Tips & Tricks for Edible Success

Inspired by a recent thread I've decided to start a marijuana cooking tips and tricks thread. This thread is for those of you who have not yet attempted to make an edible or for those who have tried and failed. Experimentation is the key to learning the methods that work for you.

However if you follow these guidelines you will greatly increase your chances of getting baked

These tips are tried and true and if you follow them I am confident that you will be successful. If you get lazy and skip a step you will probably reduce the efficiency of extraction and lose out on valuable cannabinoids.

Sure, It might work but not as well as it could have.

I encourage any one who has had success to add to and elaborate on this list.

Tips & Tricks for Edible Success

1. GRIND YOUR WEED - When doing any kind of extraction, whether it be cannabis butter or green dragon, it is very important that you grind up your marijuana into a FINE powder. This will maximize the surface area of the plant matter that comes into contact with medium (butter, alcohol, oil, etc).

Grinding the marijuana can also help rupture the trichome gland heads (containing the bulk of the cannabinoids), further aiding in the extraction process. You can grind up the marijuana in a standard herbal grinder, but I recommend a food processor - BUT if you are only cooking a small amount of bud stick with the grinder.

When using a food processor wait for the kief cloud to settle before opening it! Scrape up any that may settle on the sides and lid and add it to the mix.

2. DECARB(oxylation) - Another very important step. Marijuana produces THCA which is not psychoactive. However during the drying and curing process of a marijuana harvest some of the THCA will decarb into THC (it removes the carboxylic group, COOH).

When you smoke marijuana you are also decarbing even more of the THCA into the active THC. This step also helps rupture the trichomes, making the potent oils more accessible.

When you making cannabutter or ghee, a process which involves heat, perhaps much of the THCA is decarbed, however for best results decarb before hand anyways. Decarboxylation is essential to making a good product when you are doing an extraction
WITHOUT heat, such as some tincture methods.

To Decarb : Set your oven to the lowest heat setting or around 150F. Now place your marijuana on a baking sheet and into the oven it goes. This process could take anywhere from 30 minutes to five hours depending on how dry the marijuana was in the first place and the quantity you are using.

*NOTE: You will smell marijuana! IT IS OKAY, the aromatic terpenoids responsible for that skunky smell, vaporize at a much lower temperature than THC and other cannabinoids.

Check occasionally and when the bud is very dry and crumbles between your fingers it is ready. (Note: if you own a food dehydrator this will work as well, however it will likely take up more time).

3. USE A THERMOMETER! - Do not trust your oven gauge! When making cannabutter, ghee, or oil use an oven-safe thermometer. When making firecrackers, for example, 400F is unneccassary and may even cause some THC to vaporize.

HOWEVER just because the oven says it is set to 400 doesn't mean the oven actually gets that warm (or in fact, it may be much hotter!). My oven gauge has to be set at 400 to get a temperature of 375 in the actual oven compartment for example.

I have found estimates of the THC vaporization point to be anywhere between 306 - 375F. CBD and CBN, two other cannabinoids that effect the quality and type of high, vaporize at around 400 - 425 F.

So what does this mean?

Well it means the higher your cooking temperature the riskier it gets. Most recipes call for a temperature of around 350F but higher temperatures are okay for short cooking times. When making cannabutter or ghee on the stove it is not neccassary to heat the medium beyond 300F.


DO NOT DO THE FOLLOWING:

1. Use a paper coffee filter for any straining process. Cheese cloth works great, is cheap, and can be found at almost any grocery store in the baking aisle.

2. Use a mircowave. Some people may have had success, but many fail miserably. Microwaves vary in power over a large spectrum and are unreliable. Unless you have already had repeated success using your own microwave, it is probably best not to experiment with one.

3. Make a weed tincture or "Green Dragon" extraction using the stove-top method if you are inexperienced, clumsy or accident-prone. Especially if the oven has an open-flame.


Good luck and Enjoy!

 

Oh and I forgot the most important rule of thumb: PATIENCE! Extracting THC into a fat or alcohol based solution takes TIME. Extractions like cannabis butter should take at least 45 minutes, but I would never personally stop at that point. I suggest at least 90 minutes and up to 3 hours.

Another great method to try: Rather than the stove-top method you could use a Slow Cooker! This works wonders because you can "Set it, and Forget it!" Haha...but don't actually forget about it - and you should definitely stir it up for a couple of minutes every 10 minutes or so.

 

and i will emphasize definitely, definitely, do not smoke anything (cigarettes, joint, etc) or light a candle or match anywhere near the stove during this process.

If you have a stove with a fan and vent this would be great, so the fumes do not accumulate. Although if the alcohol did light, the draft would probably cause the flames to flare up higher. Always use caution.

 

Hahaha Well there is a great firecracker sticky thread in this forum that I am sure was here long before I came along. But hey a failure isn't a complete loss if you learn from your mistakes

 

Damn man that must be potent stuff. I only suggest, and use, around 7 grams per stick of butter. 14 seems a bit indulgent As for the rest of it, it looks like a pretty efficient method. If your interested take a look at the link in my signature for my method.

For candy I use a marijuana tincture and find it works wonders. I haven't tried BHO yet, but I think it is entirely unnecessary for cannabis foods. Probably a great treat to smoke though

3 Grams of Bud per cupcake!? Haha seems like alot, make sure you advise partakers to only take a bite or two . And yes you can make edibles too strong (for instance 3 grams per cupcake would be way to strong in my opinion and would probably make me fall asleep).

Be careful because every body reacts differently to different amounts of THC. Some people will "trip" off a 3 gram cupcake, some might just feel good and high, a few will have panic attacks, and people like me would fall asleep haha.

 

Sorry, haven't tried that one yet! Can't say whether or not the flavors would clash but it is do-able. Simply adapt any cheese cake recipe to use the proper amount of butter. I did a quick Google and it seems that many cheesecake recipes call for 3 Tablespoons of butter for the crust.

If you make cannabutter the same way I do, using a ratio of about 1 g of marijuana to 1 tablespoon of butter, you may have to eat 1/4 - 1/3 of the whole cake! Not very efficient and that seems like a lot of cake to eat all at once haha!

But if you also make my cannabis topping recipe for potent whipped cream and use it on a smaller slice - that would work great, and taste pretty awesome I imagine.