Random's refined cannabutter recipie (step by step with pics!)

What's up blades? I've really learned a lot from this community so it's high time (pun intended) that I give some back. I present to you my masterpiece, my cannabutter recipe that has been refined through years of trial and error.

Three things to know before you read on.

1. This recipe make the butter virtually odorless
2. This recipe also reduces the strong "herbal" taste
3. This recipe will greatly increase the potency of your butter. If you're a noob go ahead and make the butter strong and just practice caution when eating it.

Now, on to the recipe:



You will need:


1 Medium saucepan or small crock-pot.

1 stick of (real) sweet cream salted butter (salted seems to pick up the THC better for me)

1 "panty sock" from your local drugstore or supermarket (wal-greens carrys them two for a dollar
1 filter, I recommend a gold coffee filter but cheesecloth will do.. just understand you lose some potency with the cheesecloth.

1 tupperware container of suitable size.

and last but not least

your herbal material.

Now, I have a formula I use for this, you can come up with your own, but mine is tuned for potency:
for 1 stick of butter use 7 grams of ground headies, half an ounce of schwagg, or 20 grams or more of vaporized material/trimmings. I also like to use hash and keif to up the potency. If you do this you can use less weed.

In the example below I'm using 1.5g of hash. 1/4 teaspoon of kief, and 6g of ground up herb.





Step One:

• Finely ground your material, make sure it is completely dry and grind it again for good measure.
  
• put your ground material into the panty-sock and tie it off, I usually will double up the sock a bit. This makes a dried herb "tea bag"
• Half-fill your pan with water, add butter, and bring it all to a simmer - never boil. You can add your hash at this time. If using a crock-pot use the same process but fill the pot 2/3.
  

• Once the butter (and hash or whatever) is completely melted and dissolved add your ground material. Stir it around a bit and make sure the butter/water soaks into the teabag.
  
• Now, the waiting. If using a conventional stovetop you MUST watch this pot simmer for 10-14 hours. You don't need to check it every 5 mins, every 45-1hr is fine. Make sure to add water every time you check it to stir. NEVER turn the heat past a mild simmer.
  
• For a Crock-Pot simmer on low for 16-24 hrs. You don't need to stir, its a crock-pot
• While you wait, smoke a bowl or three
  

Step Two:

• After waiting has been filled and your butter solution is finished cooking its time to filter it. But first check to make sure its done, it should have a nice glossy sheen on top, from the oil rising to the top while you cook. Hard to explain but with practice its easy to look for.
• Setup your filter. I use a container that my filter fits inside of like this.

• Filter out all of the nastiness that you can this go-round. Be sure to squeeze the "teabag" until all of the liquid is out.

• Once everything settles you should have something that looks like this, the oil will rise to the top and the crap to the bottom. BUT YOU'RE NOT DONE YET.
  

• Put your container into the fridge for hours, even overnight. Some people use the freezer but those people are wasting thc in my opinion.
• Clean up everything to prep for step three tomorrow.

Next post will contain the rest of this recipe.

 

Step Three:

• Take your container out of the fridge. The butter should be solidified at the top and will look like this.

• Cut it down the middle, pry the two pieces out of the container leaving the nasty garbage water inside.
  
• Be sure to scrape the excess scum from the bottom of the butter, that stuff tastes nasty.

• Drain the dirty water through some sort of loose filter. Collect all of the little "butter nuggets" left behind. There's THC in there!

• Put a cup or two of water into a saucepan and bring this new butter to a simmer slowly.

• I like to add some keif at this stage. The Keif is already pure THC, no extraction is needed to bond it to the butter. I usually add a 1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon. Not much.

• Simmer the butter for an additional 2-3 hours, you will need to stir it more frequently this time, be sure to keep adding water to replace what boils out. While you wait, have a few bong rips.
  

• At the end of your two hours strain the solution again through your filter. You'll be surprised how much crap is still in the butter.

Still not done yet!

 

• Again, place the water/oil separating container into the fridge and allow it to cool. Overnight if you have time. A minimum of 5 hours if you want to rush it.

Step Four:

• Remove the butter from the Fridge, and basically repeat step three. I usually don't add any more keif at this point.
  
• simmer the butter for only 1-2 hours this time. This refinement step is just to remove odor and foul flavors. It doesn't add to the potency as much as step 3.
• Filter everything ONE LAST TIME. the result should be pretty clear, like this.
  

• Finally, change it up and vape a lil while you wait the 4-5 hours for the butter to solidify in the fridge.
  

\

• Once the butter is solidified remove it from the container, drain all of the water, and store in a smaller tupperware or just put it straight into your favorite recipe. Use it proportionally as you would regular butter. However, if your recipe calls for two sticks its really fine to use one cannabutter and one real butter stick. The cannabutter should be potent enough, remember?

Last but not least, eating:



When eating cannabutter treats for the first time I usually recommend the following.

1. Eat your treats on a day when you have nothing to do that day or most of the following day as well. I am NOT joking.
   
2. Eat them on an empty stomach for faster intake. On an empty stomach edibles will take effect in as short as under an hour. With food it could take several hours.
   
3. Don't over-do it!! Please, don't eat a whole batch of cookies and then call 911 because you think you're dead, you're not, you're just high. Know your limits.When in doubt eat less and wait an hour or so and eat a little more if the effects aren't there (same rule as hallucinogens.)
   
4. DO NOT DRIVE. This isn't like being high from smoking. You will not have the mental capacity to drive.
   
5. Don't be surprised if you wake up the next day still high. Most people do.

ENJOY!!!

 

113g roughly 1/4lb

I use such a small amount of butter because I'm not patient enough to save up enough ground up herb for a whole lb on of butter.

 

Nope, the teabag goes in the trash before then. Step three is just butter (and some kief or BHO if you have either)

Also, I'd like to add, if using JUST kief, BHO, or any other concentrate you can cut the time in step one down drastically, the reason for the long cooking process is to pull the THC out of the plant material. With concentrates that's already been done for you.

 

So I've seen enough of your posts to know that you should be getting lots of potency from your processes. My question is, without the water, how do you get the god awful taste of plant chlorophyll out of your butter? I have tried a non-water based process... in fact lots of them.. and they all taste terrible. I want my butter to taste ONLY like butter.

The water purification process I use hasn't decreased my potency at all, its done the opposite, but I'll take heed of your advice. Please answer the question above though... what about the taste? As for potency, I always process for 16+ hours, usually 24 in my crockpot. I know all too well you lose potency if you shorten the process.


Also, I do decarb. I didn't list it because I leave the material prep up to the preparer. Besides, my decarb method is a little unorthodox and takes longer, I've already opened up enough cans of worms around here it seems..

 

No because the water is what separates the chlorophyll and other nastiness from the butter. I'm not sure I get why the water is such a bad thing, but I've never had good results, both potency wise or taste wise, without using the water.