It can be made from fermented or fresh butter - aka, the cream was fermented prior to churning, or churned fresh. The fermentation can be from a culture, or simply the natural cultures in unpasteurized cream (depending on your part of the world and laws regarding raw milk products).
Ghee is the process of clarifying the butter after it's been churned. Sort of like cleaning the fats to make them last longer.
I havent' been to India, so feel free to correct me if you have, but I'm guessing there are a wide range of social classes - some more wealthy and some less so. I suspect that in India, the materials used to cook is influenced by social rank, just like it is elsewhere in the world. Those who have steady access to fresh cream would probably just use that, but those with fewer means may use aged or cultured cream.
hima at Tin Star Foods here. Ghee is traditionally made with cultured cream, it breaks down the lactose and allows for a bit of a longer shelf life. Think back a couple thousand years ago in 120+ degree heat, no refridgeration and the need for a high smoke point cooking fat. They had to culture the cream to let it keep a little longer and then would use it for butter/buttermilk/yogurt/kefir. Fast forward to present day, no need for cultured milk as much and its just not as popular in the western world which is why non cultured/fermented milk is used to make butter. If you're going to filter the ghee out repeatedly then its okay to use the uncultured butter if the purpose is to remove the lactose and get a super pure form of ghee. If you're going to do a simple pass through of the ghee once or twice, cultured is the way to go, the lactose and casein are already broken down due to the fermentation process. At the end of the day, we tell our customers, because we've filtered it so many times, its going to come down to flavor. Uncultured is a nuttier warmer flavor more traditionally associated w/ butter, and cultured is a more milk/sweet flavor. Both are delicious, both have tremendous health benefits. I hope this helps!!!
That makes a lot of sense tinstarfoods. I know when I churn (unclarified) butter at home, the cultured (I use a northern European culture called fil mjolk) butter lasts more than twice as long as butter made with fresh cream.
I love ghee, I really should try making it one day. Such a good flavour and so much easier for me to digest than store bought butter.
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Ghee is the process of clarifying the butter after it's been churned. Sort of like cleaning the fats to make them last longer.
I havent' been to India, so feel free to correct me if you have, but I'm guessing there are a wide range of social classes - some more wealthy and some less so. I suspect that in India, the materials used to cook is influenced by social rank, just like it is elsewhere in the world. Those who have steady access to fresh cream would probably just use that, but those with fewer means may use aged or cultured cream.
I'm curious to see what others have to say.
I love ghee, I really should try making it one day. Such a good flavour and so much easier for me to digest than store bought butter.