Clarified butter substitutes
Clarified butter substitutes — 6 options, ranked, with the exact amount
Use Ghee
Same amount as the clarified butter
Ghee is the same thing and swaps 1:1, just cooked a little longer so it tastes nuttier. If you have neither, use a neutral oil for high-heat cooking, or half butter and half oil if you want some butter flavour and better browning. For drawn butter, the melted butter you dip lobster, crab or artichokes in, simply melt butter and spoon the white foam off the top. Honestly though, making clarified butter takes ten minutes and one stick of butter, and that is usually the right answer.
- Verdict —
- Works
- Best for —
- searing
Updated 19 Aug 2026 · no sponsored swaps
Every option, one card
Ranked| # | Substitute | Instead of clarified butter | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gheesearing | Same amountWorks | Works |
| 2 | Homemade clarified buttereverything clarified butter is used for | 1 stick (4 oz) of butter yields about 6 tbsp clarifiedWorks | Works |
| 3 | Butter and neutral oil, half and halfsearing steak | Same amountFor the total fatWorks | Works |
| 4 | Neutral oil (grapeseed, canola, refined sunflower)high-heat searing | Same amountTweak it | Tweak it |
| 5 | Duck fatroast potatoes | Same amountTweak it | Tweak it |
| 6 | Melted butter with the foam skimmed off, for drawn butter onlylobster | Same amountWorks | Works |
Ghee
similar taste and texture
Clarified butter taken one step further: the milk solids are browned before straining, which is why it is amber and nutty.
- Best for
- searing, sauteing, frying, roasting, flatbread, curries
Interchangeable in almost every recipe. Ghee is nuttier and more caramel-toned, which in a sear or on flatbread is a small flavour gain. Where it shows is in a pale, delicate French sauce or a beurre blanc, because the toasted note is not neutral. It keeps at room temperature and has the same high smoke point.
Homemade clarified butter
similar taste and texture
Melt unsalted butter over the lowest heat without stirring, skim off the white foam, then pour off the clear golden fat and leave the milky sediment behind.
- Best for
- everything clarified butter is used for
Identical to what you would buy, takes about ten minutes, and costs the price of butter. Use unsalted, because salt concentrates into the smaller volume of fat left behind and you lose all control of seasoning. Keeps for months in a sealed jar.
Butter and neutral oil, half and half
similar taste and texture
Add butter and oil to the pan together. The oil buffers the milk solids so they brown instead of scorching.
- Best for
- searing steak, pan-frying fish and chicken, sauteing, browning mushrooms
Gives you real butter flavour with much better heat tolerance than butter alone, and the browning is arguably better than with clarified butter because the milk solids are still there to brown. The pan will speckle, and at very high heat those speckles turn bitter, so it is not a substitute for a hard sear.
Neutral oil (grapeseed, canola, refined sunflower)
different taste, similar texture
Straight swap for the fat, with no butter flavour at all.
- Best for
- high-heat searing, deep frying, hash browns, stir-frying, shallow frying
Handles the heat well and browns food beautifully, which is really all clarified butter was doing in a hot pan. What it contributes is nothing, flavour-wise, so if the butter taste mattered add a knob of cold butter at the very end with the heat off. This is the most reliable swap for anything above a medium-high heat.
Duck fat
different taste, similar texture
Rendered duck fat, sold in tubs and jars, with a smoke point well above whole butter.
- Best for
- roast potatoes, searing meat, confit, sauteing greens, frying eggs
Savoury and rich where butter is sweet and creamy, and outstanding for potatoes and browning meat. Completely wrong for anything sweet, and wrong for drawn butter with seafood, where the point is clean dairy richness. Also worth knowing: olive oil works fine here too, with its own peppery flavour.
Melted butter with the foam skimmed off, for drawn butter only
similar taste and texture
For a dipping bowl at the table rather than for cooking: melt butter gently and spoon the foam off the surface.
- Best for
- lobster, crab, steamed artichokes, corn on the cob, steamed clams
Not fully clarified, so it will separate into a watery layer as it sits and it cannot take heat. For the first ten minutes in a warm bowl on the table it is indistinguishable from properly clarified butter. Keep it warm rather than hot, and stir it once before serving if it has stood.
Questions
5 questionsIs ghee the same as clarified butter?
Nearly. Ghee is clarified butter cooked further so that the milk solids toast before straining, which gives it a nutty, slightly caramel flavour and a deeper colour. They are interchangeable 1:1 in almost every recipe, and ghee is the single best substitute for clarified butter.
Can I just use regular butter instead?
For low and medium heat, yes, 1:1, and it will simply brown faster than clarified butter would. For a high-heat sear, no: the milk solids blacken and turn bitter well before the pan is hot enough, and the food will taste burnt rather than browned.
Can I leave the clarified butter out?
Only if something else greases the pan, so in practice no. Fat is doing real work here, conducting heat and preventing sticking. Use a neutral oil at the same quantity and, if the butter flavour mattered, add a knob of cold butter off the heat at the end.
How much clarified butter does a stick of butter make?
About three-quarters of the volume you started with, so roughly 6 tablespoons of clarified butter from 8 tablespoons of butter. The rest is water that evaporates and milk solids you discard. Budget accordingly if a recipe specifies a cup of clarified butter.
What is the smoke point of clarified butter compared with butter?
Clarified butter and ghee sit somewhere around 450F, while whole butter starts smoking closer to 300F. That gap is entirely down to the milk solids, and it is the reason clarified butter exists as an ingredient at all.
Tips for substituting clarified butter
5 tips- The whole point of clarifying is removing water and milk proteins. Those milk solids are what burn at around 300F; the same butterfat with them removed is happy up to roughly 450F, which is why clarified butter can sear and plain butter smokes.
- To make it: melt a stick of unsalted butter over the lowest heat, do not stir, skim the foam off the top, then pour the clear golden layer into a jar and stop before the milky bottom layer. You get about 6 tablespoons from 8.
- Clarified butter keeps for months in a sealed jar, because there is no water or milk protein left for bacteria to work on. It does not strictly need the fridge, though refrigerating extends it further.
- Clarified butter and ghee are the same technique with different endpoints. Ghee is cooked until the milk solids toast, so it tastes of hazelnut. Use ghee where you want that, and clarified butter where you want clean neutral butter flavour, such as a beurre blanc or a pale sauce.
- Never clarify salted butter for cooking. You are concentrating the butter into about three-quarters of its original volume, and the salt comes along, so the finished fat is unpredictably salty and hard to season around.