Ghee vs Butter? page

[Diana Renata]

Ok, I'm gonna ask this, then I'm going to bed for real this time- lol.


Can somebody (or several somebodies) give me the lowdown on ghee, and how it compares to just using regular butter? Pros & cons? I'm not at all familiar with ghee but it seems to be popular. Should I be using it instead of butter or doesn't it matter?

[iniQuity]

+1 wondering about this too, especially because right now I'm using conventional butter, not grass fed or organic or anything like that.

[Tarlach]

Ghee is clarified butter (butter oil).


Basically unsalted butter without most of the lactose and other milk solids.


You can make your own by gently heating unsalted butter until it becomes a clear golden liquid and then separating from the coagulated milk solids.


Ghee is much safer for consumption as most of the harmful elements from the milk are removed.


It's still a poor substitution for rendered animal fat though (lard and tallow are easy to make at home). Why try and turn milk into pure fat, when you can start with pure fat?

[Squeaker]

I've always thought that Ghee was just clarified butter (i.e melt the butter down, let it set and then scrape off the milk solids that settle on the surface. The clear stuff you have left is the ghee). I think the advantage of it is that you can heat it to a higher temperature because there are no milk solids to burn.


Not sure if there are any nutritional benefits.......?

[hazyjane]

Ghee also doesn't go rancid for a very long time (handy in tropical climates like India where it originated).

Yes- Ghee does not have casein (the milk protein that dairy sensitive people react to).

[jkilbane]

The only reason I like ghee more than tallow is because of the rich, intense buttery taste/smell. When you clarify the butter it gets much more flavorful IMO.

[Anand Srivastava]

Ghee is just the milk fat.

Butter is more than that.

So there will be some good factors and some bad factors.


If you are intolerant to milk, then the bad factors matter to you, otherwise not. Ghee may not be Paleo, but there are no downsides to it.


If you want to cook at high temperatures, ghee is better as it does not have any moisture or other impurities that will prevent it to reach high temperatures. Ghee is a great medium for frying.


If you want to cook at low temperatures and you don't care about the bad parts then butter will be better.


In India we use ghee because it can stay for years without going bad even after facing several scorching summers. It was used to create fried breads which would not go bad for several days. Ideal for travelling. People used to carry those breads and pickles, on long journeys.


In summary Ghee is good for everybody, and is very versatile. Butter is not.

[Adventure8410]

I had always wondered this too, especially since for me Ghee is around double the price of the all natural unsalted butter I buy. After reading Anand's post I think I will have to give ghee a try; it's just a shame that I cut butter out for a while as of yesterday haha

[Diana Renata]

Thanks for the clarification. I'm cutting dairy for April so I won't be using either ghee or butter, but I think after the month is over I might try to add ghee back in to my diet. I do love the taste of butter.


I render and use tallow & lard for the majority of my cooking, but when it comes to veggies, there's nothing like butter. Except maybe ghee- lol.

[Shazkar]

"Thanks for the clarification"


was this pun intentional