Ghee Whiz! Dairy Revisited. Again.

I Can't Believe It's Butter!

For whatever reason, I kept forgetting about ghee.  Ghee, a.k.a. Clarified Butter, is made from milk but is-- wait for it -- casein free.  Yup, an actual milk product we can enjoy on the GFCF diet.  Take some butter, melt it down, skim off the scum that appears, strain the solids that drop to the bottom, and you're left with pure fat known as ghee.  It doesn't even take up refrigerator space because it can be stored at room temperature!

I picked up the larger size jar of the Purity Farms brand at one of our HFSs and have worked it into several of our meals already.  It's been a while since I've had actual butter flavor, and I'm definitely enjoying it!  The label itself says that its casein-free, which is always wonderful to see.  Too often, I see "Dairy-Free!" on a package only to find casein or caseinate in the ingredients list.  I didn't think I'd see "Casein-Free" on a dairy product any time soon.

The first time I used it was to fry an egg.  I learned a little goes a VERY long way.  Thank goodness, since this stuff ain't cheap!  I cooked some Swiss chard this evening and used extra virgin olive oil plus a little ghee for flavor, and I probably could have used a little less-- that butter taste was still very apparent!

While I have very much appreciated the Earth Balance Buttery Sticks and Spread, I'm excited to not rely on those for butter taste.  I'm thinking for baking I'll do some sort of combo of ghee and Spectrum shortening or something.  Mmm.... possibilities!  Now with butter flavor!