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Clarified butter (ghee)

Today we speak of an ingredient-based cuisine: the clarified butter or ghee.
The process of clarifying butter is simple, although it requires a bit 'of time. It is in fact split the aqueous fractions, protein and fat in butter, so just take the fat and then get a more concentrated product.

The advantages of clarified butter are many: the final product can be kept longer than normal butter, when used to fry reaches a very high smoke point, similar to olive oil and is used for example to fry the Wiener Schnitzel. Because of its concentration is then an essential ingredient of sauces such as hollandaise sauce, which traditionally accompanies the asparagus. Finally it can be used to replace butter in other preparations that require it (it uses about 30% less), or lard.

To separate the various components, the butter is melted at a temperature very sweet, by a water bath. It would be better to have a bowl with rounded bottom, but since I do not have it (or rather, I did two weeks ago when I prepared the clarified butter:-D), I used a regular pot.

Always start with a large quantity of butter better than 1 kg, but at least 500 grams, or not worth doing all this work. Of course, the better the quality of the butter start, the better the finished product also will get a greater quantity of ghee, butter or inferior because they have a higher percentage of water.

chopped butter and let's put it in a pot, plunge it into another larger pot filled with water and put on the fire. As soon as the sign of simmering water, reduce heat to low, or better to pass the water bath on the stove's smallest hob: butter it must not boil.

The first fraction to separate the other is the protein: the heat makes it coagulate casein, which comes out as a foam. And 'This is the most perishable than butter, which burns quickly at high temperatures, giving the characteristic fried in butter and hazel lowers the smoke point .

Let us arm ourselves with slotted spoon and holy patience, and withdraw gradually coming to light, collecting it in a bowl. Gradually we will remove it all.

How you see the butter underneath the froth of casein is still murky, because the village water must be separated for good from that fat. So let our butter in a water bath for about an hour and a half, still frothing with patience, and check that it begins to boil (if not the two components continue to mingle!).

After this period the two towns are separated, the fat becomes clear and floats on the aqueous phase, which is visible at the bottom of the pot.

It 'time to filter butter and transfer to a large vessel from the entrance, from which we can download it easily.
Cover a colander with a dense grid with three or four layers of gauze, place it on the mouth of the jar and strain the butter, taking care not to stir the aqueous phase.

After a bit 'we reach a critical point: there is still enough butter on the surface to make us want to transfer it, but you may also pour the buttermilk with it: what to do, to save both ways?

long as it can be done without disturbing the watery part, tilt the pot and use a spoon, then ... then I proceed as follows: carry the pot to plan very carefully not to mix the buttermilk and butter, and put in the fridge. After a few hours the butter has solidified. Gently remove the crust of butter and remove the aqueous phase. Butter gently dabbed with paper towels to dry as much as possible, then I do the bottom again. This butter will be more impure than the rest, then pouring, always filtered to remove the last remnants of casein, in another jar.
This will be the first use butter because it retains less long, the other vessel, which is well sealed and put in the fridge, will last for months and months and will be perfect for all uses I have listed above.

and casein which had filtered and set aside in a bowl? In India when we make the ghee add the sugar and eaten like sweet. It took me one or two teaspoons chestnut honey, I mixed and produced a very good cream that can be enjoyed together by tongues of cat, or as an accompaniment to blue cheese or spicy, with a few walnuts . :-P

NOTE: The ghee is different ghee by the method of preparation: while the three villages in ghee (water, fat and protein) are separated by the sweet heat of the water bath, the ghee is prepared by placing the butter in a thick-bottomed pan, held on sweet fire. It follows that casein, which does not foam, which falls in the aqueous phase, it begins to burn and becomes light brown, affecting the aroma of ghee, which are more aromatic (clarified butter instead has a more neutral flavor). In India, ghee is kept at room temperature and kept for one year in Italy I put the clarified butter in the fridge and get me there a year ... ;-)