Ghee - Ayurveda's Golden Elixir
What Ayurveda Really Says About Ghee (And Why It Isn't Just Melted Butter)
If you've ever come across Ayurveda, chances are you've heard of ghee—a golden fat that is revered for its nourishing, rejuvenating and medicinal qualities.
Growing up, I thought I knew exactly what ghee was. It was the delicious buttery liquid that was generously spread over hot chapatis, spooned onto rice and somehow managed to make every meal taste better.
Like many people, I also thought making ghee was simple: melt some butter, strain it, and you're done.
But as I delved deeper into Ayurveda, I realised there was much more to this humble ingredient than I had ever imagined.
In fact, one of the biggest lessons I learnt was that the secret isn't in the melting—it's in everything that comes before.
What does Ayurveda actually say about ghee?
Ayurveda doesn't reserve its praise lightly, yet ghee is spoken about with remarkable reverence throughout the classical texts.
The Ashtanga Hridaya, one of Ayurveda's foundational texts, describes ghee as beneficial for those wishing to enhance:
- Dhi – intellect
- Smriti – memory
- Medha – discriminative ability
- Agni – digestion and metabolism
- Bala – strength and immunity
- Āyu – longevity
- Shukra – reproductive vitality
- Chakshus – vision
The text also explains that ghee is suitable for both the young and the elderly. It is nourishing, rejuvenating, cooling in nature, pacifies Vāta and Pitta, supports complexion and voice, and serves as one of the finest carriers for herbal medicines.
That's an impressive list.
It's no wonder that ghee has earned its reputation as one of Ayurveda's most celebrated foods.
However, there's an important caveat.
The benefits described in the Ayurvedic texts assume that the ghee has been prepared according to the traditional method.
Is ghee the same as clarified butter?
This was probably the biggest surprise for me.
For years, I thought ghee and clarified butter were interchangeable. Technically, clarified butter is made by gently heating butter until the water evaporates and the milk solids separate. Traditional Ayurvedic ghee, however, begins much earlier in the process. Rather than starting with butter, it starts with milk.
That distinction completely changed how I understood ghee.
How traditional Ayurvedic ghee is made
When I first started researching how to make ghee according to Ayurveda, it felt like falling down a rabbit hole.
I even came across references suggesting that every household should ideally have its own cow. Having recently tidied our garden, I briefly started wondering whether this was a realistic possibility... thankfully, my husband brought me back to reality!
Traditionally, the process looks something like this:
- Fresh milk is boiled.
- It is cooled and cultured into yoghurt using a starter culture.
- The yoghurt is churned to separate cultured butter from buttermilk.
- The cultured butter is then gently heated to produce ghee.
The defining feature is the fermentation step.
By allowing the milk to transform into yoghurt before churning, you're not simply producing butter—you're creating cultured butter, which is then transformed into ghee.
This multi-step process is what has traditionally distinguished Ayurvedic ghee from clarified butter.
My own experiments with making ghee
Curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to try making cultured ghee myself.
First, I made it entirely from milk.
It took two days, several litres of milk and far more patience than I'd anticipated. By the end, I had a relatively small amount of beautifully aromatic ghee—and a much greater appreciation for why this process has traditionally been considered so valuable.
Then I tried another traditional approach: starting with cream instead of whole milk. The cream was first cultured into yoghurt, churned into butter and finally transformed into ghee. Because cream contains much less water than milk, the process was considerably quicker and produced a much larger yield.
From an Ayurvedic perspective, both methods produce genuine cultured ghee because they include the crucial fermentation step. Traditionally, ghee made from whole milk is regarded as the gold standard, while cultured cream ghee is considered slightly heavier and more nourishing. In practice, however, the differences are subtle, and both honour the traditional method far more closely than simply melting butter.
Does the quality of the milk matter?
One question kept coming back to me throughout this journey.
If the quality of the final ghee depends on the quality of the butter... and the quality of the butter depends on the quality of the milk... then perhaps one of the most important questions isn't how we make ghee, but where the milk comes from in the first place.
Ayurveda speaks very highly of milk, but it's worth remembering that the dairy systems of today are very different from those that existed thousands of years ago.
Rather than striving for perfection, I think this invites us to become more conscious consumers.
If you choose to include dairy in your diet, consider where it comes from. Support local and ethical producers where possible. Small, thoughtful choices often have a greater impact than chasing the "perfect" ingredient.
So... should everyone eat ghee?
One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding ghee is that because Ayurveda praises it so highly, everyone should be eating large quantities of it every day.
That isn't what the classical texts teach.
Ayurveda doesn't prescribe a universal amount of ghee for everyone. Instead, it asks a different question:
Can you digest it?
The same ghee that nourishes one person may feel heavy for another. Your digestive strength (agni), constitution, season, activity levels and current state of health all influence whether ghee will truly serve you.
As with so many aspects of Ayurveda, context is everything.
Final thoughts
What started as a simple curiosity about how to make ghee turned into a much deeper lesson.
I learnt that Ayurveda isn't only concerned with what we eat—it also cares about how our food is prepared, where it comes from, and whether our body is ready to receive it.
For me, that's been the biggest takeaway from this journey.
The secret isn't simply in the melting. It's in everything that comes before.
