Ghee

What is ghee? Ghee is called, in Western countries, a clarified butter. Basically butter is slightly boiled to get the water to evaporate and milk particles to separate and the end product is just fat.

Ghee has lots of very good properties. It is slightly cooling in the body. It increases the digestion and improves absorption and assimilation, strengthens the brain and nervous system and improves memory. It lubricates the connective tissue and makes you more flexible (and who wouldn’t want that!). Ghee helps to carry the medicinal properties of herbs into the body tissues. So there are a lot of very good properties.

You can use it for cooking (instead of other oils, because it has a relatively high burning point) but people who have high cholesterol or are obese should be cautious not to use it too much(the same goes with other oils). It’s good but still fat!

So here’s the tutorial how to make ghee:

1. Take about 2 blocks of butter

(depends how much you want to make).

I always use organic butter and for the best results,

I also check if the butter has been made traditionally.

This is because the traditional way of making allows the butter

to be curdled before it becomes one and is full of all the good

bacteria and energy.

2. Put it into a pot or a pan on a low heat and let it melt there. Do not cover with a lid because we don't want any water evaporating on the lid to drop in there.

3. It takes around 10-15 min to get ready. It will bubble for some time. After about 10 min it should calm down and you will start to smell popcorn. You should also see that on the bottom of the pot there is some whitish (by that time light brown) residue. When this is very light brown already (do not let it burn!) then it’s time to remove it from the heat. After you remove it from the heat, it will continue to cook so it is very important not to allow it to get brown at that point.

4. Let the clear yellow liquid cool down a bit and then it’s ready to be put in an airtight jar. Would be good if you could keep it in a cupboard where there’s not too much bright light.

5. Done! Great job! You can use it the next time you cook. No need to worry about using it quickly as ghee can stay for about 6 months (depends on how well and clean you keep it) in a cupboard. (PS: ghee is great to use on cold sores and on skin if you have a skin condition with redness as it's cooling and moisturising). Always use a clean and dry spoon to scoop it out.

If you want to know how else is ghee used in Ayurveda, please read my post here about 100x Washed Ghee