On 21 Jun 2015 13:52:12 GMT, notbob > wrote:

>I've tried, and mostly succeeded, in making clarified butter. I used
>the old skim method. This takes about 1 lb or butter to yield approx
>3/4 lb of CB and takes for-freakin'-ever to do, properly.

Butter is at least 10% so you have that loss for certain.

>I see Alton Brown using cheese cloth to accomplish this task. Anyone
>here tried it? Does the CC somehow absorb the milk solids or is it
>jes a whole buncha CC layers filtering out the mild solids?

If you use cheese cloth you will lose a lot more as the butter will be
absorbed. I've made clarified butter and didn't find it takes very
long, don't even need to evaporate all the water, it will settle to
the bottom along with the solids, then just pour off the butter. Ghee
takes longer as you want to evaporate all the water and keep it
cooking long enough to develop a nutty flavor but on low heat so it
doesn't burn. Don't use salted butter or the water evaporating will
concentrate the salt.