Clarified butter

After spending the day in the hospital with my sick little boy yesterday, I have found myself housebound with him today (he is ok but needs medication at different times, which meant no school for him and no work for me). I thought I might try my hand at making some clarified butter.

Clarified butter is butter fat with the milk solids and water removed. This is what makes the butter Whole30 friendly. It is a fairly simple process, and I think it turned out quite well. Ghee can also be used, and my understanding of the difference between the two is that ghee is cooked off for a bit longer so it has more of a nutty flavour, and is darker in colour. 

Butter melting at a low heat so it doesn't brown

 The process itself of making clarified butter starts with slowly heating butter (grass-fed is preferred for the Whole30) in a saucepan over a very low heat. Its important not to have it too high as it can burn quite quickly. The colour of the butter shouldn't change too much. As the butter starts to melt a foam with form at the top of the butter fat. once the butter is melted, this foam is scraped off with a spoon or ladel.

Foam starting to form

Once the foam is scraped off, you can see the milk solids at the bottom that have separated from the butter fat. Using a ladle, scoop the clear butter fat out of the saucepan into a separate container. You can also just pour it into the container but you have to be careful not to get the milk solids in there, so I found using the ladle easier. 

Milk solids at the bottom, butter fat on top

 I only used one pack of butter (250 grams) and probably ended up with about 200ml of clarified butter.

Clarified butter