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10 Cooking with Ghee (Read 9138 times)
Kerry
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Cooking with Ghee
Sep 10th, 2010 at 6:30pm
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This may be old hat for many of you but it was a revelation for me over the 3 weeks that we tripped in Quetico recently.  Ghee is the perfect solution for sauteeing and frying, especially doing fish.  For those of you who don't know, Ghee is clarified butter which means butter from which all the milk solids and most of the water have been removed.  It tastes exactly like butter (because it is) and has an unlimited shelf life which means it won't become rancid over the course of a long trip.  For pancakes or frying fish it is absolutely the best.  If you haven't already I'd recommend giving it a try on your next trip.
  
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nctry_Ben
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Re: Cooking with Ghee
Reply #1 - Sep 10th, 2010 at 10:38pm
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Is that a grocery store item?
  
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intrepid_camper
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Re: Cooking with Ghee
Reply #2 - Sep 11th, 2010 at 12:00am
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I think you can get it at health food/whole food stores sometimes.  You can make it yourself by very, very slowly heating grocery store butter until the oil separates from the solids.  Then you can carefully separate the oil from the solids, put the oil part in a leak proof container and use it.
It does stay fresh longer than butter; but I have not had salted butter go rancid on several two week trips, and longer if spring or fall camping in cooler temps.
  
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Old Salt
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Re: Cooking with Ghee
Reply #3 - Sep 11th, 2010 at 3:56am
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Ghee Whiz...
  
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Joe_Schmeaux
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Re: Cooking with Ghee
Reply #4 - Sep 11th, 2010 at 5:30am
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You should be able to find ghee in stores specializing in East Indian (or possibly Middle Eastern) food.

According to Madhur Jaffray's "An Invitation to Indian Cooking":

"There are two kinds of ghee. Usli ghee or clarified butter is used rarely. The more commonly used ghee resembles American shortening and is a mixture of various vegetable oils."

So if you want clarified butter, just follow Kerry's directions. If you go store-bought, you may end up with something fairly neutral, not much different from Crisco or Mazola oil.

When I'm cooking Indian food at home, I just use butter.
  
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db
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Re: Cooking with Ghee
Reply #5 - Sep 11th, 2010 at 7:17am
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I was thinking about possibly trying Ghee this trip. Probably next. In the past I've used:
Crisco/lard
powered shortening
butter
tubs of margarine
peanut/olive oil
squirt Parkay
spray Parkay (and the like)
and probably something else too.

Last trip I went with the spray. It's a smaller quantity so for a solo trip there's less leftover (that wasn't repackaged in the quantity I needed) to toss as I pack for next year's trip. The OEM spray dohickie fits the bottles I repackage it in so it won due to convenience but I had room for more english muffins and brown and serve rolls than usual this trip so I ended up taking more of them. The spray 'butter' left me wanting something better late in the trip.

Convenience and flavor fight it out every trip. Last trip, instant coffee won so I had all this room leftover if it fit in the canoe I borrowed. The instant coffee was a big hit and will go again if I can find the same stuff next year. The extra bread I took highlighted the deficiencies with the spray butter option enough to make me reconsider.

So my question is, is Ghee a solid or liquid at outdoor temperature and how do you package it? AND - how does it affect the crust on no-bake cheesecake?
  
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marlin55388
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Re: Cooking with Ghee
Reply #6 - Sep 11th, 2010 at 12:19pm
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DB

Physical qualities depend on the temperature...I have seen it go solid. I package in a screw top nalgene jar, and pour and spoon. I haven't made the cheese cake for years, pre-ghee for me so I can answer that.
  
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marlin55388
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Re: Cooking with Ghee
Reply #7 - Sep 11th, 2010 at 12:25pm
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Think microwave and a gravy separator Wink I too, like the IC, have never ever had butter go rancid...or cream cheese....or a bunch of other stuff...the GHEE factor is about cooking with it, without the milk solids the scorch factor is greatly improved....higher scorch temp

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Kerry
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Re: Cooking with Ghee
Reply #8 - Sep 11th, 2010 at 10:52pm
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Almost any good health food store will carry Ghee, you can even get it certified organic if that matters to you.  Definitely be sure to buy the real thing, namely clarified butter.  While you can make it yourself it's kind of labor intensive considering it sells for about $3.50 a pound.  When I bought it it was liquid but over the course of the trip it kind of entered that in-between state, not quite liquid, not quite solid.  At any rate we carried it in a Nalgene screw top and it was fine.  To me, the idea of frying a fillet of freshly caught fish in Crisco is criminal (I'm taking my stand right here!) and I've never had great luck with butter beyond a week or so.  So Ghee is my new religion and that's all I've got to say about that.
  
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intrepid_camper
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Re: Cooking with Ghee
Reply #9 - Sep 11th, 2010 at 11:21pm
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db, regarding the cheese cake question.  You melt the butter (usually) and mix it into the crumbs so the ghee will work the same as butter for you.
  
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