ghee or clarified butter

[~gd]

K15 Salt IS soluble in lots of things besides water. but of the common household solvents water is most likely to dissolve it. Salt is added to butter to help with the shelf life by combining with the water. I expect that if ghee is made with high heat some salt may be left behind as the water goes off as steam before the fat and water seperate. I add water to salted butter and melt it slowly and draw most of the water [and salt] off before turning up the heat to make ghee in the classic manner. If you plan ahead or make your own butter go with unsalted, the cost is the same usually. My method of removing salt works for me but is a huge time waste and messy.~gd

 

[k15n1]

K15 Salt IS soluble in lots of things besides water. but of the common household solvents water is most likely to dissolve it. Salt is added to butter to help with the shelf life by combining with the water. I expect that if ghee is made with high heat some salt may be left behind as the water goes off as steam before the fat and water seperate. I add water to salted butter and melt it slowly and draw most of the water [and salt] off before turning up the heat to make ghee in the classic manner. If you plan ahead or make your own butter go with unsalted, the cost is the same usually. My method of removing salt works for me but is a huge time waste and messy.~gd

Is it? It's a salt (ionic bond, metal, etc) so I assumed that it would be fairly insoluble in a dry oil. I suppose even if that assumption is accurate, I'd have to depend on density to separate the two phases. That's probably not going to be an effective way to separate them considering the thermal conditions.

How would you describe what happens to the salt?

 

[~gd]

K15 Salt IS soluble in lots of things besides water. but of the common household solvents water is most likely to dissolve it. Salt is added to butter to help with the shelf life by combining with the water. I expect that if ghee is made with high heat some salt may be left behind as the water goes off as steam before the fat and water seperate. I add water to salted butter and melt it slowly and draw most of the water [and salt] off before turning up the heat to make ghee in the classic manner. If you plan ahead or make your own butter go with unsalted, the cost is the same usually. My method of removing salt works for me but is a huge time waste and messy.~gd

Is it? It's a salt (ionic bond, metal, etc) so I assumed that it would be fairly insoluble in a dry oil. I suppose even if that assumption is accurate, I'd have to depend on density to separate the two phases. That's probably not going to be an effective way to separate them considering the thermal conditions.

How would you describe what happens to the salt?

You are right on the chemistry, but solubility is a matter of degree. Frankly I wouldn't like to try to dissolve salt in DRY oil but that is not the same as removing salt from salted butter. If you heat too fast the water containing salt will flash off as water vapor and leave the salt suspended in the butterfat probably as micro particles. Maybe they will precipate out with the other junk either to the bottom or to the top as foam. my method washes the suspension and gives more water to carry out the salt. "Salting out" is a classic method to break a water in oil emulsion which butter is. Ghee is basically sleaned up butter fat.

 

[k15n1]

Now I see what you're getting at. Yes, that makes sense.

Thanks for the chemistry lesson.

 

[WyoLiving]

My husband loves fried eggs. He would make them every morning using butter in the pan and heating it to the smoke point before adding the eggs. I absolutely hate the smell of burnt butter! I spent alot of mornings hanging out in teh bathroom just to avoid going in the kitchen when he was making his eggs.
Then we were gifted with a can of Clarified Butter from some prepper friends of ours. It took me some time to convince him to try it for his eggs - he knew how expensive that stuff is and wanted to save it incase a time came when we would need it. Then we saw Alton Brown on Good Eats make Ghee and cook with it.
Now hubby has his eggs every morning, I can be in the kitchen without gagging and I make ghee about every 2 weeks. I am even still pouring it into the same can with lid that we started with a year ago! (washed in hot soapy water the night before of course)

 

[~gd]

Now I see what you're getting at. Yes, that makes sense.

Thanks for the chemistry lesson.

I know and hate the fact that I come off as a know-it-all but chemistry is/was my hobby, my major in college and my way of earning a good living. So I just have to comment.