Bilona
The 8-step ancient process of making ghee from cultured curd, using a hand-churned wooden bilona (churner).
Bilona refers to both the wooden churning instrument and the traditional 8-step process derived from it. Milk is boiled, cooled, set into curd overnight, then churned by hand using a wooden bilona to separate butter (makkhan). The butter is then slow-cooked over wood fire until it transforms into ghee, golden, granular, and aromatic. Unlike machine-made ghee that extracts butter directly from cream, the Bilona method's curd-fermentation step develops short-chain fatty acids, vitamins K2 and A, and the characteristic nutty depth that no shortcut can replicate. The entire process takes 36 to 48 hours and requires roughly 30 litres of A2 milk to yield 1 litre of finished ghee.