Cannabutter 101
If you want to start making edibles from the comfort of your home, then you’ve come to the right place Learning to make your own infusion, like the ever-popular cannabutter, is the very first building block to your cannabis cuisine journey. Let’s start at the beginning.
What is an infusion?
An infusion describes anything that has been infused with cannabis. You may have heard of cannabutter, aka cannabis-infused butter, which is by far the most popular kind of infusion. However, you can infuse anything that is high in fat: olive oil, coconut oil, MCT oil, full-fat milk, you get the idea. The reason being, THC is highly lipophilic and binds to fat easily with the help of a little heat.
Why make your own cannabutter?
I am a huuuuuge advocate for making your own infusions, and I’ll tell you why. I’m going to get a little science-y on you but this is important. The cannabis plant is made up of 100s of cannabinoids, THC and CBD are the most widely known, that all interact with our internal endocannabinoid system in order to produce health, wellness, and therapeutic benefits. But it isn’t just one cannabinoid that’s responsible for these benefits – it’s all of them working together, often referred to as the entourage effect.
While it’s true you can easily infuse food with store-bought concentrates like distillates, shatter, and wax, these often come with a few negatives to consider. For example, many concentrates on the market are made through chemical processes in order to target one cannabinoid, usually THC. This will still get you high, but it’s a narrow focus on what the plant as a whole offers. On top of that, regulations on cannabis are spotty at best and it’s difficult to truly guarantee that what you’re putting into your food is chemical-free and safe. Using these can be a great short cut but you have to understand the pros and cons in order to make the best decision for you.
Making your own cannabutter, straight from quality flower allows you to use the full plant – terpenes, cannabinoids and all. The result is a crystal clear high, endless opportunity to play with different strains, and absolute control over what goes into your food.
Is there only one way to make cannabutter?
Absolutely not. There are a million different ways and methods and everyone swears by something different. I am laying out one simple way that I’ve used myself for years. The most important thing about infusion is temperature, time, and your ratio of weed to fat.
A quick lesson on dosing.
It’s time to do a little math and if my high ass can do it, so can you. Responsibly dosing your edibles is key to any recipe so let’s crunch some numbers. The math behind figuring out what’s in your infusion looks a little like this:
Let’s say you have 2 grams of weed that has 20% THC. There are 1,000 milligrams in every gram so 20% of 2 grams = 400mg of THC. You’re going to inevitably lose some of that in the infusion process unless you’re a weed magician. Let’s say you get a 75% yield which would leave you with roughly 300mg. If you make a dozen cookies with this infusion, each cookie will have 25mg of THC.
Bam! Easy!
So let’s get into it. (For a video, click here.)
What You’ll Need:
2-5 grams cannabis flower (amount is completely up to your desired strength)
Unsalted butter (again the amount you choose is completely up to you and your desired strength)
Mason jar
Cookie sheet with a lip
Aluminum foil
Grinder
Pot
Water
Strainer (cheesecloth if you have it)
Rubber Spatula (or spoon)
Airtight container
Instructions: (for the instructional video, click here)
Preheat your oven to 235℉.
Line your cookie sheet with aluminum foil.
Grind up your flower. Be sure to not grid it up too fine! It just needs to be broken down slightly.
Place your ground-up flower onto the aluminum foil lined cookie sheet in a single layer. Cover the cookie sheet with more aluminum foil. This will help prevent the flower from burning.
Place the cookie sheet in the oven for 50 minutes. This step is called decarboxylation and it’s what activates the THC in your raw flower. Do not skip this step!
While your flower is decarbing in the oven, fill your mason jar with your butter and screw the lid onto the jar. Fill the pot with water and place the closed jar into the pot, making sure it stays upright. Fill the pot with as much water as possible without tipping the jar over. Remove the jar from the pot and set it aside.
Place the pot filled with water onto the stovetop on medium heat. You want to get the water close to boiling, but not quite.
After 50 minutes have passed, take your decarbed flower out of the oven. Peel the aluminum off of the cookie sheet and carefully dump the flower into the mason jar with your butter. Tightly seal the jar with the lid.
Place your tightly sealed jar, with the butter and flower inside, into the pot of almost boiling water. You should see bubbles on the side of the pot or a slight rolling on the surface. When you reach that sweet spot between boiling and not, lower the heat and keep it that temperature, 185°F to be exact, for the remainder of the infusion process. This may take a little babysitting as the day goes on. Fill the pot with more water and change the temperature as needed. You do not want the water to get too hot, as that will degrade the THC.
Watch your jar and your pot of water for 3-5 hours. Roll a very large joint for yourself.
After 3-5 hours, take your jar out of the pot. Place a strainer over an airtight container and strain the plant matter out of your cannabutter using your rubber spatula. Your infused butter now lives in that airtight container and is all done! Simply place in fridge and allow to harden. Once it’s cool, it’s ready to use in an array of dishes.
Congratulations! You did it. You are now ready to make your cannabis culinary kingdom.