Ghee and high-heat cooking
Butter is mostly butterfat, plus some water and milk solids. The solids scorch at fairly low heat, which is why butter smokes in a hot pan. Ghee is butter simmered until the water boils off and the solids toast, then strained. What's left takes high heat.
Toast the milk solids on purpose
Ghee makers keep simmering past plain clarified butter. Once the water is gone the foam settles, then the milk solids turn golden and smell nutty. Pull the pot and strain before they go dark brown, or the ghee turns bitter.
Test yourself
Questions from the interactive lesson, with the answer and the why.
What in butter burns first and limits how hot it can get?
The milk solids. Milk proteins and sugars scorch at relatively low heat.
True or false: Ghee tastes nutty because nuts are added to the butter as it cooks.
False. The nutty flavor comes from milk solids that toast in the pot before they are strained out.
What went wrong? You sear a steak in plain butter over very high heat. The pan smokes, and black flecks coat the meat.
The milk solids burned, and ghee would take the heat. With the solids strained out, the fat stays stable at searing heat.
Fill the blank: Ghee takes higher heat than butter because the ___ have been strained out.
Ghee takes higher heat than butter because the milk solids have been strained out. Those proteins and sugars are what scorch first.
You want a nutty rice pilaf, where the rice toasts in fat before any water goes in. Which fat suits best?
Ghee. It tolerates the heat and already tastes of toasted milk.
True or false: Ghee spatters less than butter because the water has been cooked out.
True. Water turning to steam makes hot fat spit, and ghee has almost no water left.