Choosing butter with a high percentage of fat yields more ghee. Butter that has a lower fat percentage has a higher percentage of water. When making ghee, the water is boiled out, so you will be left with a lot less ghee compared to the butter you started with. Organic or grass-fed cows yield a “buttery” and yellow-tinged butter ghee. The more grass a cow eats, the yellower the resulting butter is and the richer the taste! You can alternatively look for butter that says pasture-raised cows; however, you need to do more research on the brand to see if the cows actually grazed on grass.
In the United States, buy European-style butter in order to make really high quality ghee. European-style has between 82%-90% butterfat, compared to regular butter which has about 80% butterfat, so it yields a rich and decadent ghee. My go-to European butter for making high quality ghee is Kerry Gold. I love the rich yellow color of the butter, which then yields a deep golden and rich ghee. If you want the ghee to cool in the hot vessel that you are cooking it in, make sure to turn off the heat as soon as you see the milk solids start to brown. The residual heat of the pot will continue to cook the milk solids. However, you can allow the milk solids to brown into a deeper color if you plan on immediately straining the ghee into a different vessel.
How to filter ghee
The two ways of filtering out the milk solids are using either 1) a cheese cloth or 2) a tea strainer. I prefer a tea strainer because it is more ergonomic and the handle helps me keep it in place in small jars. In addition, I choose tea strainers that have a fine mesh to be extra sure that the milk solids stay out.
Mix with some butter and spread on toast. Mix with ricotta for a nuttier taste. Store in the freezer and add it to buttercream for a brown buttercream. Add it as a topping to ice cream.
If using American butter (80% fat, 20% water/milk solids), then you will get 80% of the butter you used. For 1lb = 2 cups = 454g of American (80% fat) butter, you should expect about ~1.6 cups = 363g of ghee. If using European style butter, check to see the fat content percentage, which can range from 82% - 90%. Simply multiply the number of cups or grams by the percentage of fat, and that should give you the resulting amount of ghee!
