What Is Bilona Ghee, and Why Does It Taste Different?

If you've ever tasted ghee made by your grandmother and wondered why it tastes so different from what you buy in a shop, the answer usually comes down to one word: bilona.

Most commercial ghee is made by a shortcut process — cream is separated from milk and heated directly to produce ghee. It's fast and scalable, but it skips a crucial step: fermentation and hand-churning.

The bilona method starts with curd, not cream. Fresh milk is set into curd, which is then hand-churned in a wooden bilona (churner) to separate white butter. That butter is then slow-cooked over a controlled flame until it transforms into ghee.

This process takes longer and yields less ghee per litre of milk, which is why bilona ghee costs more — but it also produces a grainier texture, a deeper aroma, and a flavour that's noticeably richer than direct-cream ghee.

At Amodha, every batch of our Bilona Ghee starts with fresh curd from milk collected through our own farmer network near Prayagraj, hand-churned and slow-cooked exactly the way it has been done for generations.