Nowadays, many different cannabis strains are available to choose from, and you can select the strain strictly by flavor profile. Some strains are selectively bred based on cannabinoid and terpene profiles. Blueberry kush, for example, was created specifically for its sweet, fruity, and sometimes smokey taste and aromas. When you buy a flower at the dispensary, the flower is tested in a laboratory to see the exact percentages of THC, CBD, terpenes, etc. This information can help you select the best-tasting strain for your recipe in terms of dose and flavor. Depending on the strain chosen, it can have a potent flavor, and this is why the selection of the strain and recipe is vital for a delicious outcome. While modern cooking methods and extractions reduce the taste considerably, adding more herbs and spices to your dishes is another way to tone the flavor down. You could use fewer herbs and spices to showcase the cannabis flavor in your dish.
Extractions
A cannabis extract is very similar to other concentrates such as almond, anise, and vanilla extract, except it can be very psychoactive. If you have a high THC extract like a tincture, a couple of drops is a full dose in a recipe. Until you know how the different extracts affect you, it is always recommended to follow the recipes and be cautious; you can always add more. Other extractions methods range from old-school DIY stovetop infusions (which I like making) to extractions like tincture that is better left to a professional with the correct equipment and safety measures. The good news about cooking with cannabis is that you only need to perfect one recipe. Once you have it down to a science, the fun part is incorporating it into different delicacies, sweet or savory, or even drinks!
Weed plants in their raw form do not contain the psychoactive compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Instead, they contain tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), the non-psychoactive cannabinoid that turns into THC when heated to the proper temperature. When cannabis is harvested and cured, the THCA slowly converts into THC. This is why curing is such an essential process, among other reasons. Activating THC is a process known as decarboxylation. Home cannabis extractions are commonly infused fats, mainly butter and oils, because THC in cannabis is almost entirely insoluble in water. Because THC is liposoluble, heating cannabis in fat breaks it down and allows it to bind to the fat, creating an accessible vehicle for introducing activated cannabis into any dish.
The most common homemade extractions:
Canna-butter: This could be butter or ghee (clarified butter), and this is one of the most common and most versatile extractions. It is excellent for making compound butter for a steak, just for toast or pancakes, or even a crusty brownie recipe that calls for butter.
Canna-coconut oil: This is perfect for stirfries and sautees. As a capsule filler for homemade THC or CBD capsules, infused coconut oil also makes an excellent balm for dry skin and an excellent addition to a warm bath.
Canna-olive oil: Any olive oil works. Extra virgin olive oil is recommended because, in some dishes, you want the olive oil flavor to shine through, like in salads and pasta.
Canna-avocado oil is not so common (unless you are health conscious), but I use it a lot because it is the oil I use for most of my cooking. The avocado oil has no flavor, so it will showcase the taste of the strain you put in it, and it has similar health benefits to olive oil but with a higher heat point which means it won’t burn when you cook in high heat. This extraction is excellent for any cooking, even baking.
Tinctures: Tinctures can infuse ANYTHING, even a glass of water. You only need a few drops to get a total dose on anything, and you can find it in a cannabis dispensary and choose the strain. It has minimal flavor, some may have some bitterness, and requires a specific alcohol percentage. It would be best to use food-grade ethanol or grain alcohol like Everclear. I believe that using even the most potent vodka or booze available won’t work as good; especially if you are not experienced making these, you risk your money and effort unless you mean to make an infused booze for cocktails, then go for it; still, I would recommend the options mentioned before. The high alcohol content is then evaporated to create a very concentrated product (FECO) great for infusing sugar, pastries, drinks, salt, gummies, or anything you would like to infuse. FECO is an acronym and stands for Full Extract Cannabis Oil. Often mistaken for RSO, an acronym for Rick Simpson Oil. FECO’s claim to fame is a concentrated, whole-plant extract. You get a wide array of beneficial molecules and terpenes when you use them. And while FECO works well recreationally, it is mainly known for its medical properties and potential. Often available in dispensaries in syringes ready to use, you can place a drop under your tongue or infuse food and drinks.
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Decarboxylation
Scientifically speaking, decarboxylation is a chemical reaction that removes a carboxyl group and releases carbon dioxide (CO2). Usually, decarboxylation refers to a reaction of carboxylic acids, removing a carbon atom from a carbon chain. It is a concept that has been debated at great length. Technically, yes, you can get high from eating raw weed. However, it is an inefficient way to get high. You would have to eat about an eighth of top-shelf bud to feel any effects. Eating that many raw nugs is undoubtedly not going to be appetizing. Is decarbing indispensable? The answer is no. If you want to get a solid mental high from edibles, decarbing is essential. If you’re making topicals, have a low tolerance level, or are primarily looking for other benefits from your herb, a separate decarbing step might be unnecessary. For potent edibles and people with a high tolerance, decarbing is necessary. When making edibles, buds are typically heated in an oven to decarboxylate them and then infused into a medium such as butter or oil. Many argue about the time and temperature used; some say 200F, some say 245F; some say 20 min, some say 45 minutes, etc. Experts agree that approximately 230-250°F is the “sweet spot” temperature to decarb cannabis. In that range, THCA converts to THC while also preserving many other beneficial cannabinoids and terpenes. I am sharing what has worked for many friends who stick to this method and me. The infusion is mainly used to make edibles, such as brownies, cookies, and more. If you wish to make another edible such as gummies, then another kind of extraction is recommended; a tincture would work better.
- The most common recommendation for decarboxylating THCA to THC is to bake the flower at 230° F for 30 minutes.
- The most common recommendation for decarboxylating CBDA to CBD is to bake the flower at 240°F for 90 minutes.
- The most common recommendation for decarboxylating CBGA to CBG is to bake the flower at 220°F for 60 minutes.
- The most common recommendation for degrading THC to CBN is to bake the flower at 240°F for 180 minutes.
How to decarboxylate at home in 6 easy steps:
You will need:
Oven
Rimmed baking sheet
Cannabis flowers
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 230F.
2. Break up cannabis with your hands or a grinder. If a grinder is used in this step, make sure you COARSELY grind it because you don’t want a powder, and skip step 6.
*Contrary to popular myth, grinding your cannabis into powder will not increase the amount of THC or improve your high. It just means that more of the plant material gets into your recipe, giving it a much more bitter taste. When using your hand grinder to break up your cannabis, be mindful of the consistency. You want the finished product to look similar to dried oregano, not powder. Those hairs and stems contain a lot of THC, so you want to preserve them as much as possible.
3. Choosing the right size of the baking sheet is important because you don’t want empty spaces between the pieces or want the pieces to be crammed. Put the pieces on the baking sheet spreading them in one even layer.
4. Bake the cannabis for 25-30 minutes, stirring every few minutes to make sure every little piece bakes evenly as possible.
5. The cannabis color will turn a little darker, a light-medium brown, and has dried out and should be crumbly. Remove from the oven and let it cool.
6. In a food processor or blender, pulse the cannabis and ground COARSELY because you don’t want a powder. Store in a clean and dry airtight container, and your cannabis is ready for any extraction you want to make.
*If using “shake” (the shreds from the flower collected at the bottom of the package), make sure to reduce the time to approx. 25 minutes because it mainly is flakes and specks and requires less time to go through the process than bigger or denser pieces.
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Dosing:
It is clear that cannabis affects everyone differently; it is difficult to be precise in that kind of information here because it will come down to the specifications of the strain you choose. The amount of THC on every strain varies, sometimes wildly.
To set a guideline for general dosing in recipes, I will take a 12% THC cannabis strain as an example: Let’s say you extract 1 oz of a 12% THC herb in 6 cups of oil or butter, then 1 teaspoon of that should have about 10 milligrams of THC. According to tests, this amount is enough for a low tolerance or occasional smoker to feel the effects.
This is the formula to calculate the amount of THC in your recipe:
1 gram of cannabis = 1000 milligrams
10% of 1000 milligrams is 100 milligrams
Assuming we are using “average” marijuana, 1 gram of cannabis contains 100 milligrams of THC.
Now, let’s calculate how many milligrams are in a batch of marijuana butter. For example, I used 1 oz (28 grams) of average quality marijuana to make one cup of butter; that would mean 2800 milligrams of THC went into that 1 cup of butter. THC in a given recipe will depend on the amount of butter used.
If I used 1/2 cup of that cannabutter to make a batch of 36 cookies, then the entire batch would contain 1400 milligrams. In this case, I divided 1400 mg by the number of servings, 36, to determine that each cookie will have about 38.8 milligrams of THC. Easy, right?
To recap in 3 easy steps:
First, you need to estimate the percentage of THC in your plant material (or use the numbers from the lab test) and divide that into 1000 to get the per milligram amount.
Second, calculate the number of milligrams in your infusion and the amount of infusion you will use to make your recipe.
Third, divide that by the number of servings your recipe makes, and you will know the per serving dose.
You can use this formula to create recipes that always ensure you deliver a THC dose that meets your needs. If you find a given recipe has too strong of a dose, cut the amount of cannabutter or oil and dilute with regular butter or oil to make up the difference. Need a more potent punch in your cookies? You can add more THC to your recipe with decarboxylated kief, hash, or oil.
I made a list of some tips that might help to use as guidelines if you are new to this:
1. When cooking with cannabis, the motto is: “Low and slow” because THC degrades in high heat, it is always recommended to cook on medium to low heat when using canna-oils and butter.
2. It might be a good idea to invest in a good oven thermometer because recipes that call for the use of an oven shouldn’t exceed 340F, which is approximately the highest temperature the THC potency stands for without any degradation.
3. Mixing is vital. When recipes call for adding oils or butter, mix or stir for about 1 or 2 minutes to ensure it is evenly distributed through the preparation.
4. If you are new to this, then half serving is recommended until you figure out your tolerance levels and know if you want more potency next time.
5. Edibles with a higher fat content will generally have a longer-lasting effect than those with high sugar content, which will pass through your system more quickly.
6. Orally consumed cannabis can affect the body much more than vaping or smoking. In addition to that, it will take longer to metabolize (feel the effect), somewhere from 45 minutes to 5 hrs (or even more), depending on your metabolism. It is impossible to know how cannabis or edibles affect you until you try it; be cautious and responsible.
7. It would be best if you did not try edibles for the first time on an empty stomach. It is always recommended to eat something else before and to WAIT a reasonable amount of time (hrs or even overnight) until you try another one. Often, people wait some time, and because the effects are still not kicking in, they have more servings than recommended, only to end up unpleasantly high after some time. You don’t want that.
The Marihuana Policy Project has an excellent website recommended for anyone interested in trying edibles for the first time: www.consumeresponsibly.org
The author shall not be liable for any damage or injury alleged to be caused, directly or indirectly, by the information provided here. Neither is responsible for any allergic reaction or adverse reaction to any ingredient (including cannabis). No legal, scientific, or medical advice is intended with this information, and under no circumstances should any cannabis product be given to children without professional medical guidance.