To make ghee from malai, collect the cream from boiled milk in a covered box in the fridge or freezer until you have enough. Then either heat it slowly in a heavy pan until the water boils off and the solids turn golden-brown, or set it with a little curd, churn it to butter and clarify that. The second route takes longer but leaves less residue and gives a nuttier ghee.
This guide covers collecting and storing malai, both routes to ghee, when to stop, and the yield to expect. For the full curd-churning method starting from whole milk, see our guide to making bilona ghee at home.
At a glance
- Malai is the fat-rich skin from boiled, cooled milk; laboratory malai averaged 49.6 per cent moisture, 38.2 per cent fat and 9 per cent protein in a 2022 NDRI study.
- Collect it in a covered box in a fridge at 4 °C or below, or freeze each day's skim; never leave it out for more than two hours, and check it daily.
- Two routes: heat the malai directly for a milder ghee with more residue, or set it with curd, churn it to butter and clarify that for a nuttier ghee with less residue.
- Stop when the loud bubbling settles, finer bubbles appear, the solids turn golden-brown and the pan smells nutty; 40 minutes or more at 120 °C gives a dark, fishy ghee.
- A kilogram of malai at 38 per cent fat can give at most about 380 g of ghee, and about 325 g by the churn route at the desi method's recovery of up to 85 per cent.
What is malai, and why does it make ghee?
Malai is the fat-rich skin that forms on milk as it is boiled and cooled. FSSAI defines it as an insoluble mass, principally fat and denatured protein, formed on heating and cooling milk. Because it concentrates the milk's fat, clarifying it removes the water and leaves ghee, which FSSAI requires to be at least 99.5 per cent milk fat.
Malai is not pure fat. In a 2022 study from the Bengaluru station of ICAR's National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), malai made under standardised laboratory conditions averaged 49.6 per cent moisture, 38.2 per cent fat and 9.01 per cent protein. Roughly half is water, and the protein ends up as brown residue.
How should you collect and store malai until you have enough?
Skim the malai once the boiled milk has cooled, put it straight into a clean, covered container, and keep that in a fridge at 4 °C or below, or in the freezer. Do not leave it out for more than two hours. Check the box every day, and throw out anything that smells sour, cheesy or mouldy.
This follows the US Food and Drug Administration's refrigeration guidance: fridge at 40 °F (about 4 °C) or below, freezer at 0 °F (about minus 18 °C), food covered, leftovers checked daily. Perishable food left out for two hours or more lets bacteria multiply, and the limit is one hour above 90 °F (about 32 °C). Frozen food stays safe indefinitely, though quality may suffer.
- Use the fridge for a few days' collection. We found no food-safety authority figure for how long homemade malai keeps in the fridge, so make ghee promptly and let your nose decide: when in doubt, throw it out.
- Use the freezer for longer collection. Freeze each day's malai and thaw the lot in the fridge before cooking.
- Get more malai per litre. In the NDRI study, the more milk surface was exposed, the more malai formed, so cool the milk in a wide pan. The most malai came from milk held at 90 °C for 50 minutes and then cooled to 30 °C.
What are the two ways to make ghee from malai?
You can heat the malai directly until it turns into ghee, or culture it with a little curd, churn it into butter and clarify the butter. Direct heating needs no culturing or churning. Churning first adds a setting and churning stage but sends much of the water and non-fat solids off in the buttermilk.
| Heat the malai directly | Culture, churn, then clarify | |
|---|---|---|
| Dairy equivalent | Direct cream method | Desi method, with malai churned to desi butter |
| What goes in the pan | All the malai: fat, water and protein | Washed butter; the buttermilk is set aside |
| Time in the pan | Longer, because there is more water to boil off | Shorter |
| Residue left | More | Less |
| Flavour in dairy descriptions | Mild and milky, cooked (direct cream ghee) | Strongly nutty, acid (indigenous ghee) |
The flavour descriptions come from a method comparison in a National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) technical bulletin. Its indigenous column describes ghee from curd-churned butter; we found no tasting study of ghee made from cultured malai.
How do you make ghee from malai by heating it directly?
Heat the malai in a heavy pan, stirring while the water boils off, then lower the flame. Stop when the bubbling has settled, the solids are golden to light brown and the pan smells nutty. Rest, strain through muslin into a dry jar, and cool.
- Thaw it if frozen. Move frozen malai to the fridge the day before.
- Start gently. Melt it in a heavy-bottomed pan over a low to medium flame.
- Stir through the long middle stage. Expect a long spell of frothing and crackling. Scrape the base so the protein does not scorch.
- Lower the flame as the noise fades. Once the water has gone, the fat heats quickly. Stop at the signs in the next section.
- Settle and strain. Let the pan stand so the solids sink, then pour the clear ghee through fine muslin into a clean, dry glass jar. Close it once it reaches room temperature.
The INFLIBNET e-text on ghee technology notes that ghee made directly from medium-fat cream, around 40 per cent fat, takes longer and uses more fuel than ghee from richer cream. Malai sits just below that.
How do you make ghee from malai by churning it first?
Stir a spoonful of curd into the collected malai, cover it and leave it until it sets and smells clean and sour. Add cool water, churn until butter grains form and clump, lift and wash the butter, then clarify it slowly. The pan stage is the same as for direct heating, only shorter.
The NDDB bulletin describes this as a variation of the desi method: the malai that forms on heated milk is collected and churned to desi butter, which is gathered over a period of time and then melted over an open fire. The churning, washing and clarifying steps are set out in detail, with the signs at each stage, in our guide to making bilona ghee at home; follow it from the churning step onward. Keep the buttermilk for drinking or cooking. This is the style of method Himdhara uses, though from whole-milk curd rather than malai: the curd is churned on a wooden bilona and the butter clarified slowly over a wood fire.
How do you know when ghee from malai is done?
It is done when the early, loud frothing and crackling have died down, a second, finer round of bubbles appears, the solids at the bottom turn golden-yellow to light brown, and a nutty ghee smell rises. Take it off the heat then. Deep dark brown solids and a fishy smell mean it was overheated.
The NDDB bulletin describes this sequence for the dairy direct cream method: crackling effervescence that subsides as moisture falls, then a subtler second effervescence as the curd particles brown and the ghee flavour appears. It warns that the temperature spurts up once the moisture has gone, and that 40 minutes or more at 120 °C gives a deep dark brown colour and a fishy odour.
Why does heating malai directly leave more residue and taste different?
Because everything in the malai that is not fat stays in the pan. Its protein and other non-fat solids brown into residue and flavour, and with about half the malai being water, the heating runs longer. Churning splits off the buttermilk first, so fewer solids reach the pan, and the souring adds flavour of its own.
The INFLIBNET e-text says ghee made from medium-fat cream yields a higher quantity of ghee residue, and that washing cream with warm water to reduce its non-fat solids yields less residue and better fat recovery. The NDDB bulletin adds that the high serum solids in cream can give ghee a highly caramelised flavour. The e-text also notes that desi ghee from curd butter carries aromatic compounds formed during fermentation.
Golden residue is edible; our article on ghee residue and how to use it covers what to cook with it.
How much ghee will your malai make?
At most about 380 g of ghee per kilogram of malai, if your malai is like the NDRI samples at 38.2 per cent fat, since ghee is almost pure fat. Real batches recover less. The NDDB bulletin puts desi-method fat recovery at up to 85 per cent; if churned malai matched that, about 325 g.
| Malai collected | Fat in it (× 0.382) | Ceiling for ghee | Churn route, up to 85 per cent recovery (× 0.85) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 g | 500 × 0.382 = 191 g | About 190 g | 191 × 0.85 = 162 g |
| 1 kg | 1,000 × 0.382 = 382 g | About 380 g | 382 × 0.85 = 325 g |
| 2 kg | 2,000 × 0.382 = 764 g | About 760 g | 764 × 0.85 = 649 g |
Treat these as upper limits. Wetter malai means less fat per kilogram. For direct heating we have no recovery figure that fits malai: the NDDB's 4 to 6 per cent fat loss for the dairy direct cream method applies to cream of 60 to 70 per cent fat, far richer than malai, so that figure does not transfer.
The short version
Skim malai from boiled, cooled milk into a covered box, keep it at 4 °C or below or in the freezer, never leave it out for more than two hours, and check it daily. Heat it directly in a heavy pan for a simpler, milder ghee with more residue, or set it with curd, churn it to butter and clarify that for a nuttier ghee with less residue. Stop when the bubbling quietens, the solids turn golden-brown and the pan smells nutty. A kilogram of malai at 38 per cent fat can give at most about 380 g of ghee, and churning, at the desi method's recovery of up to 85 per cent, about 325 g.
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.
- Thomas G, Rao KJ (2022). A comprehensive study on processing parameters, yield, quality characteristics and shelf life of malai – a heat desiccated indigenous dairy product. Indian Journal of Dairy Science.
- 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.
- US Food and Drug Administration (2024). Refrigerator Thermometers - Cold Facts about Food Safety. FDA consumer guidance.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (2022). Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011 (2.1.7 Standard for Cream and Malai; 2.1.8 Standard for Milk Fat Products). FSSAI compendium, version XXVI.