ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

How to Clarify Butter - Recipe with Pictures!

Updated on September 25, 2013
The finished product! This is what your clarified butter will look like when you're done. You can store it in a container in the fridge pretty much forever.
The finished product! This is what your clarified butter will look like when you're done. You can store it in a container in the fridge pretty much forever.

What is Clarified Butter?

'Clarified butter' might sound complicated but it's really only butter minus the milk solids. It's a handy thing to have around the house for a variety of things - frying, baking, and greasing pans, for example.

Clarified butter is also known as ghee and widely used in Indian cuisine. It's wonderful for frying thngs in, especially, because unlike regular butter it won't spit as much and it also won't burn, because there are no milk solids. Once you start using it you'll find a million uses!

It's super-easy to make your own clarified butter in just a few simple steps, and couple of things you've got around the kitchen, and it only takes 10 minutes! Let's get started.

Clarified Butter Ingredients

  • Butter
  • Water

How Long Does it Take to Make Clarified Butter?

Cook time: 10 min
Ready in: 10 min
Yields: As much as you need

You can clarify as much butter as you want at a time - and it won't go off in the fridge, practically for all eternity, because it's pure fat. If the recipe you're using calls for a certain amount of clarified butter, allow for about a 10% loss by weight to account for the milk solids. You can always save the leftovers for other applications, so it's better to make more than you need than less.

Clarified Butter Instructions

Set Up:


You'll need a saucepan filled an inch or so with water and a metal or glass bowl that's big enough to sit over it to make a bain marie. Put the butter in the bowl and set the bowl over the saucepan. Set the stove top to low-medium heat (to prevent burning your butter) and leave it.

You're already half-way done!

Your butter will start to melt because of the heat of the steam coming from the water in the pot below. You can already see in the picture to the right how the clear butter fat is separating from the milk solids.

Leave your butter to melt completely - you don't have to watch it, but check it now and again to make sure it's not boiling. There's not much risk of that, as long as it's on a low heat, but you don't want it to happen. Do not stir or otherwise disturb the butter as you'll have to wait for the milk solids to settle again if you do.

Once your butter is completely melted like in the picture on the right, it's ready to be poured off into a container.

To pour off clarified butter, take the bowl away from the stove and pour butter in a thin stream into a container or another bowl. Be careful not to get any of the white sediment into the second bowl or container - those are the milk solids, which we're trying to remove.

Once you're done either use your butter for whatever you need it for or put it in the fridge for later use.

What do You Think of this Clarified Butter Recipe

5 stars from 2 ratings of Clarified Butter

Why Would You Clarify Butter?

The purpose of clarifying butter is to remove the milk solids and leave only the pure butter fat. This is handy in cooking and baking for a number of reasons:

  • Frying or roasting with clarified butter allows for a cleaner taste and more even browning, as the milk solids in butter burn quickly when exposed to heat, but the pure clarified butter won't.
  • Clarifying butter takes away the saltiness and the slightly bitter taste you can get from butter, because all the impurities are removed on the process.
  • Clarified butter is free of milk proteins and can be helpful if you're trying to cut those out but still want to achieve the superior taste and finish you get from cooking with butter.

© 2013 Cecil Wilde

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)