Make Your Own Ghee

Finished ghee ready to eat.

My instructions let you make your own Ghee at home quickly & easily.

Ghee, also known as clarified butter is a dairy free alternative to butter originating from India and Pakistan. The dairy proteins (casein and whey) & nearly all of the milk sugars (lactose & galactose) that some people cannot digest are removed in Ghee. Even though ghee can contain trace amounts of milk sugars, most people who are lactose & galactose intolerant  can enjoy ghee.

This is different from a milk allergy. With an allergy the immune system reacts to a specific protein, causing an allergic reaction. If you have a milk allergy, you should not have ghee because it contains milk. Rather than consuming ghee, why not try organic butter flavored coconut oil? I use it reguarly & I love it.

My homemade ghee is on the left. Purity Farms organic cultured Ghee is on the right.

Purchasing organic grass fed ghee can get pretty expensive. Fortunately it is not hard to make. For the best Ghee you want to start with the best high quality organic local grass fed butter you can get. The next best choice is organic butter from the store. The better the quality of your butter, the better the quality of your Ghee, the better the quality of your health.

Equipment needed:

Kitchen Scale
Crock-pot
Fine Metal Strainer
Cheesecloth
Glass or Stainless Steel Bowl
Canning Jars 

Let's Get Started!

printer friendly

Weigh the organic butter.

Two to three pounds is a good amount to work with. This will give you between one and two quarts of ghee. On average I get about one full quart & usually a little more than half of another quart. I like to work in larger batches so I don't have to make it as often. Feel free to use less butter if you don't consume much ghee or would prefer to make it more often rather than store it.

This is approx. 2 - 3 lbs of fresh organic homemade grass fed butter.

I have a glass dinner plate resting on top of the fixed glass plate on the Taylor scale. Don't forget to clear the weight before adding the butter. Your scale should be at 00.

Place the two to three pounds of butter directly into your crock pot.

I recommend using unsalted butter & adding salt to a finished dish to taste (you can use salted butter if you prefer).

Turn your crock pot to "Low" allowing the butter to melt & simmer. If it doesn't simmer turn it to "High" (Crock-Pot heat varies by manufacture & size).

Let the butter simmer. The butter will have a nice head of foam as it simmers. This could take up to four hours depending on your Crock-Pot.

The butter liquid will start to turn a rich golden color. When you move the foam from the top, it will look clear with sediment at the bottom.

Here you can see it is very clear with spent foam at the top & crust at the bottom.  When you move the foam layer aside, you can see to the bottom of the Crock-Pot. You're Ghee is done cooking at this point. Turn off the heat & let cool for approximatley one hour so that you can safely handle it without getting burned. Do not let it cool completely. You still need it to be in a liquid state so that you can strain it.

You can use a metal strainer alone as pictured or several layers of cheesecloth in the strainer (this depends on how clean/clear you want your finished ghee to be. The latter is the best method). Carefully pour the cooled but still warm (not hot!) liquid ghee into the strainer & into a stainless steel or glass bowl leaving the coagulated dairy proteins behind.

In this picture I poured directly into quart mason jars.

This is slightly burned coagulated dairy protein stuck to the bottom of the crock pot. It looks awful, but is surprisingly easy to clean up.

Coagulated dairy bits that have been removed from butter during the diy ghee process. Learn how to make your own keto and paleo friendly ghee by following my step by step instructions and photos.

A spoonful of slightly burnt coagulated dairy. This is what remains of the parts of butter that you can't digest if you have dairy issues. With it removed you can finally enjoy butter via Ghee!

Transfer the strained Ghee into glass mason jars & let cool. You can strain again if desired. When cool & ready to enjoy it should look like the photo at the very top of this page.

In this photo, I show a batch of my homemade ghee on each side of an excellent store bought organic cultured ghee. As you can see, mine is slightly darker for this batch. Typically it is nearly identical. My goal for each batch is to have it as close as I can get to the quality of Purity Farms organic cultured ghee.

If you decide DIY ghee isn't for you, I highly recommend the ghee in the link in the above paragraph.

My Ghee is on the left (it's the slightly darker ghee).  Purity Farms cultured Ghee is on the right.  Good stuff! 

---

Home Made Grass Fed Organic Butter VS. Organic Store Bought Butter

Organic butter from pastured grass fed cows contains more nutrition & vitamins than non pasture raised. Grass fed butter is loaded with fat soluble nutrients as well as vitamins A, K2 & E. It even contains CLA which is a heart healthy fat. Only 100% grass fed butter contains CLA.

The light colored stick is certified organic store bought butter. Note the lack of color. The lighter color indicates a lack of natural grasses & grazing in the diet. The lumpy, wrinkly, dark yellow rounds are homemade 100% grass fed butter. Always choose organic grass fed if you can afford it.  It is so much better for you & your family.

Beautiful homemade grass fed butter contains more CLA than the lighter colored organic store bought butter.

For food safetly, it is best to store homemade ghee in the refrigerator. It will keep for up to a year. For longer storage, you can even freeze it. If made properly, it will last several months at room temperature. Keep in mind that it will be much softer at room temperature & can even begin to melt when it's hot out. Do not attempt to store Ghee in a butter crock.

Homemade ghee isn't the same as store bought. It is important to understand that it can develop mold & there is always a risk of botulisim if you didn't get all of the water out during processing. This is why it is much safer to keep it refrigerated.


Enjoy!