Many people know shea butter as a purely cosmetic oil; however, it is the essential cooking oil for many parts of West Africa. This post provides all the information you need to know about shea butter in culinary uses. It will explore how shea butter is made, the flavour profiles, and how to incorporate it into your cooking.
Where does shea butter come from?
Shea butter is the oil extracted from the kernel of the shea tree (Vitellaria Paradoxa) fruit. This tree grows across the Sahelian region of Africa, stretching from Senegal to South Sudan. Most are familiar with the western African shea tree — subspecies paradoxa — but there are two major subspecies of the shea tree in Africa. The eastern African subspecies — nilotica — is slightly different in size, with slightly different fruit and oil composition. For this post, we will focus on West Africa.
Shea trees flower and fruit during the rainy season, bearing small, round, and green fruits. When the fruits are ready, they turn soft and fall to the ground (if the children or the bats haven’t already gotten to them). When you bite into the soft fruit, you are instantly met with an almost bread-like texture, with a caramel, custard flavour. If you have had mamey sapote, the flavours and texture are a bit similar (the two fruits belong to the same plant family).
How is shea butter made
- When the fruit is consumed, you are left with a large nut. This nut is either parboiled or roasted then cracked to reveal the oil rich kernel.
- The shea kernels can be dried and stored for up to a year. But when ready to make the oil, the kernels are washed, cracked and then roasted. Making shea butter can be labour intensive and is usually done collectively
- Once the kernels are cracked, they are roasted then milled into a paste
- This paste is mixed with water to separate out the fat, which occurs as the mix it whipped.
- The fat is boiled to better clarify. That is it.
What does shea butter taste like?
Flavour: It has a milder flavour than the fruit, but still has hints of the slightly warm caramel flavour with floral notes
Behaviour: Shea butter contains more stearic acid (saturated fat) than oleic acid, making it solid at room temperature and having a high melting point. This character has been selected over the centuries because it makes shea butter easier to transport and store without spoiling. This is similar to other tropical oils like coconut oil and palm kernel oil.
What are the health benefits of shea butter?
As an unrefined oil (i.e not stripped of its flavour and colour), shea butter has high amounts of vitamin E.
Beyond traditional meals, shea butter was long been sought after as a key ingredient in chocolate production and is still used in margarine blends and plant-based butters. Its diverse uses lend it to a variety of cooking.
Recipes to Try with Shea Butter
Shea butter can be used as a general cooking oil like coconut oil. I have used it to
- fry pancakes or masa
- make cookies
- make a chilli oil
- cook rice and stir fries
I did a whole series on youtube just about cooking with shea butter
Where can I buy shea butter for cooking.
There are many types of shea butter products on the market. I always recommend purchasing unrefined grade A shea butter if you are outside of West Africa. I recommend checking out Skin Gourmet. When I am in Ghana, I purchase shea butter from markets with a large population of northern Ghanaian residents (Nima market in Accra) or I order it from friends in the Upper East.