Frequently Asked Questions

Bilona is the traditional Ayurvedic method, and it starts a step earlier than most people expect. Instead of making ghee from cream, we ferment fresh milk into curd overnight, hand-churn that curd with a wooden bilona to lift out the white butter (makhan), then slow-cook the butter on a low flame until the water cooks off and the milk solids settle out golden.

It takes far more milk, and several times longer, than the industrial method. That is the whole reason it tastes the way it does.

Most ghee on Canadian shelves is made by melting cream at high temperature in a continuous industrial process — fast, consistent and cheap. It is a perfectly good cooking fat. It just is not the same product.

• Base: we start from fermented curd, not cream. The fermentation is what creates the nutty, faintly tangy aroma.
• Heat: slow-cooked on a low flame instead of flashed at high temperature.
• Batch size: small batches made by hand, so each one is watched rather than metered.
• Additives: none at all.

One ingredient: milk. Nothing else goes in — no preservatives, no added colour, no flavouring, no vegetable oil, no anti-oxidants.

The golden colour shifts a little from batch to batch with the season and the cows' feed. A slightly deeper or paler jar is a sign of a real small-batch product, not a fault.

Fresh desi cow milk from farms in Saskatchewan. Every batch is made by us in Rosthern, Saskatchewan — we do not outsource production.

We know our farmers by name. If you want to know more about how the milk is sourced, just ask.

Yes. Gobind Ghee and Food Inc. is certified under the Canada Organic Regime (COR) — the federal standard behind the Canada Organic logo.

• Certifying body: Pro-Cert Organic Systems Ltd.
• Registration number: 26-2451
• Date of certification: 8 July 2026

Certification means our production plan, our records and our facility are inspected by an independent certifier, and renewed by annual inspection. It is not a label we gave ourselves.

No — and we would rather you did not. Ghee is pure butterfat. The slow-cook stage drives off every trace of water and strains out the milk solids, and it is water and milk solids that let anything grow. That is what makes ghee shelf-stable, and it is why it has been stored in cupboards for thousands of years.

A sealed jar keeps for 12 months in a cool, dark cupboard away from the stove. Refrigerating it is not harmful, but it sets the ghee rock-hard and invites condensation into the jar every time you open it — which is the one thing that genuinely shortens its life.

The only rule that matters: always use a clean, dry spoon.

12 months unopened, stored cool and dark. Once opened it keeps just as well, as long as only clean dry cutlery goes into the jar — water and crumbs are the only real enemies.

Trust your nose. Fresh ghee smells nutty, sweet and faintly caramel. Ghee that has finally turned smells sharp or sour and tastes bitter; it is unmistakable, and it is rare. If a jar ever smells wrong to you, email us.

All completely normal — and a sign there are no emulsifiers in it.

Pure ghee sets differently depending on temperature. Below about 20 °C it goes firm, pale and often grainy. Above about 28 °C it turns liquid and deep gold. One jar can even set in two layers, grainy underneath and smooth on top, if it cooled unevenly in transit — which happens a lot in a Canadian winter.

None of it affects quality, flavour or shelf life. Stir it, or stand the jar somewhere warm for an hour, and it comes back together.

For the great majority of people, yes. Lactose and casein live in the milk solids, and the slow-cook stage of the Bilona process is precisely what separates those solids out — they are strained away before the ghee is jarred. What is left is essentially pure butterfat.

Traces can remain, so we will not claim it is zero. If you are lactose intolerant, ghee is usually very well tolerated. If you have a diagnosed dairy or milk-protein allergy, please speak to your doctor first — we cannot guarantee a completely casein-free product.

Yes to both. Ghee is a dairy product, so it suits a vegetarian diet but not a vegan one. It contains no gluten ingredients, and nothing at all is added to the jar.

It is also a staple of Ayurvedic and satvik cooking.

Anywhere you would use butter or oil, and a few places you would not.

• High heat: ghee has a smoke point around 250 °C — well above butter and most olive oils — so it genuinely suits frying, tempering and roasting.
• Every day: a spoon in dal, on roti or rice, in halwa and sweets.
• Simple: spread on toast, stirred into coffee, or melted over popcorn.

A little goes further than butter — start with about two-thirds of what the recipe asks for.

Per 1 tablespoon (14 g) serving:

• Calories 130 kcal
• Total fat 14 g, of which saturated 9 g
• Cholesterol 35 mg
• Sodium 0 mg
• Protein 0 g
• Vitamin A 8% DV

Values may vary slightly between batches. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

It depends how often you cook with it — and honestly, most people under-buy the first time and come back for a bigger jar.

• 400 ml — $27. A genuine try-before-you-commit size. About a month for one or two people using it a few times a week.
• 800 ml — $45. Our most popular jar and the right pick for most families. Works out noticeably cheaper per litre than the 400 ml.
• 3.8 L — $200. The best value per litre we offer — roughly $53 a litre against $56 for the 800 ml — and the size that ships free.

If you cook with ghee daily, the 3.8 L pays for itself. If you are trying us for the first time, the 800 ml is the sweet spot.

Right across Canada, to the United States, and to 26 other countries.

• Canada — free over $200. Below that, standard shipping is $19.99 and express is $24.99.
• United States — free over $200. Below that, from $7.90 depending on parcel weight; express is $34.90.
• Everywhere else (the UK, Australia, Germany, Japan, Singapore and 21 more) — live Canada Post rates, calculated at checkout by weight and destination.

All prices in Canadian dollars. Ghee is heavy, and we charge close to what the courier charges us. The 3.8 L jar clears the free-shipping threshold on its own.

We pack and ship from Rosthern, Saskatchewan, usually within 1–2 business days of your order.

Canada Post transit times from Saskatchewan are typically:

• Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba — 2–4 business days
• British Columbia — 3–6 business days
• Ontario and Quebec — 4–7 business days
• Atlantic Canada and the territories — 5–10 business days

You will get a tracking number by email as soon as the parcel is scanned. Peak periods and prairie weather can add a day or two.

Yes, if you catch us before it ships. Email gobindgheeandfood@gmail.com with your order number as soon as you can and we will change the size, correct the address, or cancel it outright.

Once a parcel is with Canada Post we cannot recall it — but we will still help you sort it out.

Tell us straight away and we will make it right. Email gobindgheeandfood@gmail.com with your order number and a photo of the jar and the box, and we will arrange a replacement or a refund.

Because ghee is a food product we cannot resell an opened jar, so we do not accept general returns of opened food. Our full terms are in our refund policy.

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Yes. Leave a review on any product page and we will send you a code for 10% off your next order. It appears on screen the moment you submit, and it lands in your inbox too.

Reviews genuinely help a small family business, and we read every single one.

We do. If you run a health food store, a restaurant, a grocery or an Ayurvedic clinic, we would love to stock our ghee with you.

Head to our contact page, choose Wholesale in the enquiry dropdown, and we will send trade pricing and minimum order quantities.