"No joke. It does need to simmer for 40-50 minutes, until the solids become a deep tan color and the smell changes to nutty. Otherwise all you make is clarified butter. Which is good, but it's not ghee.

I have been making ghee with both salted and unsalted butter. Actually the salted butter works better. All of the salt ends up in the residue on the bottom, none in the ghee. The residue becomes incredibly salty. And it usually curdles on the bottom in one big lump so you can even get away with not straining at all. The unsalted butter generally results in a fine sediment that needs to be strained out.