Ghee

[crinoidgirl]

How long should I expect it to "keep"?  Fridge or cupboard (I'm assuming fridge).

I knew I could count on eGulleters!  

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It should keep for many, many months in the 'fridge and even at room temp it has a long shelf life.

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Sigh. I'm a technical writer who's an idiot.

I mean after open. I'm thinking you meant the same thing, but I need to pamper my ADD and OCD and make sure.

Thank you, Anna.

[Anna N]

How long should I expect it to "keep"?  Fridge or cupboard (I'm assuming fridge).

I knew I could count on eGulleters!  

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It should keep for many, many months in the 'fridge and even at room temp it has a long shelf life.

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Sigh. I'm a technical writer who's an idiot.

I mean after open. I'm thinking you meant the same thing, but I need to pamper my ADD and OCD and make sure.

Thank you, Anna.

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In the store, the unopened ghee is not even in the refrigerator but on the shelf like the canned beans and tomatoes! Opened it should still stay good for many weeks at room temperature and just about forever in the 'fridge. On my jar of ghee there is no best before date and no ubiquitous "Refrigerate after opening" warning.

I am surprised that no one else has offered advice here - we have a whole section devoted to India and Indian dishes! Where is everyone?

[ghostrider]

^^^^

Strict or pure vegetarian for an Indian means no meat, fish or eggs and possible no garlic or onions. There aren't a whole lot of vegan Indians.

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Whoa. Why would garlic & onions be ruled out?

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They believe it excites the passions. It's not really a vegetarian thing. But I think it's a Hindu/Jain thing. I think it was originally widows who were not allowed to eat garlic and onions (because spicy food excites the passions) but since they were often confined to the kitchen this gave rise to a tradition of preparing food without garlic and onions.

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Ah, OK, I figured it was something "philosophical." Thanks.

[ChefCrash]

....

I am surprised that no one else has offered advice here - we have a whole section devoted to India and Indian dishes!  Where is everyone?

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Probably because there is nothing really special about Ghee. It came about as a result of people wanting to preserve what little butter they could churn.

There is nothing you could do with Ghee that couldn't be done better with fresh clarified butter.

My wife who had used nothing but ghee until she came to the states four years ago, has bought three different brands of ghee which were later chucked. All smelled unappetizing.

Now she prefers butter in savory foods as well as sweets.

[Toufas]

would it go in a hollandaise?

[Doodad]

would it go in a hollandaise?

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You betcha. And bernaise. That is what we did this weekend.

[Jenni]

I am surprised that no one else has offered advice here - we have a whole section devoted to India and Indian dishes!  Where is everyone?

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Actually, the Indian section is rather inactive. I think most people go to other, more Indian-orientated sites....that's where I go to talk about Indian cooking.

[pennylane]

I am surprised that no one else has offered advice here - we have a whole section devoted to India and Indian dishes!  Where is everyone?

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Actually, the Indian section is rather inactive. I think most people go to other, more Indian-orientated sites....that's where I go to talk about Indian cooking.

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Yeah, a lot of people on this board are also on anothersubcontinent.com. In fact that's how I found out about this board.

[Jenni]

^^^

Hee hee, that's one of my haunts too!

[v. gautam]

Crinoid girl,

There is a detailed discussion in the Indian cooking forum of what the term "pure desi ghee" means. I believe Gabriel Lewis upthread was one of the postersthere and asked detailed questions. What pure desi ghee does NOT include is clarified butter made from sweet cream butter. We revisited this topic once more recently in Gourmet India.

Chef Crash's wife threw out desi ghee "because she found its flavor unappetizing": a great deal of time, labor, expense and trouble is taken to evoke exactly those flavors! It is like throwing out gorgonzola for smelling "bad" and using process American cheese instead, which is American dairy butter, to an Indian, especially one from the North!!

Pure desi ghee only made from churned yoghurt, cow or buffalo milk. Here, the microorganisms creating the diacetyl flavors and more thrive at high temperatures; they are of the coccus type of bacteria, and for convenience sake, say the temperature around 111F or a tiny bit higher is ideal for them to set the milk.

European-style cultured butter made with psychrophilic organism [loving cool temperatures] also can be melted/baked slowly to produce acceptable ghee. Utah-style Muenster cheese from Cache Valley [NOT Muenster from Europe] can be melted to give very high qulity ghee although extracting the fat from the protein matrix is a bear.

There is a secondary process employed in India using the semi-fermented "skin" or clotted cream, but this does NOT yield the perfect desi ghee in term of flavor range or liquid crystallinity.

A great many brands are sold in the US that are clarified butter and butter oil but call themselves ghee. That is legal but one should NOT confuse those with true PURE DESI GHEE, which also may have picked up hints of smokiness from wood or dried cowdung fires. The pure desi type will last a long time in the open ans the controlled oxidation, note again, controlled oxidation and crown ether formation adds certain notes to it. That is not the case with butter oil or clarified butter made from sweet cream butter.

For ordinary good ghee, deep frying and cooking, canned brands from India like Amul and Vijaya are sufficient. North American brands like Swad, Nanak and Vrindavan are fine for ordinary use as well. If you go to Mumbai, you may taste the truly high quality pure desi ghee at the Parsi Dairy.

To Penny LAne,

Your reason for why onions and garlic are forbidden are not correct and merely perpetuate wrong ideas about the Hindu religion and society. This is not correct. When one does not know something about another religion, better to say, I do not know. You know from personal experience the harm half-truths about Islam has been causing it.So why do the same to Hinduism?

Sanatana Dharma is how Hindus choose to identify their religion and themselves, Hindu being a term given by Persians to those living around the Sindhu River, Hindu in Persian.

Food can suffer from 3 doshas or contaminations/impurities, one of which is JATIDOSHA, "inherent in its nature." Alliums fall in this category. Just as pigs are inherently unclean to Jews and Muslims. No whys about it. Speculations about passions et al. is your privilege.

This food can be sattvic, rAjasik and tAmasik, and various permutations and combinations of these. Some combinations may be unhelpful for certain types of people engaged in certain pursuits. Alliums are so for those engaged in spiritual endeavors.

THroughout the Hindu, Buddhist and jain world alliums are avoided by the orthodox. It has spread to even the Mahayana diet followed in the temples of Vietnam and even certain parts of China: no shallots, leeks, scallions.

Why people do certain things is their business, as in why Jews choose not to eat shellfish or fish without scales. There is no need for explanation.

Indian vegetarianism is complex and founded on suppositions that may be different from what you and I may choose to believe to be sensible. Vegans have their own dynamic.

In India, various vegetarians have their own taboos: some will not eat underground plant parts: potaoes ginger etc.

Others will not eat lentils, lens culinaris, beetroot, carrot, watermelon.

In strict orthodox terms, only cow milk is vegetarian, but buffalo milk is consumed under dispensation. And so on.

As you can see from the example of the USA alone, people are sensitive about food issues.