'Ghee' is a type of clarified butter and has been used for centuries in Indian cooking. Ghee is popularly used to make dals, desserts, topped on rice and also used for frying instead of oil. Ghee can be easily made at home from scratch.
Jump to:
- What is cultured ghee?
- Ingredients to make traditional or cultured ghee
- How to make cultured ghee in instant pot?
- How to make ghee from malai?
- How to make cultured butter?
- How to make ghee from cultured butter?
- Other ways to make ghee from cream butter
- How to store ghee?
- How to use ghee?
- 📖 Recipe
- 💬 Comments
What is cultured ghee?
Ghee, when made in a traditional way by first fermenting the cream or malai, churning butter from it, and then cooking the butter to make ghee is cultured ghee.
Ingredients to make traditional or cultured ghee
In order to make traditional ghee at home, you will need milk cream (malai) and yogurt culture. Malai is obtained by boiling raw milk or pasteurized non homogenized whole milk. You can also use heavy cream instead of collecting the milk cream.
A layer of cream is formed once the milk cools down after boiling. The collected cream can be refrigerated in a container until you have enough (2-3 cups). It is best to use the cream within a week's time.
There is a layer of cream on the top of non homogenized milk (known as cream on top or cream top or creamline milk) which can be scooped from the bottle/container before pouring out the milk from it.
How to make cultured ghee in instant pot?
Cultured ghee is made by collecting the cream from raw milk or pasteurized non-homogenized whole milk after boiling. The collected milk cream, known as 'malai' is fermented in an instant pot using yogurt culture.
Cultured butter is extracted from this fermented cream by churning in a blender. The butter is then simmered to separate the milk solids and the clear golden liquid, cultured butter ghee.
How to make ghee from malai?
Collect the malai from the top of the boiled raw milk or non-homogenized milk, until you have enough to ferment.
Transfer the collected cream into an instant pot container and add some yogurt culture to it.
If you are using heavy cream, warm the cream before adding culture to it.
Close the lid and turn the instant pot on "Yogt" mode on low setting for 10 hours. Refrigerate the fermented cream for a few hours before making butter.
How to make cultured butter?
Blend the fermented cream using Vitamix, a food processor or any other blender on high speed. Add some cold water and ice cubes as needed while blending.
Butter will separate out and the by product is homemade buttermilk. Filter out the butter using a strainer and squeeze out as much liquid from the butter as possible.
Now you have homemade cultured butter for making cultured or traditional ghee.
How to make ghee from cultured butter?
Put the extracted cultured butter in the instant pot container on sauté mode and 'low' setting. You can also use cook top but the same instant pot container used during fermentation can be used with the instant pot.
The butter will start melting and become foamy. Continue simmering for a about 15-18 minutes and monitor it every 5-7 minutes.
The milk solids will separate and start settling at the bottom and clear golden liquid will form on the top.
In the final stages, bubbles will form and the milk solids will start turning brownish. The ghee is ready, press cancel and remove the container from the instant pot else the ghee can get overcooked and turn brown.
The ghee will be hot, carefully filter it in glass containers or mason jars using a fine strainer, cheese cloth or a nut milk bag. Do not pour hot ghee in a plastic container.
Other ways to make ghee from cream butter
The simplest way to make ghee is by using store bought unsalted butter. When using cream, you can skip the fermentation process and directly blend the cream in the blender to make butter.
Simmer the butter in the same way until milk solids turn light brown and settle down. Also, bubbles will start forming on the clear golden liquid on top.
Filter the ghee into a glass jar using a nut milk bag or a fine strainer and store it at room temperature.
How to store ghee?
Ghee can be stored at room temperature in plastic, glass or stainless steel containers.
How long does ghee last?
Ghee has a very good shelf life and can be stored for a year or beyond.
Does ghee need to be refrigerated?
It is not required to refrigerate ghee and it can be stored at room temperature.
How to use ghee?
Ghee is commonly used in Indian cooking to make dals, rice dishes, desserts and applied on top of roti/paratha (flatbread). Ghee is one of the main ingredients in making dal bafla, a popular traditional Indian dish
Recipes using ghee
Ghee can easily substitute oil in most of the recipes. Check out some of the recipes which can be made with ghee.
Ghee can be used to make flatbread (parathas) and also used for deep frying. Check out these recipes where you can use ghee instead of oil.
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📖 Recipe
How to Make Cultured Ghee in Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 3 cup Cream (Malai) (from boiled non homogenized whole milk, boiled raw milk, or heavy cream)
- 3 tablespoon Yogurt (with live culture)
Instructions
Make yogurt from cream (malai) in instant pot
- Place the cream into the instant pot container.
- Add a tablespoon of starter per cup of cream and mix well.
- Lock the lid and select the "Yogt" mode on low for 10 hours.
Refrigerate the fermented cream
- Put the instant pot container with fermented cream in the refrigerator for 5-6 hours.
Making cultured butter
- In Vitamix or another blender pour all the yogurt and put 1 cup of ice or more if needed.
- Start the blender slowly and then on the highest speed until all the butter (yellow color cream) separates.
- Filter the butter out using a large strainer and squeeze out as much liquid (buttermilk) as possible.
Making ghee from cultured butter in instant pot
- Put the butter in the same instant pot container.
- Turn the saute mode on normal for about 15-18 minutes.
- Butter will start melting and become frothy.
- Continue monitoring every 5-7 minutes
- Once bubbles form, all white solid settle down and start becoming brown, remove the container from the instant pot to stop the cooking process.
- Filter ghee using a fine strainer or nut milk bag or a cheese cloth into clean sanitized mason jars
Chris says
Good job
Alpa Jain says
Hi Chris,
Thankyou. Glad you liked the post.
Regards
Alpa
Ruchita says
Wow.. how can we make ghee from heavy whipping cream? Which type of cream you have mentioned in the recipe?
Thanks
Alpa Jain says
Hi Ruchita,
I usually make cultured ghee from malai by boiling raw milk. However, it can be made from heavy cream too, it is best to use non-homogenized heavy cream.
Hope this helps
Regards
Alpa
Beth says
I can't wait to try this method for making ghee - I've only ever made it from butter. I don't think I will be able to find non-homogenized milk or raw milk near me, so will go with the cream.
CulinaryShades says
Beth,
Glad you liked it.
Regards
Alpa