal Blueprint guru Mark Sisson calls dairy a gray zone. Some people (myself included) get clear signals from our bodies that dairy is a no-no. Others tolerate it just fine. To figure out where you are on that spectrum, eliminate all forms of dairy for at least a month. Then reintroduce it and pay careful attention to how you look, feel, and perform.

But here’s the thing: ghee is butter minus the solids – lactose and casein – which are dairy’s main irritants. So someone like me who is very sensitive to dairy does just fine with ghee.

Ghee (also referred to as ‘clarified butter’) has a nutty flavor, and stands up to high heat. It’s great for stir frying, pan-frying meats, and especially well suited for curries. Furthermore, ghee is stable at room temperature and can keep on the countertop unrefrigerated for months, so if you want to drop a dollop of it on something just before eating (like some steamed veggies), it’s all soft and ready. Can you tell I love it?

It’s really easy to make. Here’s the basics, but know that you can make flavored batches too- garlic ghee, cinnamon, you choose. I use a pound of pastured (grass-fed) organic butter at a time.

Butter goes in the saucepan. Medium heat is fine until the butter melts, then turn it down a little.

The butter will sizzle loudly as the solids begin separating from the fat.

Soon the solids will start to sink to the bottom of the pan, and you'll see the clarified butter through the dissipating top layer of bubbles. Now's the time to use your ears! Don't play any music or talk on the phone, because you need to listen for the sizzling to stop. That's when to turn the heat off.

After letting the pan cool a little a little, pour the liquid through a fine mesh strainer into a glass container. Let that sit until it cools and solidifies.

End result: a nice little pot of ghee, ready for eating. This can keep a home on your counter to use on anything, no refrigeration necessary. (Note: the white stuff in the this picture is remaining solids that will get skimmed off before using.)

Enjoy!