Coconut Oil and Ghee: Together At Last
You’ve heard about the virtues of coconut oil over and over again and just last week we were extolling them again. You know its got a ton of saturated fat, may strengthen mineral absorption and is associated with improved blood sugar and insulin control. The rich flavor of coconut that goes along with it is just another added bonus for most of us. We know, however, there are some of you out there who love everything about coconut oil except the flavor.
If you don’t always want to feel like you’re heading off to the tropics when you cook with coconut oil, but you still want the health benefits, try making “coconut ghee.” Reader Jeanmarie mentioned that this was her favorite fat to use in pretty much every cooking situation, so we couldn’t help but try it ourselves. Coconut ghee is a blend of coconut oil and clarified butter (butter with the milk solids and water removed).
Why remove the milk solids and water from butter? Separating the milk solids from the butterfat almost entirely removes the carbohydrates (lactose) as well as a protein that some people are sensitive to, casein. Evaporating out the water means the flavor of the butter is less diluted. Additionally, removing the milk solids and water also gives butter a higher smoke point, which means you can use ghee for sautéing, stir frying, or deep frying at high heats (375-485 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on purity).
Combining ghee with coconut oil is like having the best of both worlds. You get the nutty flavor of butter and the subtle sweetness of coconut oil to create one delicious saturated fat.
You’ll want to start with some unsalted butter. If you splurge a little and buy some higher-quality butter it will probably still be cheaper than buying already-made ghee, which can be quite expensive. In a small pot melt the butter over medium heat.
When it is bubbling and melted, turn the heat to medium-low and as white foam rises to the top skim it off carefully with a spoon.
Depending on how meticulous you are, this process can take at least 15-20 minutes.
During this time the butter will become a little darker and take on a richer flavor. You might also notice some darker clumps of milk protein sinking to the bottom. Next, if you really want to clarify the butter, pour the liquid through a fine mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth or a paper towel.
This will catch any last remaining milk solids and leave you with pure, golden ghee.
Using 1/2 pound of butter will give you about a cup of ghee. If you mix this with 1/2 cup of coconut oil, the ghee will have a very faint flavor of coconut. If you add a little less coconut oil, the coconut flavor will pretty much disappear.
As Jeanmarie says, “keep stirring or shaking the mixture of ghee and coconut oil in a jar so it stays blended as it cools and solidifies.”
Kept in a covered jar, coconut ghee will keep for months at room temperature without spoiling. It can be used in pretty much any cooking situation.
And how does the reader who inspired this post describe their coconut ghee?
“Neutral but yummy.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
Will you be trying this? Do you have your own homemade fat making recipes? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comment board!
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Posted By: Worker Bee
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Coconut Ghee – the Primal “speedball”
My goodness that looks gloriously good.
Or, “two great tastes that taste great together”… wait, that one’s taken.
“Primal Speedball” it is!
I have been making a coconut oil, ghee, palm oil mixture for some time. The palm oil by itself is a little too red for some foods because it discolors them. The coconut oil has a strong coconut taste. The ghee doesn’t have the carotenoids or virus shedding effects of the other two, but does have a nice buttery flavor. Mixing all three in roughly equal parts makes a great cooking oil that isn’t too pigmented or too coconutty for Italian spices.
Karen, I used some red palm oil in combo with ghee once and it was the only way I’ve found palm oil to be palatable. Too strong for me! So you’re right, a blend gives the benefits of each fat. Thanks for the reminder, I think I’ll try it again.
Can the coconut ghee be stored in aluminum? And what’s best use for solids skimmed off?
Coconut oil + ghee = fantastic.
If your grocery store carries Kerrygold brand butter, try that. Their cows are grassfed, and though they aren’t organic certified, they don’t use hormones or antibiotics.
I happen to work at Whole Foods, and we just put Kerrygold on sale last month. I tasted it, then stocked the hell up! It’s fantastic stuff. At the time, it’s cheaper than my usual butter choice, which is Organic Valley Pasture Butter.
The Costco in our area has started selling Kerrygold brand butter. They have it in 3# packages for a reasonable price.
Wow what a great idea! I just might have to suggest that to my husband. Thanks for sharing, Jeanmarie.
This post couldn’t be more timely and custom tailored. i just bought coconut oil for the first time…and i’m sensitive to the carbs in milk. so I am going to make this FOR SURE. It’s pretty cool how Mark skims off the best wisdom and experience from his primal readers and his research, strains it carefully and mixes it together into this useful blog!
And his worker bees do, too!
No doubt that MDA readers are a wealth of information and inspiration for me and the Worker Bees. Obviously the community deserves a ton of credit for the success of this site and movement. Thanks to Jeanmarie and everyone else that visits, comments, speaks up in the forum, and shares their experiences and knowledge!
I’ve been using this product for quite a while now:
http://www.stfrancisherbfarm.com/product.aspx?ID=180
I have a hard time finding good pastured butter or ghee where I live so this is the next best thing. I use it for almost everything. The only other oils I use are lard or olive oil, occasionally bacon grease.
Looks like another fun project to experiment with. I have about ten pounds of raw milk butter from a local farmer who has three Jerseys.
I notice that sometimes the butter tastes a little spoiled if I leave it out on the counter with a loose cover for more than a week or so. I am wondering if this new mixture will sit out ok as long as I keep it in a truly sealed container? It is just easier to work with when it is room temp! Any thoughts?
Rodney, I keep my coconut ghee on the counter, near the stove, as I generally use it in any and all cooking every day. (It’s good straight from the jar, actually!) So far mine has kept very nicely, but I use it up pretty fast. (I use 2-3 pounds of butter at a time when I make it, and I don’t actually measure how much coconut oil, but approximately the amount as the finished ghee, or slightly less.)
If you’re in a hot climate, it could melt a bit and possibly start to separate, so if that happens you can give it a break in the fridge. Otherwise, there’s no reason to think it won’t keep at least as well as ghee and coconut oil would separately.
Thanks Jeanmarie,
I now have a weekend project to add to my to do list. Sounds like fun!
Rodney, your butter spoils because it is from raw milk(unpasteurized) and it is the leftover milk solids that are spoiling. The good part of that butter is that it is not pasteurized so it still has all the good “bugs” in it. Making ghee will take care of the spoiling problems because the milk solids are removed and heating is what pasteuriztion is.
Is your local farmer willing (or able) to sell you raw milk? If you can get a gallon of raw milk, let it seperate, laddle off the cream on top, chill and then spoon it on top of fresh black raspberries. A truely decedent but healthy treat.
You can buy ghee at any Indian grocery store.
Mark, do you think a lot of saturated fat in your diet would put your gall bladder in nitrous mode?
I am definitely going to try the ghee + coconut oil. Looks like a great addition to the PB!
Is there a difference between using raw butter and pasteurized butter when making ghee? Raw butter seems like it would be more beneficial to pasteurized butter if we eat it in its raw state. Otherwise, is there really a difference between using raw grass-fed butter to make ghee versus using a pasteurized organic butter?
Personally, I use pasteurized butter just because raw is so pricey that when I buy it, I want to consume it raw. I’ve been pleased with Kerry Gold, Organic Valley’s pastured butter, and Sierra Nevada Vat-Cultured Butter, what’s available in Mendocino County, CA. Strauss Organic is also very nice.
What an awesome idea!
If you have an Indian grocer in your town, it’s probably cheaper to buy ghee than it is to make it.
I know what I’m doing this weekend =)
When I cook, I use equal amounts of CO and ghee to get both the yummy flavors. I second Pikaia. I make ghee from Kerry Gold butter and it tastes awesome.
*burp* Recipe approved
Great idea! When you make ghee at home, you can ensure that it is sterile. It is a great ointment for dry eyes (should you be so brave). I put some aside fresh from the stove and keep it in a sterile glass medicine jar for opthalmic use before bed whenever my eyes are dry and irritated. Note, I am talking about pure, sterile ghee before any addition of coconut oil.
I’m definitely going to try this real soon!
Brilliant idea.
I don’t mind that coconut flavor, but I know that if I cook with it too often my husband starts frowning at dinner.
I can’t wait to try this!
When you clarify the butter after would it be safe to say its dairy free?
It isn’t dairy-free, but you can call it lactose-, casein-, and whey-free.
That makes sense, thanks for the clarification.
Brilliant pun.
You get 1000 points for the recipe and 100,000 points for the pun. If the pun wasn’t on purpose you get a million points because you’re subconsciously awesome.
“If you have an Indian grocer in your town, it’s probably cheaper to buy ghee than it is to make it.”
Be careful at the Indian grocer’s. The most widely used form of Ghee is an artificial substitute which is basically Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil. It is touted by big companies as ‘healthier’ and it is certainly cheaper than the real thing. Dairy Ghee is commonly labeled ‘Asli’ (real, as opposed to fake), but even this is no legal guarantee of quality or provenance. Make your own. Millions of South Asians used to.
In “Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, With Recipes,” Jennifer McLagan says that traditional dairy ghee is called usili ghee and the kind made from vegetable oil is vanaspati ghee, so definitely be sure you have the right kind if you get it from an Indian grocer. It’s hard to see how it could be cheaper than homemade unless they’re cutting corners, and ghee is so easy to make (especially with the aid of Mark’s great photos to guide you if you haven’t done it before). I have bought it before and it’s ridiculously expensive at the grocery store. Haven’t tried an Indian market though.
Matt, if you clarify it well and strain it, the ghee is virtually dairy free, but I wouldn’t claim it equals something purified under laboratory conditions, which might matter for someone who is very, very sensitive. It should be fine for most dairy-sensitive folks, from what I’ve read. I’m lactose-intolerant myself.
dada,
I noticed this on my last shopping trip. One brand of Ghee listed “Ghee, and pure ‘Ghee Flavoring’”
WTF??? Why would Ghee NEED ‘Ghee Flavoring’?
Asli Ghee, it is. Thanks for the tip!
Fat-tastic!
I may have to give this one a try!
Consider it done. O M G!
Hey, I just noticed the recipe calls for Unsalted butter. What happens if I use salted? Deal buster, or minor difference? Thanks!
I’m not certain I’ve never accidentally made it from salted butter, and I don’t remember any catastrophes. Probably not a deal buster, but it’s just more versatile if unsalted.
You can read about how my worst screw-up of ghee-making unexpectedly turned into the most awesome caramel-scented ghee, on my blog:
http://jeanmarietodd.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/coconut-ghee-the-perfect-cooking-fat/
sound very yummy…..I might have to try it
Hmmm, might try it with storebought butter, but I sure wouldn’t want to make this with my raw milk butter!!
If you really wanted to go all out, you could always get some organic cream, churn it (shake it in the bottle it comes in) and make your own fresh butter that way.
how do you do that? mine comes in a little carton, do i just put it in a bottle and shake it? since it’s heavy organic cream, no carbs, i’d be assured of no bad reaction from that butter!
If you have a blender, use it. Works perfectly.
my favourite way of eating butter or ghee for that matter is too mix it with raw egg yolks (i choose those that have more pronounced orange color) + some salt, and use it as dip for some other stuff
Anyone else think those pictures remind them of fight club? lol. Nice post. I LOVE coconuts.
sounds like a great recipe..I’ll give it a try. Thanks Mark
can you use salted butter?
Most of the sources I consulted — Fat: A Misunderstood Ingredient; On Food and Cooking; Nourishing Traditions; The Joy of Cooking — specify unsalted butter, but don’t say why. Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Julia Child) is unclear. It says French unsalted butter and American salted butter are interchangeable in cooking, then goes on to talk about clarified butter without specifying unsalted or not. Alton Brown’s I’m Just Here for the Food, 2.0, doesn’t specify.
Salt is used as a preservative in regular butter “but changes the flavor,” as Joy of Cooking notes. I suspect using salted butter won’t ruin it, and I suspect I’ve used it before in ghee (some salted, some unsalted in one batch), but the consensus is to use unsalted. For one thing, you’d be concentrating the salt because clarifying removes the water from butter, and an unsalted product is more versatile. You also get to control the quality of the salt, choosing, say, Celtic sea salt to use in cooking, when you use unsalted butter to make ghee.
I read ages ago that salt can mask the taste of poor quality butter, an argument for only using unsalted. In either case, choose the best quality butter, preferably from cows pastured on green grass.
I think the only place it really matters is in baking (which often calls for unsalted) and I used to prefer salted butter on bread, but likely most PBers don’t do much of either one anymore.
I believe it was Cook’s Illustrated that said recently if you need to substitute unsalted for salted, it’s approximately 1/4 teaspoon of salt per pound of butter, but that the amount of salt added to commercial salted butter will vary with the season, so be sure to taste as you go. If a recipe calls for unsalted butter and all you have is salted, be sure to reduce the salt in the recipe per the above ratio.