Do you want to infuse your simple kitchen butter with the therapeutic potential of cannabis? Though you can buy pre-made cannabutter from a licensed dispensary, a homemade recipe can be a treat for both your tastebuds and your mind.
Making your own cannabutter can be easy and fun! In this article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know, including a step-by-step recipe and a few ideas for cooking with cannabutter.
Key Takeaways
- The ingredients you need for cannabutter are cannabis and butter.
- You can use water to help regulate the temperature when making your homemade cannabutter.
- Grind and decarboxylate your cannabis flower before infusing the butter.
- Store cannabutter in a glass jar in the fridge. You can use it anytime you’re whipping something up in the kitchen!
- Pay attention to dosage when cooking with cannabutter. It’s always better to start small and increase the concentration of cannabis later on.
Let’s get started!
See Related: Does CBD Show Up On A Drug Test?
What Ingredients Do You Need to Make Cannabutter?
To make cannabutter, you’ll need to gather cannabis flower. Look for a high-quality cannabis flower with a suitable THC concentration. Always buy your cannabis or CBD from a reputable company like Clean Remedies.
It might be obvious from the name, but butter is the other main ingredient needed to make cannabutter. It’s best to use butter that has a high fat content, but you can also use vegan butter. Even if you’re counting calories, don’t use fat-free butter. This will ruin the consistency, flavor, and potency of your cannabutter.
To make cannabutter, you also need water. Water keeps the temperature balanced and helps prevent burning and overheating. It’s best to make cannabutter with a double boiler, but if you don’t have a double boiler, you can just add water to the melted butter as it cooks.
Is Special Equipment Required to Make Cannabutter?
The most important piece of equipment you’ll need is a grinder. You’ll need to grind the cannabis into a rough powder before steeping it in the butter. A coffee grinder will work, or you can get a grinder specifically designed for cannabis.
Next, you’ll need cheesecloth or an extremely fine metal sieve to strain the cannabis out of the butter after it’s finished infusing.
Basic kitchen equipment, such as a parchment-lined baking sheet, a pot (or a crockpot or double boiler), and a spatula, will also be used. Get a few glass jars for storage, though you can use your mom’s old Tupperware if you’re in a pinch.
5 Steps to Make Cannabutter
Step #1: Grind the Cannabis Flower
Start by breaking up the cannabis flower in your grinder. Don’t grind the flower into a fine powder; aim for about the size of a ground herb.
A standard size used in research is 2 mm. That’s about the size of the tip of a dull pencil, and it’s a good measurement to aim for.
Step #2: Decarb the Cannabis
Decarboxylation is a crucial step when making any cannabis edibles. This process changes a compound called THCA, which is found in cannabis flower, into THC.
To decarb your cannabis flower, spread the ground flower on a baking sheet and bake it at a low temperature (between 230 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit) for about 30 minutes.
If your plant material is fresh and wet, you’ll want to bake it for longer (around 45 minutes). If it’s very dry, bake it for a shorter amount of time (about 20 minutes). Be sure to stir every five to ten minutes.
Your cannabis flower should turn from a vivid, fresh green into a duller, brownish-green color. That’s when you’ll know it’s done!
Step #3: Simmer Your Cannabutter
Melt regular butter on the stove or in a crock pot. Add some water and the decarbed cannabis to the melted butter and let it simmer on your stove at low heat for two to three hours. If you have a thermometer, check that the temperature is between 150 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to use melted butter for this. You can also infuse weed into olive oil, vegetable oil, or coconut oil. Just be sure not to use fat-free or low-fat butter because the THC bonds to oil and fat.
Step #4: Strain Your Cannabutter
When your homemade cannabis-infused butter is done simmering, pour it into your chosen container through a cheesecloth. You can also use a very fine metal sieve, but it might not be quite as effective at filtering out the ground cannabis.
Step #5: Store Your Cannabutter
Store your cannabis infusion in the fridge, ideally in a glass jar. You might want a dark-colored jar because light can cause THC to break down.
After your cannabutter has cooled, if you had used water in the pot instead of a double boiler, you should drain it. At this point, the cannabutter should be a solid block floating on top of the water. You can just hold the solidified butter in place with your finger while you pour the water out.
Bonus: Is Marijuana Legal In Ohio?
Tips for Making the Best Cannabutter
Use High-Quality Butter
Depending on your needs, you can use salted or unsalted butter. Regardless, make sure the butter you use is of great quality. It’s pretty simple: use good ingredients and get good results! Vegan butters or other oils will also work, but a high-fat, high-quality butter is optimal.
That’s not to say that cheap butter won’t work, but it just might not taste nearly as good when making weed-infused butter. Why not splurge on high-quality ingredients to make it extra flavorful? Your tastebuds deserve only the best!
Monitor the Temperature
It’s a good idea to use a thermometer to keep track of the temperature, especially if your cannabis butter is having trouble. A lot of the THC can evaporate if the temperature is above 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Including water in the process also helps keep the temperature stable. If you simmer for a long time, you might need to add more water to prevent overheating. You can even use a double boiler to prevent the delicate cannabutter from being overheated.
Experiment
When you’re making any kind of homemade edibles, you need to experiment to find out what works best for you. Not only should you experiment to determine your ideal dosage, but you also need to figure out what temperature and cooking time work best in your kitchen with your ingredients.
For example, you should usually decarboxylate your cannabis for roughly 30 minutes at a temperature between 230 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit. These are only guidelines! A lot of this comes down to the specific ingredients you use and personal preferences.
Regardless, you don’t want to overshoot — research shows that cooking your cannabis too hot or for too long can break down the THC and other compounds in the cannabis.
Figuring Out Dosages With Cannabutter
The dosage you end up with can't be more than what’s in the leaves you started with. However, since the THC is activated by decarboxylation, the finished cannabutter may be more concentrated and potent.
You can calculate the dosage in your cannabis edibles by multiplying the weight of the flower you started with by the concentration of THCA in the cannabis. Then, multiply it again by 0.6 or 0.7, which is approximately the amount of THC you can extract at home.
For example, if you added 1.8 grams of flower with a THCA content of 25%, you’d end up with about 0.32 grams, or 320 milligrams, of THC in the finished batch. (That’s 1.8 x 0.25 = 0.46, and then 0.46 x 0.7 = 0.32.) That happens to be a THC content of 10 milligrams (a standard dose) per half-tablespoon.
This calculation doesn’t always work perfectly - it’s just a general estimation. The amount of THC you can extract depends wildly on cooking time and temperatures, so it’s probably better to try a small amount of your cannabutter and see how your body reacts to it. Then, you can adjust the dose accordingly for your next batch.
How to Use Cannabutter for Edibles
Cannabutter can be used in place of regular butter in any kitchen recipe. It can replace the butter in cookies or the oil in cake. You can also cook with cannabutter to infuse THC into savory dishes like stir-fries.
Pay attention to dosage when cooking with cannabutter. If you’ve followed the concentration in the example above, one dose should be about half a tablespoon of butter, so make sure there’s no more butter than that in each serving. If necessary, you can mix both cannabutter and regular butter to get the dosage right.
You should be aware of how much one serving size is for any given recipe you’ll be making with cannabutter. For example, if you’re making cookies, you probably shouldn’t use one serving of cannabutter in every cookie since one person could easily eat two or three cookies.
When in doubt, always start small. You can increase the dosage later if so desired!
How Do You Store Cannabutter?
Cannabis butter should be stored in a sealed container in the fridge. Glass jars are ideal because they’re the most airtight storage method. Dark-colored or opaque containers are also a good idea since light can break down THC compounds over time.
Cannabutter can also be frozen. However, you should not freeze it in a glass jar, as many liquids contract or expand when frozen, which could crack the glass.
How Long Does Cannabutter Last?
Cannabutter usually lasts three to four weeks in a glass jar in the fridge. The shelf life can vary, so you should check up on your butter occasionally and throw it away if it starts to smell rancid. It can last up to six months in the freezer, although it might get weaker and start picking up freezer odors after about four months.
Final Thoughts
Making your own cannabutter is surprisingly easy and is a great way to enhance your favorite culinary dishes. You don’t need to be the next Gordon Ramsay to pull it off - all you need are some simple pieces of equipment, cannabis, and butter. The most challenging part of this process is just waiting for the butter to simmer and infuse.
If you follow the tips in this article — use quality ingredients, pay attention to temperature, and experiment for yourself — you can make some fantastic cannabutter in your own home. You know how to calculate dosages, and you know how to use your cannabutter to easily cook new edibles.
So what are you waiting for? Gather your ingredients, collect your tools, and get cooking!
Keep Reading: Understanding The Different Types Of Psychedelic Mushrooms
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Best Ratio for Cannabutter?
The best ratio depends on your preference. Some recipes call for a cup of cannabis flower for every cup of butter, but that ends up extremely potent. If you want to eat lots of butter, such as on bread, you’ll want to have a very low ratio.
How Long Does It Take to Make Cannabutter?
It usually takes about three hours for cannabutter to simmer, but some recipes call for four hours. If your stove runs relatively hot, infusing your cannabutter for three hours can cause some of the THC to evaporate. If this starts to happen to you, two hours may be better.
How Many Sticks of Butter per Ounce for Cannabutter?
First, you need to understand that an ounce of cannabis is a lot of cannabis. Even an incredibly concentrated, seven-gram cannabutter recipe only requires a quarter of an ounce.
A stick of butter is half a cup, so to get that extremely high concentration, you’d need eight sticks of butter for one ounce of marijuana. For a low-concentration recipe, you’ll need roughly 30 sticks of butter per ounce.
Making cannabutter by the ounce is pretty impractical, and you’ll likely be unable to use that amount of butter before it goes bad.
Do You Have to Add Water to Butter When Making Cannabutter?
Adding water to the butter helps prevent it from overheating. You can also prevent overheating by using a double boiler, but you should probably add water if you don’t have one. Don’t worry; you can drain it out later!
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