"Ghee making machine" can mean four different machines, each doing one step of the job: a cream separator spins cream out of milk, an electric churner (madhani) or a motorised bilona churns curd or cream into butter, and a ghee boiler or kettle heats the butter until the water has gone. No single machine turns milk into ghee. The hand method they replace is in how to make bilona ghee at home.
At a glance
- NDDB's comparison of ghee methods lists the essential equipment for the desi route as a butter churn only; the direct cream, creamery butter and pre-stratification routes add a cream separator.
- An INFLIBNET dairy chapter says milk serum, with a specific gravity of 1.036, is heavier than fat at 0.9, which is how a cream separator works.
- The 2021 makkhan review records household curd churning with a wooden or a motor-driven beater, recovering only 75 to 78 per cent of the fat in the old practice.
- NDDB describes the dairy ghee kettle as stainless steel and steam-jacketed, with an agitator and temperature gauges, heating to 114 ± 2 °C.
- FSSAI's hygiene schedule for small food businesses asks for equipment designed to permit easy cleaning.
What does "ghee making machine" actually mean?
It means a machine for one step. Every ghee making process does three things: concentrate the milk fat as cream or butter, heat it to boil off the water, and remove the browned milk solids. Different machines do different steps, and the search term covers all of them, so first decide which step you want to mechanise.
The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) sets out those three principles in its Technews bulletin on ghee manufacturing. Its table of methods has a row for "essential equipment": a butter churn alone for the indigenous, curd-butter method; a cream separator for direct cream; a separator and butter churn for creamery butter and pre-stratification; a scraped-surface heat exchanger for the continuous method. Only the indigenous method is marked small scale.
So the machine you buy decides which method you are using. The five methods and how they differ are explained in the ghee making process explained.
What does a cream separator do, and what does it replace?
A cream separator spins warm milk so fast that the heavier watery part is thrown outwards and the lighter fat collects towards the centre and leaves as cream. It replaces collecting malai by hand. It also replaces the curd: cream goes straight to the churn or the pan.
The INFLIBNET chapter on cream separation, from the e-book Technology of Milk and Milk Products, gives the figures. Milk serum has a specific gravity of 1.036 and fat 0.9. Separation at 45–55 °C "has been found to give good results". The bowl turns at 5,000–6,000 rpm, which is 5,000 ÷ 60 ≈ 83 to 6,000 ÷ 60 = 100 turns a second. A screw on the top disc sets the cream anywhere from about 25 to 80 per cent fat, and the discs should be handled carefully during cleaning so they are not scratched.
What a separator changes is the method. NDDB's direct cream method heats separator cream of 60–70 per cent fat straight to ghee, with "no need for butter production". That is cream ghee, not curd-churned ghee.
Is an electric churner or motorised bilona the same as hand churning?
It does the same job with a motor, not a rope. Curd or cream is beaten until the fat clumps into butter grains that float to the top. The makkhan review in the Journal of Food Science and Technology records that household churning is now done in a metal container with drainage, using a wooden beater or a motor-driven beater.
In the older practice, with a wooden beater in an earthen pot, "only 75–78% of fat can be recovered in makkhan and rest goes to chhach or lassi". It notes that process parameters cannot be controlled in a traditional churn, and points to mechanised batch churns with controls for cooling and ageing, churning speed and temperature. We found no study that measures a household electric churner against a hand bilona for yield or flavour. How the hand churn works is in the wooden bilona churn explained.
The motor does not decide whether the ghee is curd-churned. NDDB lists the desi method's equipment simply as a "butter churn", and its flow chart starts from milk set into curd. A motor turning a beater in curd is still the curd route; the same motor churning cold cream into white butter is the creamery butter route.
What does a ghee boiler or kettle replace?
It replaces the pan on the fire. Butter or cream is heated until the water has boiled off and the milk solids turn golden brown. A machine can control the heat and stir, but the end point still has to be judged.
NDDB's desi method melts the butter "in a metal pan or earthenware vessel on an open fire" and boils it at 110–115 °C. Its dairy version is different in scale and build: "a stainless steel, jacketed ghee kettle", fitted "with an agitator, steam control valve, pressure and temperature gauges", heated to 114 ± 2 °C.
NDDB stops the heating when the residue turns golden yellow or light brown, and warns that once almost all the moisture has gone, "the temperature of the liquid medium suddenly spurts up". The residue is then removed by settling and decanting, by an oil filter into a settling tank, or by a centrifugal clarifier.
Which machine does which step?
Each machine covers one step, and none sets the curd. The table puts them side by side with the scale the dairy texts describe and what to check before buying. The sources do not describe household separators or kettles, so the scale column gives what they do describe.
| Machine | Step it does | What it replaces | Scale in the sources | Check before buying | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cream separator | Spins cream out of warm milk | Collecting malai by hand; the curd stage | Essential in NDDB's large-scale cream methods; capacity set by number of discs | Contact parts, discs that come apart and clean without scratching, capacity for your milk | INFLIBNET; NDDB |
| Electric churner or motorised bilona | Churns curd or cream into butter | Rope-turned wooden beater | Household, in a metal container with drainage | Contact parts, a container that drains and cleans fully, the ISI licence number | Makkhan review; NDDB |
| Ghee boiler or kettle | Heats butter or cream until the water has gone | Pan or earthen pot on a fire | Dairy kettles are stainless steel, steam-jacketed, with an agitator | Contact parts, a temperature control you can read, the ISI licence number | NDDB |
| Clarifier or filter | Removes the browned residue | Settling and pouring off; a cloth strainer | Dairy: oil filter and settling tank, or centrifugal clarifier | Whether it comes apart for cleaning | NDDB |
What should you check before buying one for home?
Check what touches the milk, whether every part comes apart for cleaning, and the licence number behind any ISI mark. FSSAI's hygiene schedule is written for small food businesses applying for registration, not home kitchens, but its clauses on equipment make a sound checklist for anything that handles milk, curd or hot fat.
- Food-contact material. FSSAI's Schedule 4 says no vessel "likely to cause metallic contamination injurious to health" may be used, and copper or brass vessels "shall have proper lining". NDDB's dairy kettle is stainless steel. Ask what each contact part is made of.
- Easy cleaning. The same schedule asks for equipment "of such design which will permit easy cleaning", kept "clean, washed, dried" at the close of business. NDDB lists unsatisfactory cleaning and sanitation of equipment among the limitations of batch ghee making.
- The ISI mark and its licence number. The Bureau of Indian Standards' BIS Care app has a Verify Licence Details feature that fetches the licensee's details from the CM/L number. Misuse of the ISI mark is one of the complaints the app takes.
- A temperature you can see. Because the temperature "suddenly spurts up" once the water has gone, in NDDB's words, a kettle whose heat you can read and turn down is easier to stop on time.
What can no machine change?
The milk, the curd and the judgement at the pan. A machine can save effort at the separating, churning and heating steps, but it cannot change the fat in the milk, set curd overnight or tell when the residue is the right colour. Whether there is curd at all depends on which machines you use, not how good they are.
NDDB's table gives the desi method's aroma as "strong nutty" and flavour as "acid", against "mild & milky" and "cooked" for direct cream ghee. Only the desi column starts from curd; a separator feeding a kettle puts you in the direct cream column. NDDB also says the desi method recovers "only up to 85% fat".
Our own records show what the curd route costs in milk. Curd-churned ghee takes about 30 litres of cow milk per litre, against about 20 to 23 litres for cream-separated ghee: 30 − 23 = 7 to 30 − 20 = 10 litres more milk for every litre. At Himdhara the butter is churned on a wooden bilona and clarified slowly over a wood fire; the stages are on the bilona process page.
The short version
A "ghee making machine" is a cream separator, an electric churner or motorised bilona, or a ghee boiler, and each does one step. A separator skips the curd and so makes cream ghee; a motorised churn working on curd is still the curd route. Before buying, check the contact materials, whether every part comes apart for cleaning, and the licence number behind any ISI mark. No machine sets the curd or judges the end point for you.
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.
- National Dairy Development Board (2020). Technology of Ghee manufacturing. Technews, Issue No. 99.
- INFLIBNET Centre. Cream separation in dairy industry. Technology of Milk and Milk Products.
- Bureau of Indian Standards (2021). BIS CARE app. BIS.
- Halder K, Sahu JK, Naik SN, Mandal S, Bag SK (2021). Improvements in makkhan (traditional Indian cultured butter) production: a review. Journal of Food Science and Technology.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Schedule 4, Part I: General Hygienic and Sanitary practices to be followed by Petty Food Business Operators applying for Registration. Food Safety, Government of Assam.