Ghee Manufacturing Process: Crafting Quality Dairy Goodness

The ghee manufacturing process is always intricate regardless the manufacturer follows a traditional small-scale method or an advanced industrial process for bulk production. The traditional process is also called the Ayurvedic process for making quality ghee in small quantities.

Different methods are applied for making ghee in the dairy industry as a ghee manufacturing process. However, all the ghee production methods work on the same methodology or preparation flow.

These processes are:

• The milk fat concentration, either in the form of milk cream or butter, is used as a raw ingredient.
• Clarification of fat-rich milk is done using heat. During boiling, the percentage of water gets reduced, and only less than 0.5% stays in the final ghee product.
• The curd/cream content gets eliminated in the form of ghee residue.

 Traditional ghee-making process

The method is called the Vedic ghee manufacturing process and is divided into five interrelated steps. These steps extend from procuring raw material (milk) to making the end product, ghee, and clarified butter.

In the traditional method, these five steps are essential because it is believed that diligently following these 5 steps is the secret to making the best quality ghee. Each of these steps is called sanskar in this Ayurvedic ghee manufacturing method.

Step (sanskar)-1: procurement and boiling

Procurement is vital for making ghee in the traditional ghee manufacturing process. The quality of raw material, milk butter, largely depends on farming and the cow’s diet. Grass-fed milk is always better than grain-fed milk.

In traditional ghee manufacturing, 25-30 liters of cow milk is required to make around 1 liter of cow ghee. In Ayurveda, grass-fed cow’s milk is the best raw material for premium ghee.

The milk is thoroughly boiled. This long boiling process helps in two ways. The milk collected from the dairy farm gets wholly disinfected. On the other hand, by using the boiling process, the manufacturers make the texture of the cow milk more concentrated.

Step (sanskar)–2: Curdling

In the ghee manufacturing process, boiled milk is converted into curd. One tablespoon of curd is added to the milk in the traditional process. Instead of curd, in-home sometimes lemon juice or any natural sour ingredient is added to milk. The milk stays overnight in a covered pot and gets converted to curd. Once the curd is fully prepared, it is churned thoroughly.

Step (sanskar)–3: Churning

The curd is now churned by a wooden churner called Bilona. Traditionally, card churning is done in a two-way direction of bilona, one clockwise and the other anticlockwise. Churning is mostly a lengthy method. Once the curd gets divided into butter and buttermilk, the raw ingredients of ghee, the milk butter gets prepared.

Step (sanskar) – 4- Separating

At the end of the churning in the ghee manufacturing process, butter and the buttermilk get segregated. This butter is then used to produce ghee.

The butter is also called ghee butter. It is still not free from the milky part, which means this ghee butter may contain lactose and casein. By heating the cooking process, clarified butter and ghee, which are lactose- and casein-free, are produced.

Step (sanskar) – 5- Heating

In ghee manufacturing, the produced butter is now placed in a heavy-bottom steel pot and heated against a medium-high flame. Once the ghee butter starts boiling, the manufacturer offers some more time to boil so that the water in the ghee butter evaporates entirely.

During the boiling process, the milk butter gets clarified, and a visible layer of solids is found at the bottom of the pot, indicating that the ghee is almost ready. At this phase, you will get to smell the nutty aroma of cow ghee, and the butter will turn yellow-golden.

In the final step, the golden liquid ghee is filtered via a strainer and stored in jars for later use. It is vital to store the ghee in a dry jar away from exposure to light, heat, and moisture.

The advanced method of the ghee-making process

However, the traditional ghee manufacturing process was mainly used for homemade ghee-making. However, dairy companies usually use another industrial ghee manufacturing method, skipping the process of making butter from milk. 

In this Commercial ghee production, the cream is separated from the milk, and good-quality ghee is prepared from this milk cream.

There are more than 4 Commercial ghee production options besides traditional or desi ghee-making processes.

These four Professional ghee manufacturing processes are:

• Direct Cream Method
• Creamery Butter Method
• Prestratification Method
• The continuous Method is a bulk ghee production process.

Direct Cream Method

The Direct cream method is a commercial ghee manufacturing process. Here, a kettle is used to boil the milk cream. These kettles are mostly made of steel, and they come with a steam-heated jacket. They are fixed with an agitator, a steam regulator valve, pressure and temperature gauging devices, and a portable, hollow, stainless steel tube with a central boring draining out the contents.

The manufacturer stops applying heat when brownish froth is seen on the surface, and the color of the ghee residue becomes golden yellow or light brown.

However, this commercial ghee manufacturing process has a few drawbacks. One is its long cooking time; secondly, the serum solid in the cream may add a caramelized flavor to the ghee produced. 

If it is bulk manufacturing, then only this Professional ghee manufacturing becomes cost-efficient.

The ghee manufacturing process is essential as the method decides the ghee quality. However, raw materials’ quality and proper time management of the slow boiling play a critical role here.

Grass-fed cow milk is a better raw material than grain-fed cow milk for producing good quality cow ghee, which is why grass-fed cow ghee enjoys higher demand in the consumer market.

Advantage: The manufacturer is not obligated to produce butter before the ghee production in this manufacturing process.

Creamery Butter Method

This is the standard ghee production method applied in most organized dairies as a ghee manufacturing process. This process uses unsalted or white milk butter as the raw material. Butter blocks are melted in a butter melter from 60°C to 80°C. Melted butter is pumped into the ghee boiler, where final heating is done by using steam as the heating medium.

Now, the steam pressure is increased to raise the temperature. A certain amount of scum is formed on the top of the product’s surface, which is removed frequently with the help of a holed scoop. At this stage of the ghee manufacturing process, the typical ghee aroma gets felted. The final heating temperature is adjusted at 114±2°C. The oil filter filters produced Ghee into the settling tank.

Pre-Stratification Method

 In this process, butter is produced from matured cream of 38 to 40% fat by applying a continuous butter-making machine or the method of batch churn. Butter is then transferred to melting condition at 80°C around temperature.

This melted butter is kept in a ghee kettle or boiler at 80-85°C for 30 min. In the ghee kettle, mass stratification is done, and the product gets stratified into three separate layers.

Denatured protein elements (curd particles) and impurities are found on the top layer or the surface. The middle layer is clear fat, and the bottom layer is made of buttermilk serum carrying 80% moisture and 70% solids-not-fat contained in the butter.

The bottom layer is cautiously removed without disturbing the top and middle layers. The middle layer mainly consists of fat. It is heated to 114±2 ° C temperature along with the top layer of floating curd particles and denatured protein.

This step is essential to create a typical ghee aroma within the ghee manufacturing process. Milder flavor ghee can be manufactured, as most of the curd content is removed before the final clarification temperature of ghee-clarified butter.

A continuous method in the Ghee manufacturing process

This Continuous method of ghee manufacturing process was developed to meet the necessity of high-volume production and overcome the batch method’s restraint. Limitations of the batch method are as follows:

• Demand high use of energy due to low heat transfer coefficient
• Cleaning and sanitation of equipment may not be satisfactory
• Equipment and processes are mostly found unsuitable for a large volume of production
• The factory floor may turn highly slippery due to unwanted ghee spillage
• Handling losses often reach the optimum level.

The continuous ghee manufacturing process can offer you the following benefits;

• Better control over the quality of the product
• Contamination by handlers can be mostly eliminated.
• CIP is highly possible
• No foaming of the product is observed during production.

Butter is heated in butter and melted to a liquefied state. Then, it is transferred into the balance tank and pumped further to the scraped surface of the heat exchanger (SSHE), followed by flashing in the vapor separator.

This heating in SSHE and flashing are repeated in the following two stages to reduce the moisture level in the produced ghee. Ghee is then passed through the centrifugal clarifier, where ghee residue gets removed.

Clarified ghee is stored for filling and packing.

All grass-fed ghee is not of organic quality. Organic grass-fed ghee is a premium product in the dairy market.

Milkio organic grass-fed is produced from grass-fed cows’ milk fat under the best hygienic conditions. The ghee is manufactured without adding any synthetic color, preservative, or flavor. 

About Milkio Ghee:

Try Milkio grass-fed ghee, manufactured by Milkio Foods, New Zealand using the finest ingredients, and traditional ghee-making process. Milkio grass-fed ghee is all-purpose and does not contain lactose, casein, and gluten.

The ghee offers an intense nutty feel-good aroma, rich, creamy texture, and versatility, making it a superfood for the kitchen.

Milkio Ghee is a carb & sugar-free product safe for consuming lactose intolerants and casein sensitives. It is keto and paleo diet-friendly.

Milkio ghee offers a high smoke point. It is shelf-stable dairy oil you can store in the kitchen at room temperature for up to 18 months from the manufacturing date. To buy Milkio ghee, please check the Milkio website for product specifications, and/or sales assistance.

If You Wish to partner with us to Import/Buy/Distribute/Trade Our Milkio Ghee products, or for developing Private label ghee products, or contract ghee manufacturing support, Please Feel Free To Contact Us Via Email. We will Be In Touch With You Within the next 48 Hrs.

Features/ benefits of availing our Ghee contract manufacturing service :

• The buyer enjoys complete authority over the product.
• Our relationship with you provides buyers access to advanced skills.
• We specialize in creating high-quality Ghee (Clarified Butter) products, providing buyers with substantial benefits.
• The buyer can control the image, branding, and packaging completely.
  The quality of the product may be better when the buyer sets the standard and testing methods. 
• We can also help you improve a product if you have specific suggestions.
• Lower unit costs
• We would happily discuss your requirements with our Sales and Operations Team.

FAQs

If You Wish to partner with us to Import/Buy/Distribute/Trade Our Milkio products, or for developing Private label ghee and Khoya products, or contract ghee or Mawa manufacturing support, Please Feel Free To Contact Us Via Our Email, We Will Be In Touch With You Within the next 48 Hrs.

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