Make Your Own Grass-Fed Ghee

Condolences, Paris

On a sombre note to begin with I just want to give a shout out to everyone affected by the recent Parisian attacks, my heart aches for you all. I don't generally follow the news, but it's hard to be on the internet without seeing something related to it. It's terrible and frighteningly close to home. Politics holds no interest for me, but I wish so much that this conflict could be resolved. There's no good outcome from a war. Period. Who even knows what they're still fighting over? I've never understood it and probably never will. I'll stick to trying to help people instead, thanks.

Back On Home Ground

I am now firmly back on the Auto Immune Protocol/Paleo diet (AIP) as I've been feeling a bit more rubbish every day with all the new introductions I've made over the past few months (and some for the last year, yikes!), such as raw dairy kefir, red wine, coffee, salad  (chocolate comes from a plant but is not salad...chocolate comes from a plant but is not salad...), a trial run of buckwheat, vitamin E capsules I have since discovered are derived from corn, and more potato crisps than I care to admit... All of which; along with the stress of buying/selling house, impending Christmas, homeschooling, website development, less than optimal sleep and general life-sustaining duties; have clearly made a large impact on my health in that amazingly insidious fashion it does. One day you're okay enough to get through the day, the next you're unable to get out of bed... Sorry thyroid, I'll do better from now on, honestly.

So for the last two weeks I've been very strictly following the AIP and not touching even traces of the offending foods known to exacerbate autoimmunity through its interaction with the gut lining and hence the immune system. I am feeling much better already and I'm now really grateful that I never totally went off the diet, but just slipped a little over the last year or two. Don't get me wrong, that little-but-often slippage is more that enough for someone with autoimmune disease to degrade their health substantially; I certainly don't advocate it and I've learned the hard way that "occasionally" should be just that - special occasions like birthdays and Christmas - not once a week. Learn from my mistakes: don't heal your body enough to feel better and then jump off the wagon. Stay on the wagon, heal properly and completely, then once you've reintroduced the core foods you can start enjoying the occasional forbidden foods. Autoimmunity never goes away, but you can control it and stay symptom free if you can accept in your heart and soul that it's better to be without certain foods than to live in pain and discomfort.

I think I recommend this book, "The Paleo Approach" by Dr. Sarah Ballantyne in every one of my posts (to the point I decided to add an Amazon link with it in the sidebar for you!), but honestly it really is the only thing that has helped me and is what I turn back to every time I have any problems or I'm unsure of a particular food. I also bought the paperback copy despite having it on kindle as it is such a tome of information with such awesome diagrams to explain things that the kindle edition just doesn't do it justice. If you can afford the physical version right out of the gate, I highly recommend it.

I Can't Be Without You, Butter...

As all forms of dairy - even raw, grass-fed fermented forms and butter - are off the list for at least the first three months I decided it was time to learn to make ghee. I would go back to just coconut oil as my main fat source but honestly, butterfat is just too good to pass up, not only the taste but also for its nutritional value and hormone balancing properties (which I know my body needs especially at the moment). I have no desire (or time) to reinvent the wheel - and why should I when someone else has done such a fantastic job and deserves the recognition? - so here's a post by Lauren Geertsen of +Empowered Sustenance on why grass-fed butter and ghee are superfoods.

To give you a hint, the butterfat that comprises ghee, or clarified butter, is so full of vitamins and minerals that it's surpassed by only a handful of foods such as liver. It's also the most valuable source of vitamin K2, something Dr. Weston A. Price called "activator X" as it's necessary for the utilisation of vitamin D which keeps teeth and bones healthy. But here's the catch, only grass-fed butter contains this important vitamin, so it really is vital to get the very best butter you can. Ghee is fantastic for even really high heat cooking as it's very stable. Melt a dollop with your veggies before serving... Heaven...

So without further ado, here's how to make the most simple and cost effective (to my knowledge!) grass-fed clarified butter or ghee. If your butter costs you £1.60, assuming you don't need to buy any of the items you'll need to make this the total cost is only £3.20 and about half an hour of your precious time.

Make Your Own Ghee

You will need:
2 blocks of Kerrygold butter - I only recommend Kerrygold as it's the only butter I know of that is totally grass-fed.
Small pot
Large spoon / slotted spoon
Coffee filter / fine mesh strainer / kitchen towel / muslin cloth for straining
Jug
Glass jar with lid for storage

Here we go!

1. Melt the butter over a gentle heat in the small pot. Do not stir the butter at any point, you want the milk proteins and sugars to slowly separate from the butterfat and rise to the top.

2. Let it slowly start to simmer over the low heat; you will start to see the milk floating to the top.

3. After about 20 minutes most of the milk should have separated from the fat. Be careful though, this stuff bubbles volcanically!

4. Skim off the milk once it's cooled for a few minutes.

5. Strain the fat through one of the straining mediums you've chosen. I initially used a coffee filter but after about 30 minutes of waiting for it to strain I was worried it would cool down and solidify too much to pass through. I ended up using the actual basket for the coffee machine with much more success!

Voilà! Your very own grass-fed ghee with very little effort and cost. Just pour it into a clean glass jar with a lid and store it in the fridge for several months. Like it'll last that long... Mine lasted the sum total of 1 week and never even made it to the fridge. ;-)