Ghee

Ghee, concentrated milk-fat product made from milk, cream, or butter by removing almost all the water and nonfat milk solids. Though it is used worldwide, ghee is particularly associated with the food and culture of India, where it is one of the most widely used cooking fats. Ghee and similar products are also manufactured in other parts of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa from goat, sheep, or camel milk. These products are known by several regional names, including maslee in Iraq, samn in Egypt, samneh in parts of the Middle East, and samin in Sudan. In India ghee is generally made from cow or buffalo milk.

History and religious significance

The earliest mentions of ghee in India can be dated to the Vedic period. In one of the oldest Sanskrit texts, the Rigveda, ghee is called ghṛṭa, which is generally translated as “clarified butter” rather than as the modern definition of ghee. In the Satapatha Brahmana, a part of the Yajurveda, ghee appears repeatedly as an ingredient specifically prepared for sacrifice or ancestral rites. The Satapatha Brahmana also recounts a creation narrative in which Prajapati, the lord of all creatures, rubs his hands together to obtain a butter or milk offering, which he presents to the sacrificial fire. Another text titled Paraskara Gṛhya Sutra describes the use of ghee combined with other foods such as curd and honey for offerings and household observance. Though it is closely connected with Hindu Brahmanical traditions, ghee is also an important substance in Buddhism. The Buddhist text Vinaya Pitaka prescribes ghee along with four other substances (fresh butter, oil, honey, and molasses) as medicines permitted to monks under certain conditions.

In ancient India ghee was explicitly subject to economic regulation. The Arthashastra, a work on Indian government, administration, politics, and economy, includes ghee in its discussions of commodities, cattle management, rations, weights, and measures. The regulations required traders of ghee to provide an additional fraction to buyers to compensate for loss associated with its liquid state, and the text also specifies standardized measures for its sale.

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Sources document that by the late 15th century, ghee was being used for cooking in royal kitchens. The Ni’matnāmah Naṣir al-Dīn Shāhī, a cookbook of recipes made in the royal court of the sultans of Mandu (Madhya Pradesh), contains many recipes calling for “sweet-smelling” ghee in dishes prepared for the court. The recipes use ghee in dough, for cooked meat, and for frying. The repeated specification of aromatic ghee suggests that ghee was enjoyed for its flavor rather than just as a cooking fat.

In the Mughal period (1526–1857), ghee remained prominent. In his late 16th-century work Āʾīn-e Akbarī (“The Institutes of Akbar”), Abul Fazl, a historian and theologian at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar, gives an account of the administration and household of Akbar. In this work Abul Fazl mentions numerous recipes from the Mughal imperial kitchen that use ghee. Ghee appears in preparations ranging from khichdi, vegetables, and pulses to halwa (sweet pudding), rice dishes, kebabs, and meat preparations. The quantity of ghee used in these recipes varies substantially—in pulses (dals) a much lesser quantity is advised, whereas halwa calls for equal quantities of flour, sugar, and ghee.

Ghee retained its religious importance alongside its culinary and economic roles. Its use in offerings to sacred fire, documented in Vedic texts, continues today in Hindu rituals, particularly in havans (sacrificial fire offerings).

How ghee is made

The process of making ghee involves the removal of nearly all water content from milk fat by heating, followed by straining of the nonfat residue from the liquid fat. In India one of the traditional methods for obtaining ghee involves fermenting and turning milk into dahi (curd), which is then churned either by hand or using a machine until it separates into butter and buttermilk. This butter is washed until the water runs clear before being heated. The heat removes the remaining water from the butter, and some milk solids separate from the liquid fat. The resulting liquid fat is called ghee, which can be strained and stored after being allowed to settle. Another way of obtaining ghee is to collect cream from milk and churn it into butter before heating it. In Indian households the residual buttermilk is often used in cooking curries or consumed as is.

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