What Is the Bilona Method?

"Bilona" is the name of a churn — and, by extension, the name of the process that uses it. It describes a way of making ghee that starts with curd rather than with cream.

The two routes to ghee

There are broadly two ways to arrive at ghee.

The direct-cream route separates cream from milk, heats it, and clarifies it. It is quicker and it is what most large-scale production uses.

The Bilona route takes a longer path: milk is first set into curd, the curd is churned to separate butter from buttermilk, and only that butter is then heated into ghee.

Step by step

Milk. Fresh milk is collected and brought to the right temperature for setting.

Curd. A culture is added and the milk is left, undisturbed, to set into curd. This takes hours, and the temperature of the room matters.

Churning. The set curd is churned. In the traditional method this is done with a wooden bilona — a churning staff pulled back and forth by a rope wound around it. Butter gathers and rises; buttermilk stays behind.

Butter. The butter is collected off the surface and rinsed.

Slow cooking. The butter is heated slowly. Water evaporates, the milk solids settle and gently brown, and what remains is ghee. Doing this slowly is the whole point — the aroma comes from this stage.

Filtering and packing. The ghee is filtered, allowed to settle, and packed.

Why go the long way?

The honest answer is that it is a traditional process, and it produces ghee with the aroma, colour and grain that people associate with ghee made at home. It also takes considerably more milk, more time and more labour per litre than the direct route — which is why Bilona ghee costs more.

We describe our process; we do not make health claims about it. What we can tell you is what happens in the jar and how it was made.

What to look for

Ghee made this way is usually deep gold, granular when cool, and strongly aromatic when warmed. Texture varies with the season — grainy in winter, liquid in summer. Both are normal.