Everything you need to know about easily making Ghee in Instant pot and stovetop

In this post, we will focus on making Ghee in an Instant Pot and stovetop with step-by-step images. Homemade ghee is much more flavorful, aromatic, and cost-friendly than the storebought one. Making ghee at home is very simple. You can make it with Butter, cream, or even Milk. In this post, I have also tried to highlight various other ways of making ghee.

Estimated reading time: 13 minutes

First of all, what is Ghee?

Ghee ( Desi Ghee) has huge cultural and religious value for us Indians. Especially in Vedic culture, no ritual is complete without it.

Ghee is an Indian dairy product obtained by cooking butter to a point where all the moisture and proteins are lost and only dairy fat is left behind.

In common parlance, we use clarified butter and Ghee interchangeably, but they are not the same!  Clarified butter has only moisture removed from it.

In simple terms, Ghee is formed when clarified butter is cooked further to a point where all the milk proteins are lost. It becomes highly aromatic and nutty with deep, golden-yellow color.  

Let's talk a little about the properties of Ghee.

Properties of Desi Ghee

• Ghee is clarified butter cooked further to obtain a golden yellow nutty animal fat.
• There are no milk proteins in Ghee.
• Ghee is 100 percent fat.
• It has a beautiful pleasant and nutty aroma. The homemade Desi Ghee especially tastes great as it can be cooked more to developed denser flavors or even flavored!
• It has a long shelf life. If made properly and stored properly, it can last for years without getting rancid.
• Ghee is an excellent cooking medium.
• In north Indian cuisine it is used for cooking and also for garnishing and serving.
• It is the only dairy product that lactose-intolerant people might consume safely.
• Ghee is keto and paleo-friendly.

What is Ghee made from?

Simple answer, no brainer. Butter is used to make ghee. Whether you start making it from milk or cream or butter, the immediate product is always butter.

You cook butter to obtain Ghee. The process is called Heat Clarification. You could be making ghee in an Instant Pot or in a pan over the stovetop, it's always butter that will undergo heat clarification to form Ghee or Desi Ghee as we north Indians call it.

Various ways of making Desi Ghee:

There are numerous ways of making Ghee. I will briefly touch upon each of the methods.

1. Making Ghee from Milk ( Milk butter method)

Back home in India, my mother usually makes a large volume of Desi Ghee starting from Milk. This is how Ghee has been made for centuries in India. This is usually suitable for the bulk production of Ghee.

She starts by heating the raw milk. Consecutively cooling it down to about 110 ⁰F. Then she adds yogurt culture to it and, lets it rest for 10-12 hours to form yogurt. The raw milk yogurt is then churned with lukewarm water. On churning the thick yogurt, butter is formed. The butter is then separated from the buttermilk (yogurt liquid left behind after the formation of butter is called buttermilk).

The butter hence obtained is then cooked (heat clarification) to make Ghee.

  To make Ghee from milk, one has to start with raw milk. Also, the amount of fat in the milk will determine your success.

Making Ghee from milk is a long and tedious process. Unless you're making a large volume, it is a futile exercise.

2.  Making Ghee from direct cream( Direct Cream Method)

Fresh cream or cultured cream is cooked for a long time until the fat starts to separate. A highly caramelized ghee is formed in the end. This process is very, very time-consuming. Doesn't matter, if you use an Instant pot or stovetop, for making ghee, this method is highly inefficient and not recommended.

3. Making Ghee from cream butter ( Cream butter method)

In this method, for making ghee, the fresh cream or cultured cream is churned untill butter is formed. And the butter is then cooked to obtain Ghee. 

If you want to make Ghee with this method, start by whisking the heavy cream. Whisk until the butter separates. Now collect the butter. Then, cook it until the Golden yellow liquid Ghee is obtained. This method is very popular in urban India. In urban Indian households, housewives, usually produce small amounts of Ghee for their day-to-day consumption using this method. It is called making Ghee from malai ( cream).

4. Making Ghee from Butter ( Butter method)

This is the simplest method. Whatever kind of butter is available to you, you cook it. And make Ghee!

This is the most time-efficient method. And I have tried to make it even quicker by employing my instant pot to make Ghee. Also, I will be giving instructions for stovetop cooking in this post and recipe card.

Alright, so my mind is overwhelmed with thoughts. There is so much that I want to add to this topic. In my family, we have making Ghee for as long as I remember. My mother still makes a large bulk of Ghee and she retails it

As a child, I never really liked Ghee. I guess when we have something in abundance we never really value it. When we moved to the United States, my love for Ghee started to bloom. I started making Ghee from butter which is the most simplest and efficient way to of making Ghee.

So before we go deeper into how to make butter, let's try to answer some of the questions related to the Ghee.

Some Frequently Asked Questions

Process of making Ghee in an Instant Pot.

The process of making Ghee in the instant pot is pretty simple and straightforward.

1. LOW-Temperature SAUTE mode for making Ghee

In an instant pot, we can make Ghee at low temperature sauté mode. Just that this method will take much longer, but you will have much more control than the high-temperature MODE.

 It can take anywhere from 60-70 minutes depending on the volume of butter you are cooking and also the size or model of the instant pot. Making ghee in Low Saute mode is just like making ghee on the stovetop at low simmering heat.

2. Quickest way of making Ghee.

You want to put your instant pot in a SAUTE mode for 12 minutes, at HIGH temperature, and add all the butter.

Let the butter simmer and cook. Regularly keep skimming the froth accumulated at the top using a ladle. This step is particularly crucial as in high-temperature saute mode, the melted butter quickly becomes foamy and frothy and will continue to rise in the pan and try to come out of the pan.

Stop at the point when little or no foamy substance is left on the top and the liquid becomes transparent.

Making Ghee at HIGH Sauté mode is super quick, but it is very risky. There are chances that ghee will foam up and try to come out of the Pot and can very easily burn towards the end.

Therefore for beginners, I suggest going with a hybrid method.

3. Hybrid Method of making ghee in Instant Pot

In this method we switch between HIGH and LOW Temperature Sauté settings.

Making Ghee on the stovetop

Making Ghee on a stovetop, is much more flexible than making it in an Instant pot.

Start with a heavy bottom pan. Add the butter and start cooking the butter. Cook at medium-low heat, skimming the foam regularly. Cook for 35-40 minutes until clear golden yellow Ghee is formed. You can speed up the process by increasing the heat, but be vigilant, and turn down the heat immediately if Ghee starts to come out to the rim.

Flavoring Homemade Ghee

You can flavor this nutty goodness the way you want. But I haven't really wondered in that zone much. I just stick to the conventional ways used to flavor Ghee in India. In the north, we normally flavor with Fenugreek ( Methi) and sometimes with curry leaves.

This is the beauty of homemade ghee, you can flavor it the way you want to. The store-bought ones are petty standard.

Feel free to experiment and don't forget to share your experiences.

The yield of Ghee from butter

I made Ghee using 3 lb (1359 g) of unsalted organic butter. It yielded me 2.25 lb (1024g) of Ghee

The yield of Ghee is 75 percent

For every cup of butter you cook, you will obtain ¾  cup of Ghee.

Whether you are making ghee in an Instant pot or on a stovetop, the yield might slightly vary with the type of butter you use.

Ghee storage at home

What is the shelf life of ghee

Ghee lasts for more than a year without getting spoiled. Back home in India, we live in the Himalayas. Ghee is a way of life there. In Marriages and other auspicious occasions, Ghee is served to every guest with the meals. So families that are planning a wedding or a big event start accumulating Ghee years in advance. 

Homemade Ghee keeps well for 1 to 2 years in temperate climates. This might not stand true for rest of the tropical India. But still, Ghee has a pretty good shelf life.

Key pointers on Ghee storage

• Use glass or ceramic containers to store the homemade ghee.
• Make sure the containers and their lids are 100 percent moisture-free.
• Always use a clean dry spoon to take out Ghee from the container.
• If you see any grey or black mold forming on the edges of the Ghee, take a spoon and skim out the mold and adjoining Ghee.
• Slightly darker Ghee ( means the one cooked longer) stores longer than the light yellow Ghee.

A few Indian dessert recipes that can be made with Ghee are:

• Easy Khaja Recipe| Indian syrup dunked crispy pastry
• Mohanthal: Traditional Gujarati Mohanthal
• How to make Besan Laddu
• Kada Prasad

I have tried to share all the possibilities to make ghee at home with you. You can choose whatever method suits you the best.

Now that you will be making Ghee at your home, either in an Instant pot or on the stovetop, do not forget to share your experiences in the comment section. I would love to hear about it. Also, do tag me on Instagram.