To make ghee from butter, melt unsalted butter in a heavy pan, let it bubble while its water boils off, and stop when the bubbling quietens, fine bubbles appear and the milk solids turn golden yellow to light brown. Then let it settle and strain it through muslin into a clean, dry jar. The signs in the pan matter more than the clock.
At a glance
- FSSAI's table butter standard allows up to 16 per cent moisture and requires at least 80 per cent milk fat; ghee may hold no more than 0.5 per cent moisture.
- From those FSSAI figures, 500 g of table butter holds at least 400 g of fat (500 × 0.80), the most ghee it can give.
- An ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute review says the temperature holds at about 105 to 110 °C while moisture evaporates, then rises quickly once it has gone.
- An NDDB bulletin puts the end of heating for creamery butter at about 114 ± 2 °C, signalled by the bubbling stopping, finer bubbles and browning of the curd particles.
- The NDRI review calls ghee microbiologically stable because of its very low moisture, under 0.5 per cent.
Which butter should you use to make ghee?
Use unsalted butter if you can. The dairy method for making ghee from butter starts from unsalted or white butter, as a National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) bulletin on ghee manufacture says. Salted table butter will still turn into ghee, but you cannot be sure how much of its salt follows the fat into the jar.
FSSAI, the national food regulator, recognises two kinds of butter. Table butter must be made from pasteurised cream and is the only kind allowed to contain salt, up to 3 per cent. White or cooking butter must be at least 76 per cent milk fat, and has no salt among its permitted ingredients. We found no study measuring how much salt survives into ghee, so we will not guess. If salted butter is all you have, taste the ghee before cooking with it.
What happens to butter when it turns into ghee?
Butter is mostly fat with water and milk solids spread through it. Making ghee drives the water off as steam and browns the solids, which you then strain away. FSSAI describes ghee and other milk fats as made by processes that result in "almost total removal of water and milk solids-not-fat".
The FSSAI food products standards set these limits:
| Product (FSSAI) | Moisture, maximum | Milk fat, minimum | Fat in 500 g | Most ghee from 500 g |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Table butter | 16.0 per cent | 80.0 per cent | 500 × 0.80 = 400 g | About 400 g |
| White or cooking butter | No limit set | 76.0 per cent | 500 × 0.76 = 380 g | About 380 g |
| Ghee | 0.5 per cent | 99.5 per cent | Not applicable | Not applicable |
The arithmetic is simple. Ghee is almost all fat, so the fat in the butter sets the ceiling for the ghee. Table butter at the 16 per cent limit carries up to 500 × 0.16 = 80 g of water in a 500 g block, all of which has to leave as steam. The 400 g of ghee that remains may hold at most 400 × 0.005 = 2 g of moisture. Table butter may also carry up to 2 per cent milk solids-not-fat and 3 per cent salt. These are separate limits, not a recipe: 80 + 16 + 2 + 3 = 101 per cent, so a butter cannot sit at every limit at once.
Real batches land a little under the ceiling, because the brown residue holds on to some fat. Our article on how much ghee a kilogram of butter makes works through those losses in detail.
How do you make ghee from butter, step by step?
Melt the butter gently, let it boil until the water has gone, then watch closely for the end point and take it off the heat. Let the solids settle, strain the ghee through muslin and pour it into a jar once it has cooled. The whole method is these steps:
- Choose a deep, heavy pan. Butter froths as it heats, and a deep pan leaves room for the froth.
- Melt on low heat. Dairies melt butter first at moderate temperatures: 60 to 80 °C in a butter melter, the NDDB bulletin says.
- Let it bubble on moderate heat. Stir now and then. The froth and crackling are the water boiling off.
- Watch for the end point. The loud bubbling stops, finer bubbles appear on the surface, the solids at the bottom turn golden yellow to light brown and the typical ghee aroma rises. Take the pan off the heat.
- Let it settle. Leave the pan undisturbed so the solids sink.
- Strain. Pour the clear ghee off the top, then strain the rest through a fine strainer lined with muslin.
- Jar it. Let the ghee cool before you pour it into a clean, completely dry jar, then close it.
What is happening at each stage in the pan?
There are three stages: melting, foaming as the water boils off, and browning once the water has gone. While the water boils off, the temperature holds fairly steady. Once the water has gone, it climbs quickly, and the milk solids brown as the ghee flavour develops.
Melting. The fat melts and releases the water held in it.
Foaming and crackling. An INFLIBNET dairy-technology text says that during initial heating of butter "extensive frothing takes place", which must be controlled to avoid losses from boiling over. The NDDB bulletin, describing cream being boiled for ghee, notes plenty of effervescence with a crackling sound at first, both fading as the moisture falls. A review by scientists at the ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) adds that while the moisture evaporates, the temperature stays at about 105 to 110 °C.
Browning. The same review says that as soon as the moisture has completely evaporated, the temperature rises rapidly. The INFLIBNET text describes the curd particles caramelising as the frothing subsides, and the solids-not-fat being converted to a brown ghee residue. The review places the end of heating at the absence of effervescence, finer air bubbles and browning of the curd particles, usually at 115 to 120 °C. The NDDB bulletin gives about 114 ± 2 °C for creamery butter and says the typical ghee aroma is produced at this point.
How do you know when ghee is done without a timer?
Listen, look and smell. The loud crackling fades and the bubbling stops; finer bubbles appear on the surface; the solids turn golden yellow to light brown; and the typical ghee aroma rises. When all of those agree, it is done. A clock cannot tell you this.
The reason is the temperature curve above. The length of the steady stage depends on how much water there is to boil off: the NDDB bulletin notes that draining the watery layer before heating eliminates prolonged heating. Once the water has gone, the temperature "suddenly spurts up", it warns, so this is the stage to watch.
If the solids turn dark brown or black, see our guide to why ghee turns black while you make it.
How should you strain and store homemade ghee?
Let the residue settle, then strain the warm ghee through muslin into a clean, dry jar and close it once it has cooled. Ghee resists microbial spoilage because it holds so little water. A damp jar, a wet spoon or a lid with condensation puts back some of what you spent the whole batch boiling away.
- Keep it dry. The NDRI review calls ghee microbiologically stable because of its very low moisture, under 0.5 per cent.
- Keep air out. The same review says oxygen in the headspace, along with iron, induces oxidative changes and limits shelf life. Use a jar that suits the batch and close it after each use.
- Expect months, not years. The INFLIBNET text gives a shelf life of 6 to 8 months at ambient temperature.
- Cool it for an even texture. The NDDB bulletin cites a finding that storing ghee at 20 °C or below immediately after making it prevents it from separating into layers.
If you collect cream rather than buy butter, our guide to making ghee from malai covers what changes when you start from cream.
Is ghee from shop butter the same as bilona ghee?
No. Shop table butter is made from pasteurised cream, under FSSAI's standard, so ghee made from it follows what dairies call the creamery butter method. Bilona ghee starts from butter churned out of curd. Both are ghee, but they are made differently, and dairy texts describe them as smelling different.
The NDDB bulletin describes the desi method separately: milk is cultured and kept overnight, and the curd is churned with wooden beaters to separate the butter, which is then heated in a pan over an open fire. Its comparison table lists the aroma of desi ghee as strong and nutty, and that of creamery butter ghee as pleasantly rich. Himdhara's ghee is made the desi way: whole milk set into curd overnight with a native starter, churned on a wooden bilona, and the butter clarified slowly over a wood fire. The bilona process, step by step shows how that differs from melting a block of shop butter.
The short version
Melt unsalted butter in a deep, heavy pan and let its water boil off. The temperature holds at about 105 to 110 °C while that happens, then rises fast. Stop when the bubbling quietens, finer bubbles appear and the solids turn golden yellow to light brown. Settle, strain through muslin and store in a clean, dry, closed jar. Under FSSAI's minimums, 500 g of table butter can give at most about 400 g of ghee, and it will be creamery butter ghee, not bilona ghee.
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.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (2022). Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011 (2.1.8 Standard for Milk Fat Products; 2.1.9 Standard for Butter). FSSAI compendium, version XXVI.
- National Dairy Development Board (2020). Technology of Ghee manufacturing. Technews, Issue No. 99.
- 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.
- INFLIBNET Centre. Technology of Ghee making – Direct cream, Creamery butter, Continuous method. Technology of Milk and Milk Products.