Raw-Cultured Ghee — Bilona Method (Ghee Appétit, 300ml)

Most ghee on UK shelves starts with pasteurised commodity butter. Ghee Appétit's Raw-Cultured Ghee starts somewhere else entirely — with raw, unpasteurised cream churned within 24 hours of milking, fermented slowly with live lactic cultures, hand-paddled to butter, and only then slow-clarified. This is bilona method in spirit — the classical Indian technique by which ghee was made for thousands of years. Almost no one in the UK makes ghee this way. The cows themselves are an ancient breed, well cared for, giving only a small amount of milk that is unusually high in protein and rich in essential fatty acids. Ghee Appétit's Original Cultured earned a Nourish Gold Award and a Great Taste Award in 2022. The flavour is rounder than ordinary ghee, with a faint tartness — what's known in India as desi ghee, an acquired taste in the best sense. The aroma is more pronounced. This is the ghee the tradition was talking about.