To Grow or Not to Grow: Part 4

Part Four/Four-Part Series: Making Cannabis Infused Foods

By Alex Robles

Well my fellow cannabis enthusiasts, it looks like our time together here at “To Grow or not To Grow” is coming to an end. It’s been a fun time for me and I hope this series helped you understand cannabis a little better. Before we say good-bye, let’s do one more fun thing with our beautiful home-grown cannabis. Let’s make some cannabis infused foods.

We understand how to cook with cannabis better today than we did 25 years ago. Back then, it was more like wizardry than science if you could make a good batch of edibles that weren’t too strong. Luckily we now live in the future and the home chef can get pretty sophisticated with cannabis.

Before we get into cooking, I want to encourage you to have a high CBD tincture on hand when you’re eating food infused with THC. CBD will help dampen the intoxicating effects of THC. t’s easy to overdo it and forget when we’re eating THC in delicious food. CBD won’t bring you to “sober,” but it will help lessen that “high” feeling. Also, THC that’s passed through our liver into our bloodstream is going to be more potent and intoxicating (11-hydroxy-THC) than smoked THC. Always double check your math.

DOSING MATH The formula below is the easiest way I know to explain how much THC is in one cup of infused butter/oil.

1 gram of cannabis = 1000 milligrams if the cannabis has 25 percent THC

25percent of 1000 milligrams is 250 milligrams, i.e., 3.6g (⅛ oz) of cannabis = 3600 milligrams

25percent THC of 3600 = 900 mg THC (3,600 x 25percent= 900)

Infused into 1 cup (8 oz) of butter, the butter will now have 900 mg of THC.

When you use 1/2 cup of that butter (4oz) to make 36 cookies, then that batch will have 450 milligrams of THC. Divide 450 mg by the number of cookies. For 36 cookies there will be about 12.5 milligrams of THC in each cookie.

DECARBOXYLATION: WHAT IS IT AND WHY DO WE NEED TO DO IT?

Every cannabinoid molecule made by the cannabis plant starts its life with an extra carboxylic acid ring attached to the end. This means that in the raw plant THC is first THCA and CBD is first CBDA and so on for all the cannabinoids. HCA is non-intoxicating and won’t give us that euphoric high

because it’s the precursor to THC. According to science, THCA isn’t considered pharmacologically active (some of its effects aren’t activated) until it loses its carboxyl ring at the end of the molecule. Losing that carboxyl ring is known as “Decarboxylation.” Think of it this way, that acid molecule is holding back the intoxication and high feeling of THC. When we smoke cannabis, decarboxylation happens pretty instantaneously because the evaporation or conversion of that acid molecule starts to happen between 140° - 230° F. But since we’re cooking with our cannabis today, we need to decarb our bud without setting it on fire.

HOW DO I DECARBOXYLATE MY FLOWER? Some of you may be thinking “If I turn up the oven I can decarboxylate for less time.” That is correct, but please understand that the boiling point for THC is about 315° F. That means at that temperature your THC is evaporating into the ether and away from your flower. Also, terpenes are mostly alcohol based and have a very low boiling point. Some of them will start to evaporate away at about 100° F. This means your cannabis is decarboxylating, your house will smell like you smoked a joint, so be prepared.

Preheat the oven to 250° F. While the oven is warming up, break up the cannabis flower by hand into smaller pieces. I don’t grind it up because the clean-up seems to take longer with ground up weed. Once it’s broken up, spread it evenly on a shallow baking sheet and cover it with aluminum foil. When the oven reaches 250° F, slide the cannabis in and set a timer for 25 minutes. I don’t set the oven higher than 250° F because most home ovens aren’t calibrated to exactly what the oven dial reads, sometimes they run a little hotter. After the timer goes off, turn off the oven, take the cannabis out and let it cool completely before you use it.

IN CASE YOU DIDN’T KNOW When I infuse butter, I make sure to use clarified or Ghee butter. It’s a little more expensive, but well worth it. Regular stick butter has water in it, not a lot, but it’s still there. Since oil and water don’t mix very well, it can cause that butter to blend unevenly with the cannabis oil. If it blends unevenly, it can throw off your dosing calculations.

Something else I add to my butter and cooking oil infusion is Lecithin, an emulsifier used for binding ingredients in fats (lipids). It helps to increase the bioavailability of plant compounds in high fat infusion.

If possible, make a tea bag with the decarbed flower and some cheese cloth. This will make the straining of butter and the clean up a lot easier.

Infusing Butter & Cooking Oil Skill Level: Easy | Cook time: 2hrs

Ingredients & Tools:

2 cups butter

7g of decarboxylated cannabis flower

2 tablespoons of lecithin (1Tbls per cup of butter)

Saucepan, double boiler, or crockpot

Candy thermometer

Wooden spoon or chopsticks

Butter molds

Cheesecloth to make a tea bag and strain the butter

Tongs

Small strainer

Mixing bowl

On very low heat, melt the butter and turn off the flame when it’s fully melted. Add the cannabis, the lecithin and mix it all up. Once it’s all mixed together put the candy thermometer in and turn the stove back on. Slowly bring the mixture to 160° F. The infusion will take 2hr, so set a timer but remember to revisit it every 15-20min or so to check the temp and give it a quick stir.

Get your butter molds, tongs and mixing bowl ready. Put a few layers of cheesecloth over your strainer to help catch any plant material that will be floating around in your butter. CAREFULLY take your pot of hot butter and slowly pour it through the strainer into the mixing bowl. Use tongs or chopsticks to push the plant material down to squeeze all the butter out. If you’re working with a crockpot spoon the butter into the strainer, crockpots can be heavy and awkward. After straining, pour the butter into molds and let them cool. The butters are ready when they are cool and solid.

Again, I hope our time together helped you understand cannabis a little better. I hope that understanding helps you get more comfortable with the idea of growing some cannabis in your garden next season. Always remember to grow, learn and teach. CS

Always remember to check local laws and regulations about growing cannabis at home. You need to know your rights and limitations. Always.

Alex Robles has been using cannabis to celebrate and medicate with for the past 30 years. In 2016 he began sharing what he’s learned when he started Inmygrow.com. After California legalized cannabis sales and possession for adults 21 and older, he launched a weekly podcast, In My Grow Show. This year, he helped produce segments for Tiempo de Cannabis, a Spanish language TV show in Mexico City.