Makhan is fresh white butter churned from curd: roughly four-fifths milk fat, the rest mostly water with a little milk solids. Ghee is what remains after makhan is heated until its water has boiled off and its milk solids are strained out, which under the FSSAI standard means at least 99.5 per cent milk fat. The difference shows in the calories, the keeping and the kitchen.
At a glance
- FSSAI's butter standard sets white or cooking butter, makhan's category, at a minimum of 76 per cent milk fat, and table butter at 80 per cent fat with at most 16 per cent moisture.
- FSSAI's milk fat products standard requires ghee to be at least 99.5 per cent milk fat with no more than 0.5 per cent moisture.
- USDA FoodData Central lists butter at 717 kcal, 81.1 g fat and 16.2 g water per 100 g, and ghee at 900 kcal, 100 g fat and 0.5 g water.
- On those USDA records a 5 g spoonful is about 36 kcal as butter and 45 kcal as ghee.
- A 2020 review of makkhan production in the Journal of Food Science and Technology gives makkhan 78.5 to 81.3 per cent fat and 18 to 20 per cent moisture, and refrigeration a keeping quality of 3 to 5 days.
What is the difference between makhan and ghee?
Makhan is butter and ghee is the fat extracted from it. Makhan still holds the water and milk solids that churning left in it, which is why it is soft, white and perishable. Ghee has had both cooked out, which is why it is golden, nearly pure fat and keeps on a shelf. Makhan comes first.
"Butter" in India covers two things: the yellow, salted table butter of the dairy, made from pasteurised cream, and makhan, spelt makkhan in the dairy literature, the household product. The 2020 review of makkhan production by Halder and colleagues describes it as a cultured fat-rich milk product of the Indian subcontinent, made by converting whole milk or cream into dahi and churning it at ambient temperature, in the older practice "in earthen pot with a wooden beater".
What do the FSSAI standards say makhan and ghee must contain?
FSSAI puts them under separate standards. White or cooking butter must be at least 76 per cent milk fat; table butter 80 per cent, with at most 16 per cent moisture. Ghee, under the milk fat products standard, must be at least 99.5 per cent milk fat with at most 0.5 per cent moisture.
The butter standard, regulation 2.1.9, defines butter as an emulsion "of the type water-in-oil derived exclusively from milk or milk products", and names two types: table butter, which "shall be made from pasteurised cream", and white butter or cooking butter. Only table butter has limits on moisture, milk solids-not-fat and salt, at 16, 2 and 3 per cent. The standard does not use the word makhan; the makkhan review reads the 76 per cent line as the FSSAI requirement for makkhan, and so do we.
The milk fat products standard, regulation 2.1.8, covers milk fat, butter oil, anhydrous milk fat and ghee together as products made "by means of processes which result in almost total removal of water and milk solids-not-fat", and adds that "Ghee has especially developed flavour and physical structure as a result of its method of manufacturing." How that sits beside Codex and the label term "clarified butter" is in our article on whether ghee is the same as clarified butter.
What is removed when makhan becomes ghee?
Water and milk solids-not-fat. Heating boils off the water, roughly a fifth of makhan by weight, and the protein, lactose and minerals that were suspended in it coagulate, brown and settle as ghee residue. The fat strained off the top carries the flavour the browning solids gave it.
The 2023 review of ghee by Kumbhare and colleagues in the Journal of Food Science and Technology describes the step in dairy terms: the fat-rich material is "heat treated at 110–120 °C for 10–20 min", and "During this process, moisture evaporates from the system with simultaneous changes in protein, lactose, fat and minerals", and the brown particles come from browning of the milk solids-not-fat. Butter whose solids are browned but not strained out is compared in our piece on brown butter against ghee; how much ghee a kilogram of makhan can give is in our guide to ghee yield from butter.
How do makhan and ghee compare per 100 g and per teaspoon?
Ghee carries about a quarter more calories than butter for the same weight, because the water in butter weighs something and gives nothing. USDA FoodData Central's SR Legacy records put butter at 717 kcal and ghee at 900 kcal per 100 g; per 5 g spoonful that is roughly 36 kcal against 45 kcal.
USDA has no record for makhan. Its record for butter without salt is the closest stand-in: 81.11 g fat and 16.17 g water per 100 g, inside the 78.5 to 81.3 per cent fat and 18 to 20 per cent moisture the makkhan review gives for household makkhan. The ghee record, butter, clarified butter (ghee), lists 100 g fat, 0.5 g water and no protein or carbohydrate per 100 g.
The butter record gives a tablespoon as 14.2 g and a pat as 5 g but no teaspoon, and the ghee record lists no portions, so we use a level 5 g spoonful by weight for both: butter 717 × 0.05 = 35.85, about 36 kcal, with 81.11 × 0.05 = 4.06 g fat and 16.17 × 0.05 = 0.81 g water; ghee 900 × 0.05 = 45 kcal, with 5 g fat and 0.5 × 0.05 = 0.025 g water. The gap is 900 − 717 = 183 kcal per 100 g, or 45 − 36 = 9 kcal per spoonful.
Two cautions. The USDA record describes butter, not curd-churned makhan, which the makkhan review says carries more lactic acid and curd particles than creamery butter. And these are composition figures, not advice: no source we opened compares makhan and ghee in people, and if a doctor has set your fat intake, follow that advice.
Why does makhan need the fridge when ghee does not?
Because makhan holds water, milk solids and acid, and ghee holds almost none. Microbes need water; the 2023 ghee review calls ghee "a microbiologically stable product due to its very low moisture content (< 0.5%, w/w)" and says the absence of milk solids-not-fat does not support bacterial growth. Makhan, a fifth water, has neither protection.
The makkhan review says moisture, curd particles and lactic acid are all higher in makkhan than in creamery butter, so "storage quality of butter is better than makkhan". Surplus makkhan "is stored in existing rural condition for few days before conversion to ghee", the traditional answer to a perishable butter. Refrigeration "is said to improve its keeping quality up to 3–5 days". That is a review's summary, not a shelf-life trial; treat the days as a guide.
Ghee is the mirror image. The 2023 review summarises a study of lycopene added to cow milk ghee in which the ghee was stored at 30 °C for 12 months, a temperature no fridge is needed for. What shortens ghee's life is oxidation, not microbes, so the jar stays closed, dry and dark.
| Point of difference | Makhan (white butter) | Ghee |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Curd-churned butter, unsalted | The clarified fat from that butter |
| Milk fat, FSSAI minimum | 76 per cent (white or cooking butter) | 99.5 per cent |
| Water | 18 to 20 per cent (makkhan review) | 0.5 per cent at most (FSSAI) |
| Milk solids-not-fat | 0.7 to 1.5 per cent (makkhan review) | Almost totally removed (FSSAI definition) |
| Energy per 5 g spoonful, USDA | About 36 kcal (butter record) | 45 kcal |
| Storage | Refrigerate; 3 to 5 days (makkhan review) | Room temperature, closed, dry and dark |
| Use | On hot rotis, parathas, dal; not for hard frying | Tadka, frying, roasting, sweets |
How does makhan fit into the bilona method?
It is the halfway point. In the curd-churned or desi method, whole milk is set into dahi, the dahi is churned, the makhan is lifted off the buttermilk, and that makhan is heated into ghee. The makkhan review says makkhan is "used as intermediate product for producing major proportion ghee in India".
The 2023 ghee review summarises the indigenous route as fat collected from undisturbed milk, fermented, then churned with a wooden beater to obtain butter. That beater is the bilona; our article on what a bilona is and how it makes butter explains how it works. In Himdhara's own process the milk is set into curd overnight with a native starter, churned on a wooden bilona, and the makhan is clarified slowly over a wood fire; the curd-churned route takes roughly 25 to 30 litres of cow milk per litre of ghee.
Which suits what in the kitchen?
Use makhan where it will be eaten more or less as it is, and ghee where the fat will be heated hard. Makhan's water and solids make it spit and scorch in a hot pan; ghee, with both gone, is the fat for tadka and frying. Each has its job.
- Hot rotis and parathas: makhan. It melts into the bread with its mild cultured taste, and nothing is cooked out of it.
- Tadka and tempering spices: ghee. The fat must reach a heat at which makhan's water would spit and its solids burn.
- Shallow frying, dosa, halwa and sweets: ghee, for the same reason, and because its flavour survives long cooking.
- Dal and rice at the table: either, by taste.
If you buy ghee rather than make it, the question becomes which butter it came from. Himdhara's A2 bilona ghee starts from curd-churned makhan, and every jar carries a batch code whose laboratory report is published before the batch ships.
The short version
Makhan is the curd-churned white butter of the Indian kitchen; ghee is the fat left when that butter is heated until its water boils off and its milk solids are strained out. FSSAI asks white butter for at least 76 per cent milk fat and ghee for at least 99.5 per cent with at most 0.5 per cent moisture. On USDA records a 5 g spoonful is about 36 kcal as butter and 45 kcal as ghee. Makhan keeps for days in the fridge and goes on the roti; ghee keeps on the shelf and goes in the pan.
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. Chapter 2: Food Product Standards, 2.1 Dairy Products and Analogues (2.1.8 Standard for Milk Fat Products; 2.1.9 Standard for Butter). Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (2019). Butter, without salt. FoodData Central (SR Legacy).
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (2019). Butter, Clarified butter (ghee). FoodData Central (SR Legacy).
- Halder K, Sahu JK, Naik SN, Mandal S, Bag SK (2020). Improvements in makkhan (traditional Indian cultured butter) production: a review. Journal of Food Science and Technology.
- 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.