[Sca-cooks] Clarified butter

[Galefridus Peregrinus]

So I'm initiating a new experiment: I'm trying to make smen, or aged clarified butter -- a Moroccan/Berber cooking fat and condiment. It's basically ghee made from goats milk butter, but it's supposed to be aged for a while before using.

In any case, I obtained some unsalted goats milk butter, melted it, let it simmer gently until all the water had evaporated and the solids had browned slightly. Then I filtered it into a jar with a bit of salt in it to absorb any remaining water, let it sit for a day or two, and filtered it a second time. The end product is very pale, not at all yellow like the cow ghee available at the local South Asian grocery. The jar is now sitting in a cool, dark area of my basement, where I will let it age for a while. Traditionally, Berber families bury a jar of smen on the birth of a daughter and dig it up on her wedding day. I don't plan on waiting that long, but I'll give it at least a year before I use it. I'll let the list know what I find when I retrieve the stuff from its hiding place.

-- Galefridus