VIDEO: How to Clarify Butter

We adore cooking with clarified butter—the elimination of milk solids raises its smoke point from 250° to 400°, making this wonderfully flavorful fat perfect for sautées and frying. You can buy it in the store (it's generally sold under the product name "ghee," which is how it's referred to in Indian cooking), but making it at home is simple, as associate digital editor Cory Baldwin demonstrates in our latest Ask the Test Kitchen Video.

How to clarify butter

What You'll Need

  • A small saucepan
  • Butter

What to Do

  • Melt the butter in the saucepan over medium-low heat
  • When you see foam, turn the heat to low
  • Let the butter simmer while the water evaporates and the milk solids separate; to make ghee, allow the milk solids to caramelize slightly before removing from the heat, which creates a nutty flavor
  • Strain the liquid through a cheesecloth-lined mesh strainer, discarding the milk solids

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Techniques

VIDEO: How to Clarify Butter

By SAVEUR Editors


Published on December 14, 2013

We adore cooking with clarified butter—the elimination of milk solids raises its smoke point from 250° to 400°, making this wonderfully flavorful fat perfect for sautées and frying. You can buy it in the store (it's generally sold under the product name "ghee," which is how it's referred to in Indian cooking), but making it at home is simple, as associate digital editor Cory Baldwin demonstrates in our latest Ask the Test Kitchen Video.

How to clarify butter

What You'll Need

  • A small saucepan
  • Butter

What to Do

  • Melt the butter in the saucepan over medium-low heat
  • When you see foam, turn the heat to low
  • Let the butter simmer while the water evaporates and the milk solids separate; to make ghee, allow the milk solids to caramelize slightly before removing from the heat, which creates a nutty flavor
  • Strain the liquid through a cheesecloth-lined mesh strainer, discarding the milk solids

RELATED

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