Ghee glossary: desi ghee, A2, Gir, bilona, danedar and the other words on the jar

Desi ghee in English is traditional Indian clarified butter: butterfat cooked until its water is gone and its milk solids have browned. Desi means native, and on a ghee jar it means either milk from indigenous Indian cows or simply real ghee rather than vanaspati. The rest of the words on the label are defined below, each in a sentence or two.

The terms

Ghee: Clarified butter made the Indian way. Butter is heated until all its water has evaporated and the milk solids have browned and been strained out, leaving nearly pure butterfat that keeps at room temperature. In India it is made from cow or buffalo milk.
Desi ghee: Desi means native or of the country. Desi ghee is used in two senses: strictly, ghee made from the milk of indigenous Indian cow breeds; in everyday shop language, any real milk ghee as opposed to vanaspati. In English, desi ghee is best translated as traditional Indian clarified butter.
Clarified butter: Butter with the water and milk solids removed. Western clarified butter is usually stopped as soon as the solids separate; ghee is cooked longer, until the solids brown, which gives it a nutty flavour and a longer shelf life. All ghee is clarified butter; not all clarified butter is ghee.
A2 (A2 beta-casein): One of two common forms of beta-casein, a milk protein. A2 differs from A1 by a single amino acid at position 67 of the protein chain. Indigenous Indian cattle produce mostly A2 milk. Ghee has almost no protein left in it, so A2 ghee describes the milk the ghee was made from, not the ghee itself.
A1 (A1 beta-casein): The other common form of beta-casein, carrying histidine where A2 carries proline. It arose as a mutation in European cattle and is common in Holstein-Friesian and other European-origin breeds. Many cows carry one copy of each and give mixed milk.
Gir: An indigenous Indian cattle breed from the Gir forest region of Saurashtra in Gujarat. Gir cows are Bos indicus (humped) cattle with long drooping ears and a domed forehead, and are one of the main dairy breeds among Indian cattle. Their milk carries the A2 beta-casein.
Desi cow: An indigenous Indian cattle breed, as opposed to European breeds or crossbreds. Gir, Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar, Kankrej and Rathi are examples. Desi cows are Bos indicus and typically give less milk than crossbreds.
Bilona: The wooden churn used to beat curd into butter, and by extension the traditional method of making ghee by culturing whole milk into curd, churning the curd into butter and simmering the butter. It takes 25 to 30 litres of milk to make one litre of bilona ghee.
Makkhan: White butter, the soft unsalted butter that gathers when curd or cream is churned. It still holds some buttermilk and water. Makkhan is the stage between curd and ghee in the bilona method and is also eaten fresh.
Malai: The layer of cream that rises and sets on milk after it is boiled and cooled. In many homes malai is skimmed and collected over several days, then cultured and churned into butter for ghee. Ghee made this way is cream-based, not curd-churned.
Dahi (curd): Milk set into a thick, sour gel by a live culture. In the bilona method, whole milk is set into dahi overnight and the entire curd is churned the next morning.
Chaas (takra, mattha): The cultured buttermilk left after curd has been churned and the butter removed. It is the by-product of the bilona method and is drunk salted and spiced or used in cooking.
Danedar: Grainy. Danedar ghee has a granular texture formed when the fat crystallises as it cools slowly. It is typical of slow-cooled ghee, including bilona ghee, and is harmless. Grain alone does not prove that ghee is pure or that it was curd-churned.
Cultured ghee: Ghee made from butter that was fermented (cultured) before clarifying, either as curd or as soured cream. Bilona ghee is always cultured, because the milk is set into curd first.
Cream-separated ghee (centrifuge ghee): Ghee made by spinning cream out of milk in a centrifuge and then heating the cream until the water is gone and the solids brown. There is no curd stage. This is how most commercial ghee is made because it is fast and scales well.
Vanaspati: Hydrogenated vegetable oil, usually palm-based, sold as a solid cooking fat and once marketed as vegetable ghee. It contains no milk. It is the classic adulterant of ghee, and Indian rules require sesame oil to be added to vanaspati so that a laboratory test can detect it in ghee.
Shuddh: Pure. A common word on ghee labels with no regulatory definition. It is a claim, not a grade.
Smoke point: The temperature at which a fat begins to smoke steadily. Ghee smokes at roughly 250 degrees Celsius, higher than butter because the water and milk solids that burn first have been removed, which is why it suits frying and tadka.
Tadka (tempering): Frying whole spices briefly in hot fat and pouring the mixture over a dish. Ghee is a traditional tadka fat because of its high smoke point and flavour.
FSSAI: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, the national food regulator. Every packaged food sold in India must carry the maker's FSSAI licence number. FSSAI standards define ghee by its composition; they do not define bilona, A2 or desi.
Agmark: A quality grading mark for agricultural products administered by the Government of India's Directorate of Marketing and Inspection. Ghee is one of the products that can be graded under Agmark. Its use is voluntary.

Three words that are often run together

Desi, A2 and bilona describe three different things: where the cow is from, which protein is in its milk, and how the ghee was made. A jar can truthfully carry all three, or any one without the others. Organic Farmz ghee is made from Gir cow milk (desi, A2) by churning curd (bilona), in Delhi, and sells it by the litre: Rs 1,400 a litre for 1 to 2 litres, Rs 1,300 a litre for 3 to 4 litres and Rs 1,200 a litre for 5 litres or more.

Questions people ask

What is desi ghee called in English?

Desi ghee is best translated as traditional Indian clarified butter. The word ghee itself is now an English word and appears in English dictionaries, so most people simply say ghee. Clarified butter is the nearest equivalent but is usually cooked less than ghee.

What does desi ghee mean?

Desi means native, local or of the country. Strictly, desi ghee is ghee made from the milk of indigenous Indian cows such as Gir or Sahiwal. In everyday use it also means real ghee made from milk, as opposed to vanaspati or blended fats.

Is A2 ghee the same as desi ghee?

They overlap but are not the same word. A2 describes a milk protein; desi describes the origin of the cow. Indigenous Indian cows give A2 milk, so ghee from a desi cow is normally A2 ghee. Neither word says anything about how the ghee was made.

Is bilona ghee the same as A2 ghee?

No. Bilona is a method: churning curd rather than separating cream. A2 refers to the protein in the source milk. Ghee can be bilona but not A2, or A2 but not bilona. Organic Farmz ghee is both: Gir cow milk, churned from curd.

Also in this reference

The bilona method: how ghee is made from curdThe traditional curd-churned process step by step, the 25-to-30-litre ratio, and how it differs from cream-separated ghee.
A2 vs A1 milk: what differs, and what is not provenThe one-amino-acid difference between the two beta-casein proteins, which cows carry which, and where the health evidence stops.
How to check ghee purity at homeThe kitchen tests that screen ghee for common adulterants, what each one can and cannot show, and when only a laboratory will do.