Ghee (clarified butter) makes a wonderful substitution for butter.  I have
used it for years.  My 9 yr. old son is allergic to dairy.  It is not so
bad now but as a baby he would throw up with any dairy and get hives on his
entire body.  He has always gotten hives if you put butter or milk directly
on his skin.  He has never had any reaction at all to ghee.  I have posted
this many times on this list over the years.

Ghee is often made by taking butter, bringing it to a rolling boil where it
makes froth on the top and then skimming off the froth until what you have
left is clear. If you have a child that is allergic to dairy, I wouldn't
use this method.

I have always made my own ghee from a chemist's recipe and am very careful
to boil it until 245 degrees until all the water is boiled off and then all
the milk solids are coagulated. I do not "skim off the froth." I
FILTER it through a cloth.

Here is what the chemist found through research of food scientists to be
the chemical composition of ghee.

Triglycerides 98%
Steroids        0.5%
Fatty Acids     0.4%
Water   0.3%
Others  0.8%

Others includes: phospholipids, fat soluble vitamins A&E, carotenes (only
in cows ghee), volatile & non-volatile ketones and aldehydes, and traces
of charred casein, calcium, phosphorus, etc.

So there is charred casein in well filtered ghee.

Also, our son is sensitive to casein. When he was 2 we gave him some
powdered soy drink called Better Than Milk (made in the US by Sovex) which
said non-dairy, lactose free. We tried a small amount on him and no
reaction. The next day gave him more and his face blew up. It had sodium
caseinate in it and I didn't realize the caseinate connection to dairy.

The Food Allergy Network lists ghee as dairy because there is milk protein
in ghee.  Maybe if you are anaphylactic it could have an effect, but my
very allergic son has never had a problem.

Rachele Shaw

Rachele Shaw