Butter Better Watch It, This New Condiment is Taking Over

We’re over the moon excited to introduce the newest item on our shelves. Thrive Market Ghee offers a pure, healthier alternative to regular butters and cooking oils. Rich and creamy in flavor, it complements everything from roasts to toast, and health-conscious foodies have been touting it as a go-to cooking essential for centuries. So with all this buzz, you might be wondering: what’s the deal with ghee?

The history of ghee

Ghee originated in ancient India and is commonly used in South Asian cuisines, Ayurvedic medicine, and religious rituals. Traditionally, ghee was made from the milk of sacred cows, and incorporated into ceremonies like weddings and funerals.

What is ghee?

Ghee is a clarified butter with no whey or milk proteins, rendering it a pure butter fat. This makes it safe for anyone with a lactose intolerance. It’s also flush with vitamins A, D, E, and K, and has healthy monounsaturated fats, or omega-3s, and other short-chain fatty acids like butyric acid, which is known to reduce inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract.

How it’s made

While most clarified butters are made by removing milk solids early on in the cooking process, ghee is unique in that it’s simmered with milk solids for a longer period, giving the final product a richer, more robust taste.

Similar to how it’s done in this video, we make our ghee in line with ancient Indian tradition. It’s a fairly simple—though time-consuming—process: First, we slow-cook pure butter from pasture-raised cows (who feed only on pesticide-free grass). Then, as the butter melts, simmers, and foams, exuding a sweet, nutty aroma, it begins to separate and we skim the “scum” (an actual technical term) off the top. About 30 minutes later, you’ll see the milk solids containing lactose and casein stuck to the bottom of the pan in reddish-brown bits. After cooling for a few minutes, we filter the melted butter, discard the solids, and voila: pure, golden ghee.

How to use it

Ghee solidifies similar to butter, and stays fresh for about nine months when kept in a cool, dark place. It’ll last up to a year if kept refrigerated. Mix it into baked goods (sweet or savory) as a 1:1 swap for butter, embrace its high smoke point on the stovetop, roast fish, poultry, or beef with it, or spread it on fresh bread.

There is, of course, an even easier way to get ghee in your kitchen than making it yourself: simply add it to your Thrive Market cart today!

Art direction by Merce Muse, Paul Delmont, Ella Ciamacco
Illustration by Foley Wu