In the Vedic world, the meal revolves around the yajna, the fire sacrifice. First, the havis (oblation) is prepared: grain cakes, clarified butter, milk, honey, placed in the flames so that Agni may carry them to the gods through the smoke. What remains after the offering, the prasāda, descends back to humans, sanctified. There is no starter-main-dessert: there is what you give to the fire, and what the fire gives back to you. Around it revolve the daily foods of the household (garhapatya) — barley porridges, curdled milk, gruels — making ordinary life between two sacrifices.

Clarified butter is the soul of Vedic cuisine and Agni's favorite food: poured into the flames, it makes the fire flare up instantly, and the hymns of the Rigveda literally call him 'the one who feeds on ghee.' It appears in almost every preparation, oblation or domestic dish — it binds, it gilds, it perfumes, it consecrates.