Ghee is made by concentrating milk fat as cream or butter, heating it until almost all the water has boiled off and the milk solids have browned, and then removing those solids as ghee residue. The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) describes five routes: the desi or curd-butter method, the direct cream method, the creamery butter method, pre-stratification and the continuous method. They differ in the starting material and in how the fat is concentrated, not in what ghee is.
At a glance
- NDDB's Technews bulletin on ghee manufacturing lists five methods and calls creamery butter "the standard method adopted in most of the organized dairies".
- Final heating is 114 ± 2 °C in NDDB's flow charts, about 110–120 °C in the INFLIBNET dairy module, and 110–120 °C for 10–20 minutes in a 2023 review in the Journal of Food Science and Technology.
- NDDB's comparison table gives fat recovery of 88–90 per cent for the indigenous method, 88–92 for creamery butter, 92 for direct cream and 93 for pre-stratification and continuous; its text puts the indigenous method at 80–85 per cent.
- Pre-stratification drains a serum layer carrying 80 per cent of the butter's moisture and 70 per cent of its solids-not-fat before the final boil (NDDB).
- FSSAI's standard 2.1.8 defines ghee by composition, at least 99.5 per cent milk fat and at most 0.5 per cent moisture, and names no method.
What steps does every ghee making process share?
Three. The fat in milk is concentrated into cream or butter; that fat-rich portion is heated until its water is driven off and the milk solids brown; and the browned solids, the ghee residue, are separated from the clear fat. NDDB and the INFLIBNET module both state the principle in these three operations.
- Concentrate the fat: cream is spun out of warm milk, or curd or cream is churned to butter.
- Heat it in a pan, an earthen pot or a steam-jacketed kettle, stirring.
- Boil off the water. Frothing subsides as the moisture goes, then the temperature "suddenly spurts up" (NDDB).
- Stop when the curd particles turn golden yellow or light brown: 114 ± 2 °C in NDDB's flow charts, about 110–120 °C in the module.
- Remove the residue by settling and decanting, filtration or centrifugal clarification.
- Cool and pack, at 40–42 °C in the module's direct cream method.
The flavour is made in steps 3 and 4: the 2023 review's abstract says that as moisture evaporates there are "simultaneous changes in protein, lactose, fat and minerals" whose interaction produces the ghee flavour, and the solids-not-fat become the brown residue.
How is ghee made by the desi or curd-butter method?
Milk is boiled, cultured and set overnight into curd; the curd is churned to butter, called makkhan; the makkhan is melted on an open fire until the water has gone and the curd particles settle, and the clear fat is decanted. This is the household and bilona route, "the practice from age-old days in rural areas" in NDDB's words.
NDDB's flow chart has the curd churned with "hand driven wooden beaters" and the butter boiled at 110–115 °C. Its verdict on yield is blunt: "In this method it is possible to recover only up to 85% fat." The INFLIBNET module describes the dairy-scale version, makkhan heated in a steam-jacketed boiler to about 110–120 °C and filtered, and says desi ghee "contains many of the aromatic compounds formed during the fermentation of dahi"; NDDB's table calls the aroma "strong nutty" and the flavour "acid". The household version, with the signs to watch, is in how to make bilona ghee at home.
How is ghee made by the direct cream method?
Milk is warmed to 40–50 °C and separated into cream of 60–70 per cent fat; the cream, fresh or cultured, is heated in a steam-jacketed kettle to 114 ± 2 °C until the residue turns golden yellow or light brown, and the ghee is filtered. No butter is made, which NDDB lists as the method's advantage.
This is the "cream ghee" of the bilona-versus-cream debate. The INFLIBNET module gives about 110–120 °C, higher in southern India, and warns that cream of about 40 per cent fat gives more residue, uses more fuel and takes longer; it recommends 60–75 per cent fat cream. NDDB's limitations are a long heating time, a "highly caramelized flavour" when the cream carries much serum solids, and "4–6% loss of butter fat in the ghee residue & during the handling operations". Its table gives 92 per cent recovery, a mild, milky aroma and a "cooked" flavour. How the two routes compare in the jar is in bilona ghee vs cream ghee.
How is ghee made by the creamery butter method?
Cream of 38–40 per cent fat is pasteurised at 80 °C for 15 seconds, cooled to 7–8 °C and churned to white butter; the butter is melted at 60–80 °C, boiled in a steam-heated ghee boiler to 114 ± 2 °C with the scum skimmed off, and filtered. NDDB calls this "the standard method adopted in most of the organized dairies".
NDDB adds that some dairies heat beyond this to get a cooked flavour. Its table gives 88–92 per cent recovery, a "pleasantly rich" aroma and a "normal" flavour. The butter is churned by machine, but it is not curd butter, because the whole milk was never set into dahi.
What is the pre-stratification method?
A refinement of the creamery butter method. White butter is melted at 80 °C and left undisturbed at 80–85 °C for 30 minutes until it settles into three layers; the bottom layer of buttermilk serum is drained off, and the fat and floating curd particles are boiled to 114 ± 2 °C.
The 30 minutes is NDDB's figure; the INFLIBNET module says "several hours". NDDB describes the bottom layer as "buttermilk serum carrying 80% of moisture and 70% of solids-not-fat contained in butter"; the module puts the water drained at "about 74% of the water present in white butter". The gains are less heating, less residue and lower acidity; the trade-off is that "milder flavour ghee can be produced, since most of the curd content is removed before final clarification". The table gives 93 per cent recovery.
How does the continuous method work?
Instead of boiling a batch in a kettle, molten butter or concentrated cream is pumped through scraped-surface heat exchangers and vapour separators, and the residue is spun out in a centrifugal clarifier. NDDB says it was developed for high-volume production, and its table lists it as "very large scale" with 93 per cent fat recovery.
One design NDDB describes starts from cream and breaks the fat emulsion "mechanically with the help of centrifugal force in the clarifixator and concentrator", so that "the use of heat is limited to the development of flavour and removal of traces of moisture". The module puts the oil entering the heat exchanger at 95–99 per cent fat. On NDDB's table the result has a "mild" aroma, a "flat" flavour and a "greasy" texture.
How do the five ghee making methods compare?
Fat recovery, aroma and flavour below are from NDDB's comparison table, which it credits to Rajorhia (1993) and Aneja and colleagues (2002).
| Method | Starting material | Key step | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desi (curd-butter, bilona) | Makkhan churned from whole-milk curd | Butter melted on an open fire or in a steam boiler, 110–115 °C; decanted | Recovery 88–90 % (table) or up to 85 % (text); strong nutty aroma, acid flavour; small scale | NDDB |
| Direct cream | Cream of 60–70 % fat from a separator | Cream boiled to 114 ± 2 °C; filtered | 92 % recovery; 4–6 % fat lost to residue and handling; mild, milky, cooked; longer shelf life than creamery butter ghee | NDDB; INFLIBNET |
| Creamery butter | White butter churned from cream of 38–40 % fat | Melted at 60–80 °C, boiled to 114 ± 2 °C; filtered | 88–92 % recovery; pleasantly rich, normal flavour; the standard in organised dairies | NDDB |
| Pre-stratification | White butter | Held at 80–85 °C for 30 min; serum drained; boiled to 114 ± 2 °C | 93 % recovery; serum carries 80 % of moisture and 70 % of solids-not-fat; milder, less residue | NDDB; INFLIBNET |
| Continuous | Molten butter, or cream concentrated to 95–99 % fat | Scraped-surface heat exchangers and vapour separators; centrifugal clarifier | 93 % recovery; mild aroma, flat flavour, greasy texture; very large scale | NDDB; INFLIBNET |
One caution about the yield column. NDDB gives the figures twice and they do not agree: the table says 88–90 per cent for the indigenous method and 92 for direct cream, while its text says the indigenous method is "lowest (80–85%), follows by the creamery butter method (88–92%) and highest in direct cream method (90–95%)". The ranking is the same either way, curd route lowest, and our own records agree: about 30 litres of cow milk per litre of curd-churned ghee against 20 to 23 for cream-separated.
Is machine-churned curd still the bilona method, and does FSSAI care?
Yes to the first, no to the second. What defines the desi route in both dairy texts is the starting material, whole-milk curd churned to makkhan, not the hand on the churn. NDDB describes hand-driven wooden beaters because that is the village practice, but its comparison table lists the method's essential equipment simply as a "butter churn".
A motor on that churn does not move the ghee into the cream column; skipping the curd and churning cold cream does, and that is the creamery butter method. FSSAI does not enter this argument. Its standard 2.1.8 describes milk fat products as derived exclusively from milk or milk products "by means of processes which result in almost total removal of water and milk solids-not-fat", and adds one line on ghee: it "has especially developed flavour and physical structure as a result of its method of manufacturing". The requirements are then a table: at most 0.5 per cent moisture, at least 99.5 per cent milk fat, at most 2.0 per cent free fatty acids as oleic acid and a negative Baudouin test, among others. Nothing in it says curd, cream, butter, fire or steam. "Bilona" on a label is a process claim that no composition test settles.
For the record, Himdhara's own ghee takes the curd route: whole milk is set into curd overnight with a native starter, churned on a wooden bilona, and the butter is clarified slowly over a wood fire. The stages are on the bilona process page, and the jar itself is A2 bilona ghee.
The short version
Every ghee making process concentrates milk fat, boils off the water until the milk solids brown, and removes those solids as residue. The five commercial routes differ in the first step: curd churned to makkhan, cream boiled directly, cream churned to white butter with or without draining the serum first, or butter and cream pumped through heat exchangers. NDDB's figures put fat recovery lowest for the curd route and highest for pre-stratification and continuous plants, and flavour runs the other way. Machine churning of curd is still the curd route, and FSSAI defines ghee by composition, not method.
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. Technology of Ghee making – Direct cream, Creamery butter, Continuous method. Technology of Milk and Milk Products.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011: Chapter 2.1, Dairy products and analogues (2.1.8 Standard for Milk Fat Products). FSSAI.
- Kumbhare S, Prasad W, Khamrui K, Wani AD, Sahu J (2023). Recent innovations in functionality and shelf life enhancement of ghee, clarified butter fat. Journal of Food Science and Technology.