Re: [CH] speaking of cauliflower

Brent Thompson (brent@hplbct.hpl.hp.com)
Fri, 05 Mar 1999 17:19:23 -0800

> You have ghii  as  an ingredient and offer butter as a substitute.

Per the book, not my own idea.  I personally would only use ghii (or
another cooking oil) as Indians do, not use butter.

> My understanding is that Ghee (the spelling I've seen) is only the milk
> solids and have a much higher burn temperature.

Yes (almost).  Ghii (or spell it ghee, if you wish, after all, the real
name isn't written using our alphabet) is clarified butter, i.e. 100%
butterfat (therefore 0% milk solids).  It has a much higher burn
temperature than butter.

> I'm not sure you can get butter hot enough for most of its uses in
> Eastern cooking with out burning it - which gives a very bitter flavor.

We're only talking about simple ordinary frying here, not some major high
temperature operations like for instance Chinese tend to do with their
woks.  So, I imagine there isn't much risk of burning from using butter
instead of ghii.  But, since I just use ghii I really haven't ever had to
worry about this problem.  I don't really know whether this situation would
end up being significantly different or not from frying onions and spices
in butter like the French often do.

 ---  Brent