Just how important is ghee?

[Yellow Fingers]

I'm about to procure some veg ghee as I've never used it before and was wondering if those that have used it feel that it makes a significant difference to any of their curries?

[Blondie]

Hi Yellow Fingers,

I find that vegetable Ghee makes little difference as it is fairly tasteless but Butter Ghee has a very strong flavour and will make a considerable difference.

Hope this helps,

Blondie

[thomashenry]

Vegetable ghee is utterly pointless; it has no particular taste, and just solifies as your curry cools down, making it look horrible. Don't bother with it.

Butter ghee is used in most BIRs melted on nan breads. It is used in dished like 'butter chicken', etc. There seems to be an idea amongst the great unwashed that BIRs use it extensively, but this is nonsense. I've only ever been to one BIR where it had been used for oil (in a madras). It was digusting. I hate ghee, and would not eat BIR food if it was used. Furthermore, I am allergic to cows milk anyway, so I wouldn't be able to eat BIR food if they used ghee.

Just stick to rapseed or sunflower oil.

[pete]

A little while ago I wondered how important ghee was, too.
I experimented with two tubs I bought (veg and butter ghee)
I only use the butter ghee for making special rice and use a few spoons of veg ghee in my curry gravy.
I think you could do without either though.

[Yellow Fingers]

I had used butter ghee a long time ago but didn't find that it was leading me in the direction I wanted to go, i.e. achieving the taste. I thought I would try veg ghee as an alternative but given the feedback perhaps not! I think i'm going to try butter ghee again in Biryani though when I've got a usable recipe.

[thomashenry]

Yeah, if you are making regular dishes like Madras, Bhuna, Jalfrezi etc, then  don't bother with ghee at all.

[Mark J]

I had some success with beg ghee to start frying the main dish with, couldve been just me getting better at making curries though

[DARTHPHALL]

I`ve used Ghee in the past, same result as all of you, there is no particular taste when used in the Curry process at any point  ( stopped using it a long time ago ).

[PACMAN]

totally disagree
vegetable ghee is a must don't bother with butter ghee.
all the restaurants in Gloucestershire use vegetable ghee not oil it has a lot more flavour.
they use khyber veg. ghee melted down .

paul

[Mark J]

Yes I must admit when I started using it to fry the final dish I thought it improved it, mind you I do eat at gloucester curry houses on occaision