Clarified Butter in Australia

If you have been sent looking for clarified butter in Australia, what you will mostly find is ghee, and for most cooking the two are interchangeable. The difference is real but small, and worth understanding before you buy.

The same idea, taken one step further

Both clarified butter and ghee begin by melting butter and removing what is not fat. Butter is around four-fifths fat, with the rest water and milk solids; take those out and you are left with a clear, stable cooking fat that takes more heat than butter. Clarified butter stops there. Ghee keeps going: the butter is held on the heat until the milk solids sink and caramelise, turning the fat golden and giving it the nutty aroma ghee is known for, before the solids are strained away. Both are processed under Australia's dairy rules in Standard 4.2.4 of the Food Standards Code.

Clarified butter and ghee, side by side

Which one to buy

For almost any home or professional use, ghee is the practical choice, because it is what is stocked and it does everything clarified butter does with a little more flavour. The only time you would reach specifically for plain clarified butter is a dish where you want the heat tolerance but the most neutral, least nutty butter taste possible. That is a narrow case.

Cooking with it

Either one takes high heat without burning, which is the whole point of removing the water and solids. Use it where butter would scorch: frying, searing, roasting, and the tempering step that starts a lot of South Asian cooking. Ghee's extra nuttiness is a feature in those dishes, not a drawback.

Why the two names get used interchangeably

Part of the confusion is regional. In much of Europe and North America, clarified butter is the familiar term and ghee is treated as the Indian version of it. Across South Asia, the Middle East and the diaspora kitchens that drive most ghee demand in Australia, ghee is simply the everyday word for the fat, and the longer-cooked, nuttier style is the default. So when an Australian recipe calls for clarified butter, reaching for ghee is almost always right, and when it specifically wants the paler, milder style, that is the narrower request. The products sit on a spectrum of how long the butter was cooked, not in separate categories.

If a recipe is precise about it, follow the recipe. If it just says clarified butter and you have ghee in the cupboard, use the ghee. The dish will be a shade richer and nuttier, which in most cooking is an improvement rather than a problem.

Buying it in Australia

Because ghee is the form that is actually stocked here, the easiest way to buy clarified butter in Australia is to buy ghee. Golden Farm pure butter ghee is sold online with Australia-wide delivery and on the shelf at more than 50 grocers around Sydney, in sizes from a 300g jar to a 10kg pail, so whether you need a little for one recipe or a lot for a kitchen, the form you want is on hand.

Common questions about clarified butter

Is ghee the same as clarified butter?

They start the same way: both are butter with the water and milk solids removed. Ghee goes a step further, simmered long enough for the milk solids to caramelise before they are strained out, which gives it a nuttier flavour and a deeper colour. So all ghee is clarified butter, but not all clarified butter is ghee.

What is the difference between ghee and clarified butter?

Time and temperature. Clarified butter is pulled off the heat as soon as the solids separate, keeping a mild, buttery taste. Ghee is cooked longer so the solids brown and caramelise, which is where its characteristic nutty aroma and golden colour come from.

Can I use ghee instead of clarified butter?

Yes, and most Australian cooks do, because ghee is what is stocked. It behaves the same way in high-heat cooking and brings a little more flavour. If a recipe wants the most neutral possible butter taste, plain clarified butter is closer, but ghee is the more available and more versatile option.

Where can I buy clarified butter in Australia?

Clarified butter is usually sold as ghee here. Golden Farm pure butter ghee is available online with Australia-wide delivery and on the shelf at more than 50 grocers around Sydney, in sizes from a 300g jar to a 10kg pail.