Bilona ghee is churned from curd that has set overnight; cream ghee is boiled straight from cream spun out of milk. The curd stage is the difference: it gives bilona ghee a stronger, nuttier aroma and takes about 30 litres of cow milk per litre of ghee, against 20 to 23 for cream ghee. Both are real ghee under the same FSSAI standard; what changes is aroma, grain, yield and cost.
Bilona describes a method, not a flavour. This article walks through both routes, then looks at what the National Dairy Development Board's comparison and a 2025 study measured when they set the methods side by side.
At a glance
- Bilona (curd-churned) ghee: whole milk is cultured into curd overnight, churned to butter, and the butter is clarified. Cream ghee: cream is separated from milk by centrifuge and boiled down in a ghee boiler, which NDDB calls the direct cream method.
- Milk needed: about 30 litres of cow milk per litre of bilona ghee, against 20 to 23 litres for cream-separated ghee. NDDB's two summaries put fat recovery in the indigenous method between 80 and 90 per cent, and in the direct cream method between 90 and 95 per cent.
- Aroma: a 2025 study in Food Chemistry: X found higher levels of volatile acids, alcohols, ketones and lactones in curd-butter ghee than in ghee from unfermented cream, and no difference in fatty acid composition between the processes.
- Composition: FSSAI requires at least 99.5 per cent milk fat and at most 0.5 per cent moisture in ghee, whichever way it was made.
- Grain: NDDB's comparison lists a packed, coarse grain for the indigenous method and a mostly liquid ghee with slight granulation for the direct cream method, so the grain is a clue to the method as well as to how the ghee was cooled.
How is bilona ghee made?
In four stages: whole milk is boiled and cooled, cultured into curd overnight, churned on a wooden bilona until butter separates, and the butter is heated until the water is gone and the curd particles settle. NDDB describes this as the desi or indigenous method, and the curd stage, a fermentation, is where the aroma begins.
- Boil and cool. Whole milk is boiled, then cooled. NPTEL's dairy course advises cooling the milk to room temperature before the starter goes in.
- Set the curd. A spoon of the previous day's curd, or a starter culture, goes in and the milk stands overnight. In the 2025 study the cultured milk was held at about 30 °C for 22 hours until the curd had set.
- Churn. The curd is churned on a bilona, a wooden beater spun back and forth with a cord, until grains of butter gather. NDDB describes hand-driven wooden beaters separating the fat as desi butter; the thin liquid left behind is buttermilk.
- Clarify. The butter is heated until the water boils off and the curd particles settle. NDDB's flow chart gives 110 to 115 °C for the boil, and the clear fat decanted off the top is ghee.
How is cream ghee made?
Cream ghee skips the curd. Milk is warmed, run through a centrifugal separator, and the cream, at 60 to 70 per cent fat in NDDB's flow chart, goes straight to a ghee boiler at about 114 °C until its water has gone and its solids have settled. There is no overnight culturing and no churning.
A related industrial route, the creamery butter method, churns the separated cream into unsalted white butter first and clarifies that in a steam-jacketed kettle. NDDB and NPTEL list both alongside the pre-stratification and continuous methods of large plants. What all of them share is the missing fermentation. Nothing about the shortcut is improper: FSSAI describes ghee as fat derived from milk or milk products by processes that remove almost all of the water and milk solids-not-fat, and sets limits on the finished fat, not on the route.
Why does bilona ghee need about 30 litres of milk per litre?
Because churning curd leaves part of the fat behind, while a cream separator recovers nearly all of it. NDDB puts fat recovery at 80 to 90 per cent for the indigenous method and 90 to 95 per cent for direct cream, so a litre of ghee needs about 30 litres of cow milk by the curd route and 20 to 23 by the cream route.
That is roughly a third more milk for the same jar, and the gap is the first reason bilona ghee costs more to make. FSSAI's minimum for cow milk is 3.2 per cent fat, and ghee must be at least 99.5 per cent fat, which is why the ratio runs into the tens whichever route you take. NPTEL names the buttermilk as where the desi method loses fat and suggests churning cold butter in summer to cut the loss. NDDB adds that the yield also follows the fat content of the raw material: richer milk gives more ghee per litre. We go through the arithmetic in why bilona ghee needs about 30 litres of milk.
What is the difference in aroma, taste and grain?
NDDB's comparison table calls the indigenous method's aroma strong and nutty and its flavour acid; direct cream ghee is mild and milky with a cooked flavour. For texture it lists a packed, coarse grain for the indigenous method and a mostly liquid ghee with slight granulation for direct cream. Both differences follow the method.
The aroma difference has been measured. A 2025 study in Food Chemistry: X made ghee three ways from the milk of Deoni and Holstein Friesian cows: curd-butter, where the milk was cultured for 22 hours and the curd churned; cream-butter, where separator cream was churned without any culture; and fermented cream-butter, where the cream was cultured first. Headspace gas chromatography found higher levels of acids, alcohols, lactones, ketones, heat-degradation products, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and maltol in both fermented routes, in both breeds. The authors conclude that the fermentation step and the breed both significantly affect the flavour molecules in ghee.
One detail is not settled. NDDB's bulletin, summarising older work, reports the lactone level highest in direct cream ghee and lowest in desi ghee, the reverse of the 2025 finding. The overall pattern, a stronger and more acid aroma in curd-method ghee, is consistent across both sources; which compounds carry it is still being worked out.
Texture is partly a matter of handling as well as method. NPTEL's course notes that when molten ghee cools, large coarse grains form in clusters, that the rate of cooling affects how the crystals nucleate, and that the grain comes from higher-melting saturated glycerides such as palmitic and stearic, so buffalo ghee grains more than cow ghee. The grain is therefore a clue to both the method and the cooling, not proof of either, as what makes ghee danedar explains.
Is the fat itself any different?
Barely. The 2025 study identified 26 fatty acids by gas chromatography and found no difference in fatty acid composition due to processing. The differences it did find were by breed: Holstein Friesian ghee carried more polyunsaturated fatty acids and alpha-linolenic acid than Deoni ghee, whichever process was used.
A 2019 fluorescence spectroscopy study from Pakistan looked at desi ghee made by direct cream, milk butter and milk skin, from both cow and buffalo milk. All the samples showed spectral signatures of vitamins A, D, E and K and of conjugated linoleic acid; the methods differed only in which of these each retained relatively more of, and the pattern differed between cow and buffalo ghee. The lesson from both studies: what changes the fat is the animal, not the kitchen method.
Why does bilona ghee cost more?
Three things: about a third more milk per jar, the labour of setting curd and churning by hand, and time. NDDB lists the indigenous method as small-scale and the direct cream and creamery butter methods as large-scale, and NPTEL says organised dairies do not adopt the desi method because its fat recovery is low and it does not suit large-scale production.
None of the extra cost comes from cream ghee being a worse fat; it comes from the method being slower and hungrier for milk. A bilona batch runs from one day into the next because the curd has to set: NPTEL gives 16 to 18 hours in winter and 8 to 10 in summer, while a cream plant runs continuously. At Himdhara the milk comes from free-grazing Badri cattle in the Uttarakhand hills and is bought above the local cooperative rate, a cost of our own choosing and not of the method.
Is cream ghee safe, and which one should you buy?
Cream ghee is safe and is real ghee. Both routes end at the same place, a fat that is at least 99.5 per cent milk fat with at most 0.5 per cent water, which is why FSSAI's standard treats them alike. Choose by what you will do with it: cream ghee for a neutral cooking fat, bilona ghee where you will taste it.
Claims that cream ghee is harmful because it was never fermented have no support in the standard, and NDDB lists direct cream as a standard industrial route. For frying and everyday cooking, a good cream ghee does the job. For a spoon over dal, rice or a hot roti, where the ghee is tasted directly, bilona ghee is where the difference shows. Many households keep both. Store either closed, dry and away from heat; ghee storage and shelf life covers how long a jar keeps once opened.
Whichever you buy, the useful questions are the same: which milk, which method, how many litres per litre, and whether there is a lab report for the batch in your hand. Ours are on the lab reports page, and the ghee itself is on the A2 bilona ghee page.
How do the two compare side by side?
The two differ in aroma, grain, yield and cost and match on composition.
| Feature | Bilona ghee (curd-churned) | Cream ghee (direct cream) |
|---|---|---|
| Starting material | Whole milk cultured into curd | Cream separated from milk by centrifuge |
| Fermentation | Yes, overnight | None |
| Churning | Wooden bilona, back and forth | None (direct cream) or a butter churn (creamery butter) |
| Fat recovery (NDDB) | 80 to 90 per cent | 90 to 95 per cent |
| Milk per litre of ghee | About 30 litres | 20 to 23 litres (cow milk) |
| Aroma and flavour (NDDB) | Strong, nutty; acid | Mild, milky; cooked |
| Fatty acid composition | No difference by process in the 2025 study; differs by breed | |
| Milk fat and moisture | Same FSSAI standard: at least 99.5 per cent fat, at most 0.5 per cent moisture | |
| Texture (NDDB) | Packed, coarse grain | Mostly liquid, slight granulation |
| Scale (NDDB) | Small scale | Large scale |
The short version
Bilona ghee and cream ghee differ in how they start, not in what they are. Bilona ghee is churned from fermented curd, which gives it a stronger, nuttier aroma and costs about 30 litres of cow milk per litre; cream ghee is boiled from separated cream, needs 20 to 23 litres and tastes milder. The fat is the same, and FSSAI holds both to the same standard. Pay the premium where you will taste it, and buy on the milk, the method and the batch report rather than the word on the label.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- Kataria, D. and Singh, G. (2025). Effect of processing methods on fatty acid composition and flavour profile of clarified butter (ghee) obtained from Deoni and Holstein Friesian cow breeds. Food Chemistry: X.
- Ahmad, N., Saleem, M., Atta, B. M. and Mahmood, S. (2019). Characterization of Desi Ghee Extracted by Different Methods Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy. Journal of Fluorescence.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, Chapter 2.1: Dairy products and analogues (2.1.8, milk fat products: ghee; 2.1.2, cow milk). FSSAI.
- National Dairy Development Board (2020). Technology of Ghee manufacturing. Technews, Issue No. 99.
- Mishra, H. N., Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. Lecture 40: Ghee (Butter Oil). NPTEL, Food Oils and Fats: Chemistry & Technology.