Food Ideas, Getting Started, Keto Diet

Butter vs Ghee – What is the difference?

Ghee

Butter vs Ghee 

There is no doubt that butter has an amazing flavour when cooking or melted over those fresh delicious vegetables. But when it comes to cooking, what is the better option. Butter or Ghee? Let’s take a look.

 

What is the difference between Butter & Ghee?

Firstly, what is ghee? Ghee is a form of clarified butter. It’s butter heated to just the right temperature for long enough until the milk solids and water have separated from the fat, leaving an almost pure fat. Although some very small traces of lactose and casein can be found in ghee, it is classified as dairy free which is very helpful if you are sensitive to lactose or lactose intolerant. Due to this simple clarification process, ghee contains up to 99.9g per 100g of fat whereas butter contains 81.3g per 100g. If you’re keto, ghee could be a great alternative to butter in your Bullet Proof Coffee if you are looking for every opportunity to keep your healthy fat consumption high. So to sum it up, Ghee is a purified milk fat.

 

Nutritional Fact Check 

What are the pros and cons?

Well, in my opinion, that buttery creamy flavour of grass-fed butter is pretty hard to beat when melted over steamed broccoli or cauliflower, and it even has the potential to make the good old brussel sprout tasty! But what about when it comes to frying up your eggs and bacon or sautéing up some onions or mushrooms?

Have you heard of smoke point?  The smoke point is the temperature that a fat or oil starts to burn, producing a potentially harmful smoke which causes the fat to oxidize and form harmful free radicals. In other words, heating butter beyond it’s smoke point can turn this healthy natural fat into an oxidized pro-inflammatory fat. Have you ever noticed when you have heated up a pan in preparation to throw on a t-bone steak, and when you have smeared on a dollop of butter, it has sizzled producing a blue grey smoke until the delicious creamy butter finally turns brown? This is butter beyond the smoke point. The smoke point temperature of butter is 177°C whereas ghee has a smoke point of up to 250°C. Ghee has a very stable fatty acid profile making it one of the better fats to cook with at high temperatures.

 

My Summary

Ghee has a longer shelf life than butter and because of it’s pure fat content. It can be kept at room temperature for longer periods of time without going rancid.

Ghee is safer and more stable when used for cooking or frying at high temperatures, making this a healthier fat.

Ghee contains a higher amount of energy per gram than butter which is great news if you are keto and looking for extra healthy fats. (Read more on healthy fats, here).

As a conclusion, I would rather use Ghee when it comes to cooking but I do love the creamy taste of butter when heat is not a concern.

For my product recommendation on ghee, I would say this one here, is one of the best on the market. 

 

This blog was written by Health and Nutrition Coach Mathew Tonks.

 

 

Information Sources:

FSANZ

 

Thanks for reading!