For Your Inspiration, a Butter Sculpture at the Minnesota State Fair
Cannabutter
This recipe is derived from hundreds of conversations with bakers who make their own cannabis pastries. The big challenges with making your own edibles are controlling the strength, consistency of strength from batch to batch, and subduing the plant taste. Please read the footnotes, which may help avoid some unexpected outcomes. Feel free to alter proportions or time to experiment on your own.
Decarboxylation may be unnecessary when making cannabutter or baking -- decarboxylation (conversion of the unstable carboxylic acid THC-COOH to THC -- usually described as THCA to THC). The time and heat required for making butter and then whatever time and heat are needed for baking should exceed that needed for decarboxylation. Nevertheless, it may be incomplete unless the weed is first decarboxylated at 225 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. Or not...
Similarly, grinding may increase the extraction of cannabinoids from the bud or shake by the oil, but it is certainly messy. Grinding shake may also increase the "green taste" of the butter that many object to. Chopping the bud/shake is probably adequate -- this is not precise science! For what it is worth, commercial processors have to eliminate as much variability among batches as possible, so they do decarboxylate and grind. For us amateurs, however, there is so much variability already built into the process that neither is probably very important.
3 ounces good (top of the plant) shake (trimmings or "popcorn") or 1 ounce of bud (1)
1 pound butter
1 cup of water (2)
Melt the butter in a Crockpot, and stir in the shake. Add the water. Set the Crockpot on the lowest temperature for at least 3 hours, or overnight if you want to try to extract as much cannabinoid as possible.. The house will be very fragrant, or stinky, depending on your tolerance of the spell of weed.
The next morning, line a bowl with a double layer of cheesecloth (or pastry cloth), pour in the butter/shake/water mixture, lift the edges of the cheesecloth, and wring the liquid out of the mixture into the bowl. Discard the shake and cheesecloth.
Place the bowl in the refrigerator until the butter has hardened. Remove the butter with a spatula or knife, and discard the green stinky water. Use cannabutter in place of regular butter for recipes.
Or better yet, try one of those fancy butter-making machines. Not very expensive, and a whole lot easier.
_________________
(1) Some growers are happy to give you shake at little or no cost. You can use volume measurements (about 2 cups). but I strongly advise using a kitchen scale. Weight, not volume, is the best way of standardizing the potency of cannabis from one batch to another. You can use bud (most would prefer to use the pricier bud in other ways), but you will have to reduce the weight to about an ounce. The cultivar (strain) of weed that you use for edibles, in general, is not important and certainly is not important for cannabutter. Any old weed you have lying around will probably work just fine. Bud has less taste. Do not grind your shake -- if you do, you guarantee a potent weed-y smell and taste.
Respect the variability of weed from one batch to another, from one plant to another, from one cultivar to another, and over time. Try to be consistent in proportions, but ultimately every batch will probably vary from the previous. Trial and error is a necessary part of preparing edibles.
(2) Or more, if you wish. The water is important for two reasons. It prevents burning of the butter and it absorbs the plant taste and greenness. The cannabinoids are completely water insoluble – they are fats. You will not lose any of the chemicals (medicine) in the water, but you will get rid of some of the plant taste, and odor. Of course, bud is much less stinky and has much less taste than leaf/shake.
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Alternative recipe -- more work, less time.
Before making the butter, seal an ounce of cannabis tightly in aluminum foil, so that the packet of cannabis is about 1/2 thick. Put the foil packet on a baking sheet in a preheated oven at 325 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove the cannabis, let it cool. Then throw it in the butter over very low heat (like a crockpot) for a couple of hours, stirring frequently. The resulting butter will be plenty potent. One pat will be a significant dose with considerable psychoactivity. For a novice, I¹d recommend about a sixth of a pat, or half that if made with potent dispensary cannabis.
This recipe is derived from hundreds of conversations with bakers who make their own cannabis pastries. The big challenges with making your own edibles are controlling the strength, consistency of strength from batch to batch, and subduing the plant taste. Please read the footnotes, which may help avoid some unexpected outcomes. Feel free to alter proportions or time to experiment on your own.
Decarboxylation may be unnecessary when making cannabutter or baking -- decarboxylation (conversion of the unstable carboxylic acid THC-COOH to THC -- usually described as THCA to THC). The time and heat required for making butter and then whatever time and heat are needed for baking should exceed that needed for decarboxylation. Nevertheless, it may be incomplete unless the weed is first decarboxylated at 225 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. Or not...
Similarly, grinding may increase the extraction of cannabinoids from the bud or shake by the oil, but it is certainly messy. Grinding shake may also increase the "green taste" of the butter that many object to. Chopping the bud/shake is probably adequate -- this is not precise science! For what it is worth, commercial processors have to eliminate as much variability among batches as possible, so they do decarboxylate and grind. For us amateurs, however, there is so much variability already built into the process that neither is probably very important.
3 ounces good (top of the plant) shake (trimmings or "popcorn") or 1 ounce of bud (1)
1 pound butter
1 cup of water (2)
Melt the butter in a Crockpot, and stir in the shake. Add the water. Set the Crockpot on the lowest temperature for at least 3 hours, or overnight if you want to try to extract as much cannabinoid as possible.. The house will be very fragrant, or stinky, depending on your tolerance of the spell of weed.
The next morning, line a bowl with a double layer of cheesecloth (or pastry cloth), pour in the butter/shake/water mixture, lift the edges of the cheesecloth, and wring the liquid out of the mixture into the bowl. Discard the shake and cheesecloth.
Place the bowl in the refrigerator until the butter has hardened. Remove the butter with a spatula or knife, and discard the green stinky water. Use cannabutter in place of regular butter for recipes.
Or better yet, try one of those fancy butter-making machines. Not very expensive, and a whole lot easier.
_________________
(1) Some growers are happy to give you shake at little or no cost. You can use volume measurements (about 2 cups). but I strongly advise using a kitchen scale. Weight, not volume, is the best way of standardizing the potency of cannabis from one batch to another. You can use bud (most would prefer to use the pricier bud in other ways), but you will have to reduce the weight to about an ounce. The cultivar (strain) of weed that you use for edibles, in general, is not important and certainly is not important for cannabutter. Any old weed you have lying around will probably work just fine. Bud has less taste. Do not grind your shake -- if you do, you guarantee a potent weed-y smell and taste.
Respect the variability of weed from one batch to another, from one plant to another, from one cultivar to another, and over time. Try to be consistent in proportions, but ultimately every batch will probably vary from the previous. Trial and error is a necessary part of preparing edibles.
(2) Or more, if you wish. The water is important for two reasons. It prevents burning of the butter and it absorbs the plant taste and greenness. The cannabinoids are completely water insoluble – they are fats. You will not lose any of the chemicals (medicine) in the water, but you will get rid of some of the plant taste, and odor. Of course, bud is much less stinky and has much less taste than leaf/shake.
_________________
Alternative recipe -- more work, less time.
Before making the butter, seal an ounce of cannabis tightly in aluminum foil, so that the packet of cannabis is about 1/2 thick. Put the foil packet on a baking sheet in a preheated oven at 325 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove the cannabis, let it cool. Then throw it in the butter over very low heat (like a crockpot) for a couple of hours, stirring frequently. The resulting butter will be plenty potent. One pat will be a significant dose with considerable psychoactivity. For a novice, I¹d recommend about a sixth of a pat, or half that if made with potent dispensary cannabis.