Earn sh20,000 from 1kg of ghee

Milk prices drop to as low as sh400 per litre. However, if you process the same into ghee or butter, earnings rise to as high as sh5,000.

To make a kilogramme of ghee, which averagely costs sh20,000, you need cream from at least three litres of milk.

Ghee

Ghee (omuzigo) can be made from milk, cream, butter and curd.

The quantity of the home-made ghee is low compared to the cream you use.

To make ghee from milk, you need a good amount of cream from the milk. The cream is got after boiling the milk. The top, floating fatty substance is the cream.

The best cream comes from the most concentrated milk. Milk from local Ankole cows produces more cream, followed by the Jersey breed and the last resort is Friesians.

Boil the milk, allow it to cool down then collect cream that will be floating on the top. Filter it and keep it in a stainless steel container with a lid. Most farmers in Uganda use the milking can, while others use the gourd (endeku).

Collect this for at least seven to 10 days to get a good amount of ghee. Currently, a kilogramme of ghee costs between sh15,000 and sh20,000 in Mbarara. The ghee is either packed in branded containers or sold in polythene bags.

Making butter

Use the cream collected from milk (or store-bought cream) to make butter. You can either use a mixer, food processor or you can do it manually without any machine. Both the mixer and food processor cost about sh200,000.

Making butter using food processor/mixer

You need a churning blade to do it.

Simply transfer the cream into the mixer jar, add a cup of water and process it till you see the butter collected separately from the milky water.

Collect the butter in another clean container. Ensure you clean the mixer jar. Note it is a long and irritating process.

Making butter Manually

On the other hand, making butter from cream manually without the food processor and mixer involves taking the cream in a wide container, for example a saucepan, depending on the amount of cream.

Add a cup of water to it. Whisk it using a whisk (wire whip or maththu), which is used to beat the curd.

Beat the cream continuously. The top will become frothy. You will soon see the butter getting separated from the milky water.

The water will become clear in time, drain it and collect the butter.

Wash the butter three times to get all the milky water separated.

Compiled by Joshua Kato (editor, Harvest Money) and Betty Mbazira (AWA Foods)