How To Make Ghee

Making Ghee

You need to learn How to Make Ghee if you want your Indian curries, and other Indian dishes to have that authentic ethnic flavour.

Medicinal Properties of Ghee:

Ghee is also commonly used as a medicinal agent in Ayurvedic medicine.  Ghee has healing properties  of its own which we will discuss here briefly, and it is also of great value in the making of medicated ghee oils, and in acting as a carrying agent in the body  for the  transporting of  specific therapeutics in herbal remedies.

It Is Easy To Make Ghee

The Method:

All you need is a quantity of unsalted butter.  It must be real butter,  and it must be unsalted.  Softened types of butter are no good, and nor is margerine.

  • Take a nice heavy saucepan and place your  unsalted butter into it. 
  • On a medium heat, melt the butter.  Take care not to burn it.   Keep that heat moderate, and watch it while it melts.
  • Once the butter has melted, turn up the heat a little,  briefly,  so that the butter just comes to the boil.
  • Turn down the heat immediately to the lowest point where the butter will just simmer gently.
  • About 15 minutes to 20 minutes of cooking is enough. You can tell when the ghee is done, as the ghee  will smell nice and roasty, like popcorn.  At this point, all the liquid in the butter will have evaporated, and so you must take the ghee off immediately so that it does not burn.
  • Let the ghee cool a little, then strain the liquid ghee off from the remaining curds at the bottom of the saucepan.
  • Store the ghee in a bottle with a fitting lid.  Make sure the ghee has cooled to room temperature completely before putting on the lid.

Ghee will keep indefinately if it has been made properly, and it is stored in dry conditions with its lid on.  Its medicinal properties are supposed to improve with age, so you don’t need to be in a hurry to use it up.

Make sure you tip out the required amount of ghee, rather than dip spoons into the ghee, as this will contaminate it, and it may not keep if you do that.  Never tip any unused ghee, or ghee off your measuring spoon, back into the bottle.  If your ghee has solidified, due to cold temperatures, then use a dry, clean spoon in the ghee jar.

Health Benefits of Ghee:

  • Ghee oil is nourishing to the body and helps keep the bones and ligaments well lubricated.
  • Ghee included in a healthy vegetarian  diet is good for the skin, and the hair.
  • Generally speaking, ghee oil is a very healthy oil to use for cooking.
  • Ghee oil should be used in moderation if you have high cholesterol or high blood pressure.  Get some professional advice to see if ghee is ok for you to use in moderation if you have either of these ailments.
  • Ghee oil has an effect  a little like castor oil.
  • A drop of ghee oil, or castor oil, can be put into each eye at night to help reduce irritation, and help prevent cataracts.  Cataracts which have only just begun to form can sometimes be treated successfully with ghee or castor oil treatment.
  • Ghee oil can be used in some cases to help people lose weight.
  • An Ayurvedic recipe to avert hunger pains consists of:   one mashed banana with a teaspoon of ghee and a 1/4 teaspoon of cardamom  stirred into it.  Eat this when hungry instead of going for a slice of bread or a cookie.

How to Stop Overeating

Compulsive overeating:

This  is a problem for many of us at some time during our lives.   What are some of the things which can cause us to be compulsive eaters? Emotional causes,  depression,  stress, anxiety, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, toxins held in the body, feelings of self doubt, boredom,  and/or  nutritional deficiences  can  fuel our cravings for more and more food.

One very nice remedy for obsessive overeating, which you might add to your well rounded programme to lose weight,  is given by  Dr Vasant Lad in his Ayurvedic Medicine book, see details below.  His Ayurvedic suggestion is to eat bananas. Here is  a version of   Dr Vasant Lad’s simple suggestion on  how to stop overeating:

  • Take one banana .  Mash it up.
  • Add one teaspoon of ghee to the banana.
  • Add between 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom powder to the banana.
  • Mix ingredients together and eat when you are hungry.

Acupuncture and counselling are recommended to all those who have an obsessive eating disorder of any kind,  whether it be undereating or overeating.  Acupuncture can take care of the physical yearnings and help to increase the energy in the right places.  And counselling can help greatly to establish feelings of self worth and release negative emotions.

Look at merrilyn’s post on Qi Gong for Weight Loss for an exercise which will help to build courage and emotional strength, as well as increase qi energy in the physical body.

Alternate Nostril Breathing is a useful exercise which will help relax the body and  calm the emotions and the brain.  It is a good exercise to do prior to meditating.  See merrilyn’s post entitled ‘Yoga Breath and Sleeping Well‘  for instructions on how to perform Alternate Nostril Breathing.  See also the post entitled ‘Yoga Nidra’ for a deep relaxation exercise which will aid your ‘How to Stop Eating’ programme.

For more advice on Ayurvedic Remedies, consult Vasant Lad’s book entitled Ayurvedic Home Remedies:  A Comprehensive Guide to the Ancient Healing of India. This is published in the U.K., 1999,  by Judy Piatkus (Publishers Limited), 5 Windmill St, London W1T. 2JA.   Reprinted 2002.