Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vocal bomb here. If you're unfamiliar with G, buckle up because it's not quite like any other type of cooking fat and you may fall in love. It's delicious, It has a high smoke point, so it's ideal for most types of cooking, and its shelf stable, which means you can make it or buy it to keep it in your pantry and pull it out anytime
you want. But let's back up a bit. Uh. Simply put, G is simmered strained butter, similar to clarified butter, but cooked longer to deepen the flavor. The process removes the water, sugars, and proteins that butter contains, leading to a final product with a higher concentration of fat. How much higher? We spoke via email with Alyssa Lavy, a registered dietitian based
in Connecticut. She said when comparing the amount of calories and fat, there is not a significant difference between butter and G contains on average, slightly more calories and fat, including slightly more saturated fat, compared to the same serving of butter. GE's history extends thousands of years in South Asian cultures, with uses both in the kitchen and an iravetic medicine. Though it's only recently become trendy in the
United States. It's a pantry staple in Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi cuisines because gee doesn't spoil in warm weather and has that long shelf life we already mentioned. Thanks to its lack of water and milk solids, it can also provide a suitable butter replacement for those who are lactose intolerant or following low sugar or no dairy diets. It's easy to make your own ge or clarified butter for
that matter at home. Here's the basic recipe. You want to start with at least a couple of sticks of unsalted butter. A full pound or around half a kilo is recommended. Butter is composed of up to twenty water and milk solids, those sugars and proteins, so when you prepare ghee or clarified butter, your yield will be about of what you start with. Place the butter in a saucepan, one with a light colored bottom will help you see what's happening in there. Melt the butter over medium low
heat until it begins to simmer. Skim the foam from the top as needed. As the water begins to evaporate, the milk solids will sink to the bottom of the saucepan and the butter will begin to turn more clear. Eventually, the butter will turn translucent and the foam on top will completely disappear. At this point, if you've stopped and
strained it, you'd have clarified butter, but for gee. Continue to cook the butter gently until the milk solids at the bottom of the saucepan have browned about forty five minutes. They'll give off a warm, nutty fragrance. This will add flavor and a bit of color to the finished product. When you're done, remove the saucepan from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes, and then strain the golden liquid through a cheese cloth lined sieve to
remove the milk solids. You'll be left with the pure fat goodness, otherwise known as g G. Can be stored on the counter or in the refrigerator that it will typically last longer. When stored in the fridge. Use a jar or container with a tight lid and avoid getting water in it. Without water, germs can't grow. Also, removing the water and the milk solids from butter is precisely
what makes ge so ideal for high heat cooking. It won't start smoking, which is bad, until it hits around four hundred and eighty degrees fahrenheit or to fifty celsius. It has a much higher smoke point than butter, which will begin smoking it around three hundred fahrenheit or one and fifty celsius, and has an even higher smoke point than common cooking oils. The only ones that beat it are saff flour and soybean. So how do you cook
with ge? Lave said, you can use gee in place of butter from a culinary perspective, so I recommend starting by incorporating it into dishes that you would typically prepare with butter. She suggests using it to cook eggs, pasta, and pan fried foods, and drizzling it over popcorn and fish. You can also use gee to sautee veget bowls with garlic and ginger for a quick side dish, or in a golden milk latte with turmeric and cardamom. It can be used for baking, but you might want to check
a couple of recipes. Sometimes the water, sugars, and proteins in butter play a role in the flavor or texture of the final product. Lava does warrant to not go overboard with key because, like butter, it's high and fat. Quote.
While all foods can generally fit into a balanced, varied nutritious diet, ge is still similar to butter in terms of calories and fat content and should be used as butter would be used in moderation, though, of course no less than Julia Child once said everything in moderation, including moderation. Today's episode was written by Muriel Vega and produced by Tyler Clay. For more in this and lots of other topics, visit how stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff is production of
iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you list into your favorite shows. M