Make Magic In Your Kitchen: Ghee
If you are like me, you grew up eating butter (or what you thought was butter in the big brown container). As a child, I didn’t really care what it was, I just knew that it was great on my toast, pancakes, waffles, and cornbread.
As I grew older, I learned that eating that oily stuff made from rancid vegetable oil is not the best thing for my health. I stopped eating the Country Crap (play on words), and only used that awesome butter with the Native American lady on the front. But that stuff can be expensive and as good as it tastes, has some extra not so goodness mixed in its mass production.
Believe it or not, I hadn’t even heard of Ghee until I was in my 30s…despite having traveled quite a bit during my military career. But once I did, I was excited at the idea of rushing off to the store to get this stuff that is made from butter, but better than butter. Until I got to the store and saw the price.
Depending on what brand of Ghee you purchase, it will cost you north of $10, easy!
Make Ghee!
You will never use vegetable oil again!
Given the health benefits, we were initially willing to pay the price. A small price to pay for what Ghee can do for your body. Not only is Ghee good for your cardiovascular health, it does wonders for your intestinal tract, and is great for your skin. According to the ECPI University, Ghee also boasts compounds that fight cancer and provide anti-inflammatory benefits. How could you not like that!?
As burgeoning homesteaders, however, we wondered, “is there a way we can bet the benefit and reduce the cost?” The short answer is, absolutely!
It didn’t require an exhaustive search to find out how to make Ghee in our home, so we did. There are a lot of resources out there to teach you how to do this, but we opted for the method of two of our favorite homesteads, Doug and Stacy from OFF GRID with DOUG & STATCY.
Stacy’s method is really simple:
Place eight sticks of butter into a deep baking dish
Bake in the oven @ 250 degrees for 90 minutes [I check it @ 60 minutes just to make sure its not burning]
Remove from the oven and skim off the solids on the top
Spoon the Ghee into a Mason Jar
Let cool
Done
How easy is that!?
We use Ghee everyday. We have completely stopped using vegetable oil and we use butter in recipes that call for it or on pancakes/waffles.
On our homestead, we always seek out how to make things on our own and I can not recommend a more simple thing to make and use in your kitchen.
You will ultimately have to do to the cost benefit analysis for yourself, but we swear buy it. Depending on the store, 4 oz. of butter can cost your between $3 and $5, so you may not be saving a lot of money but you know you are consuming something that you made in your kitchen. Additionally, Ghee is insanely shelf-stable. At the end of the day, its butter oil.
We want what is best for you. We say, make some Ghee, use it for your cooking, and see for yourself.
