Ghee The Cleared Butter

History And Present

The roots of the cleared butter go far back with the east as presumable origin.due to the rather high temperatures and humidity in this part of the world and indeed the absence of cooling facilities as that time ,the people searched for solution to keep fresh butter longer than 1-2 weeks this was and is still the maximum self life of butter at room temperature.after that ,it starts to become rancid,with mould as result.
The invention of cleared butter was actually accidental people found out,that result of butter in the pan after frying (thus any water left)could stay for months without getting mould.so the birthday of the cleared butter was a fact and the method very simple.boiling the fresh butter at low temperature (so that is it does not become brown) until all the water is evaporated.
The protein from the butter which are in fact the foam during the boiling are removed.together with the casein and the salt formed as lees at the bottom of the pan.the typical,a bit rancid taste of the cleared butter.is a result of the long boiling time and also the fact,that the preparation of it,was mainly from the moment where fresh butter started to smell and not longer possible to be kept as such.
Cleared butter is very convenient in storage ,but also very stable when heated at high temperature since all proteins,salt and casein are already removed from it.this makes it very suitable for baking cooking or frying ,widely use in the majority of western cuisines and a must in traditional European cuisines like the french one.
Cleared butter is also a very important ethnical product,applied in various,traditional,world everyday cuisines but also in lot of ceremonial meals(Indian rice preparations,Arabic sweets,Chinese moon cakes) and for big family celebrations,in some cultures also used as a medicine (India)or during dead ceremonies (suriname).
Cleared butter also known as Ghee in India,ghiin far east or smen (semneh,sman,or sminn)in north Africa and middle east.
There are two types of Ghee granular and smooth.depending on the ethnical preferences in the different geographic regions.the one is considered as premium versus the other.
The top quality among all ghee's is the buffalo Ghee,which is very typical for north of Africa,middle east and India.
This Ghee is although extremely expensive and not affordable for the average consumer.Beside the most popular cow Ghee,which is still,considerably,expensive.there are a lot of cheap vegetable Ghee alternatives on the market,mainly produced in middle east and far east.
The quality of those is rather very poor.the production of it is very often completely uncontrolled and the majority of those products can be considered as a serious health hazards due to doubtful ingredients origin,poor refinery,low or absent production hygiene,sky high percentage of TFA(trans fatty acids)and in admissible oxidation level.those facts are unfortunately completely unknown by the final consumers.