I tried eleven different varieties of Indian and American ghee brands and analyzed price, availability, production quality, and overall taste to give you recommendations for the best ghee to buy.
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This blog post examines ghee varieties both from Indian and American brands and recommends different varieties based on needs. If you don't want to read all the nitty gritty details of how this experiment process was conducted, simply jump down to my final recommendations section.
What is it?
Ghee is a type of clarified butter where the milk solids are filtered out from the butter, leaving just the fat behind. Ghee is a fat extensively used in Indian cooking; it is great for high heat cooking, is lactose-free, and has a rich buttery taste. If you are looking for more in-depth knowledge about ghee, read this blog post that dives deeper into ghee.
Brands of ghee chosen
For this experiment, all of the ghee varieties chosen are unsalted ghee varieties made from cow dairy products. However, I chose a variety of ghees based on country of origin (Indian brands available in America vs. North American brands) and further classified North American brands into chain grocery store brands vs. specialty brands. Here is the breakdown of brands:
Brand Name | Brand Origin |
Deep | Indian Brand |
Laxmi | Indian Brand |
Amul | Indian Brand |
Simple Truth Organic (Kroger Brand) | North American Chain |
365 (Whole Foods Brand) | North American Chain |
O Organics (Albertsons) | North American Chain |
Organic Valley | North American |
Ancient Organics | North American |
4th & Heart | North American |
Nanak (Desi Ghee) | North American - South Asian Owned |
Pure Indian Foods (Cultured Ghee) | North American - South Asian Owned |
Criteria for rating ghee
All of these eleven brands of ghee were analyzed using these categories:
- Availability - Where one can find/buy the brand (how easy is it for folks to get).
- Production Quality - This helps categorize the ghee based on how it was produced (for example, grass fed cows, organic, pasture raised, cultured, etc.).
- Price - How much does the ghee cost.
- Visual - How the ghee looks. This category doesn't care about the branding/packaging.
- Taste - How the ghee actually tastes.
Availability of different brands
The availability chart gives you a look at where these different brands of ghee can be found in the United States. The data for this was collected by looking at the websites of these brands and research online.
Overall, every brand was given points based on its availability in different physical stores and online, with the points given out as follows:
- 0 - 1 point for availability in Indian stores
- 0 - 3 points for availability in American stores
- 0 - 1 points for sold by an online retailer
American grocery stores have the biggest range from 0-3 because there are MANY more American grocery stores than Indian stores in the United States so I wanted to give a broader range for brands that may be in multiple types of American stores/chains.
The overall insights from the research are:
- Brands sold in Indian grocery stores tend to also be sold online on Amazon, which make them more available that I once thought.
- 4th & Heart Brand is the most available brand, with its ghee available in major chain American stores and online.
Production practices of ghee brands
This category is to compare the way the ghees are produced. It looks at the type of cows that produced the milk that resulted in the ghee and covers any standout facts related to each company that produces the ghee.
Overall, the takeaway, which we will see support for later via the other charts, is that when there are higher quality products with a higher production quality, the price of the good and the taste generally increases.
Price comparison of brands
The price comparison chart below covers both the price of the smallest quantity I was able to buy of each of these brands and the price per ounce of each ghee. Note that these are prices from March 2024 in Seattle, Washington, USA. If you are looking for a price comparison on homemade ghee vs. store-bought ghee, you can check it out right here. The gist of it is that you can make high quality ghee at home cheaper than buying it at the store. Overall, here are the takeaways for the store-bought varieties:
- Amul is the cheapest ghee per ounce ($.53/ounce) but you need to buy a lot (1L) which ends up costing 17.99!
- Deep sells the cheapest unit of ghee sitting at $7.99; however, the price per ounce is costly sitting at $1.00/ounce.
- Simple Truth Organic (Kroger) and Nanak Desi Ghee sell a reasonable amount of ghee at a reasonable price aka (14oz) for 10.99 which sit at $.79/ounce.
- The most expensive ghee brands are 4th & Heart, Ancient Organics, and Pure Indian Foods all having a high price per ounce.
Visual, smell, and taste test of ghee
The following qualitative criteria are entirely subjective. However, here is what I did when coming up with my observations:
- Visual: Took a look at the ghee when in bottle, mixed, and when left out at room temperature. However, some may be more "creamy in texture" due to how it was processed or whipped.
- Smell: Smelled each jar at room temperature.
- Taste: Took ¼ teaspoon of each ghee brand and melted them so they were the same texture to taste.
I also include a quantitative measure of months until expiration that was listed on the bottle. I thought this was important to note because the it gives an rough estimate of how fresh the ghee bottle is and a rough guide to see how long the ghee brand was sitting on shelves. I think a better number here would have been the date that it was packaged but most brands did not have that information listed.
Overall, the takeaways on taste/smell were:
- Cultured butter is amazing in taste! I only had one cultured butter in the lineup, which was from Pure Indian Foods brand, and it had the most complex and deliciously nutty flavor.
- The texture of the ghee at room temperature when you purchase it does not have a bearing on taste. This is because ghee can come in all sorts of textures as the fats can solidify and melt and reform due to how the ghee was transported. If you want to transform your grainy ghee into a uniform and creamy texture, it is best to melt it completely and let it cool evenly at room temperature.
- The expiration date of the ghee is helpful to guide if a ghee may be rancid. I do wish that ghee companies would put the packaging date that expiration date because I think this would be a better indicator of freshness. This information is also important because Amul butter for example may taste better in India compared to when it is shipped overseas and sits on shelves for a long time.
Overall Recommendations
With all of the data from above, here are my recommendations for which ghee to buy.
- Best Tasting Overall Ghee: Pure Indian Foods (Cultured Ghee)
- Best Tasting Ghee on a Budget: Nanak Ghee
- Best Easily Obtainable Ghee: 4th & Heart, Runner up: Nanak
- Best Tasting Indian Brand: Deep
Pure Indian Foods Cultured Ghee
Buy Now →4th & Heart Original Grass-Fed Ghee
Buy Now →Summary Chart of Ghee Varieties
One caveat in my testing is that I didn't test any ghee made with buffalo milk, which is higher in fat and is said to be very tasty compared to cow milk ghee. Unfortunately, buffalo milk ghee isn't as available in the United States where I live, but if you do get the chance, try that variety for yourself.
Overall tips for buying ghee
Here are high level tips for buying ghee at the grocery store:
- Look at the best by date on the ghee. Ghee has a really long shelf life but sometimes ghee has also been sitting on the grocery store shelves for a long time! Check the best by date to make sure you aren't getting ghee that is super old and rancid like some of the brands I tested out.
- Look at the back of the label to verify the ingredient list is short! Ideally the back of the bottle should only say butter OR clarified butter OR milk. You don't want or need anything else.
- Buy unsalted ghee to use for sweet/savory applications. I tend to buy unsalted ghee for its versatility and for controlling how much salt I want in my ghee! However, if you know you are going to use ghee primarily for savory applications, you can opt for salted ghee.
- Buy ghee that is made with grass-fed cows. Cows that are fed grass create ghee/butter that are richer in taste. Some brands will also have pasture-raised, but that tells you more where they are than what they eat. To see if they have eaten grass, it is important to check the individual brand's website. Typically, most ghee manufactures are grass-fed but not 100% grass-fed.
- A cow milk ghee that is yellower has a richer taste. If the ghee is made with cow milk (i.e. not buffalo milk/goat milk), a good indicator that the cow ate a lot of grass is that the ghee is more yellow.
- Grainy ghee in its solid form is high quality. You may encounter a jar of ghee where ghee is both in its solid form but also liquid form. When looking for high quality ghee, look for a jar where the solid parts of the ghee are grainy in texture. The grainy texture shows that the ghee has been made by evaporating all of the water out, so it isn't creamy, and that it hasn't been whipped with air to get that smooth consistency, so you get more bang for your buck!
Recipes that use ghee
Once you have bought your ghee, you probably want to use it in various recipes! Here are some of my favorites that allow the delicious and high-cooking-temperature qualities of ghee to shine!
Related articles about ghee
I hope you enjoyed this article about the best ghee brands to buy. Please leave a comment below letting me know what you thought of this article and if it was helpful to you! I always love hearing your questions and your comments 🙂
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