5 Best Tips for Cooking with Cannabis

If you enjoy edibles, you may want to elevate your cooking with cannabis for even better highs. Butters and infused oils are great places to start if you are looking at the next level of highness. 

When you start experimenting with cannabis, there is no stopping because it changes the game completely. Luckily, there are several free cannabis recipes on AskGrowers and other reputable sites if you are looking for inspiration. Think of cookies, infused honey, delicious chocolates, and several others that you can start making in your kitchen with controlled doses to suit your weed tolerance. 

Before making mouthwatering dishes, you may want to follow these tips for ideas on getting the most out of your bud. 

Decarboxylate the Weed

One of the most important steps when cooking with marijuana is decarboxylation, breaking down the THC to bring out its psychoactive properties. It turns the THCA in weed to THC and CBDA into CBD to give your product the desired effects. Decarboxylation is an easy process that only requires you to bake your weed in the oven in low heat for a while, and it will be ready for use. 

Here’s how you go about it: 

• Spread the weed on a baking sheet and preheat your oven to 245 degrees Fahrenheit or 120 degrees Celsius.
• Leave the buds to bake for 30-40 minutes while turning them every 10 minutes to prevent burning. 

Once this is done, the chains will be broken, and the cannabinoids can now bind to the body’s endocannabinoid receptors. 

Check the Oils and the Heat

Since cannabis is fat-soluble, you want to bake your products with some oil or fat. You will need to select oils with high smoke points to prevent burning. Most people use olive oil and coconut oil for their good taste and the fact that they absorb enough cannabinoids for the desired effect. They do not have high smoke points, but that’s okay since you will use low heat for baking. 

Heat can break your products because cannabis starts degenerating when you go above 350 degrees Fahrenheit. If baking things that require temperatures higher than these, you may want to add the infused ingredients much later to prevent this degeneration. The reason for keeping it below 350F is to keep the terpenes, potency, and flavonoids in top shape as they are damaged by high heat. While your products will still make you high, their potency and taste will be altered a little, and no one wants that. 

Use High-Quality Weed

Only the best weed strain will give you the desired results, so you do not want to skimp on the weed. Get high-quality strains that work for you so you can produce something you will enjoy. Sativa and Indica strains are ideal for baking and experimenting, but you have all these terpenes and flavonoids to play with. You want to consider the THC level in your chosen strain to balance it with CBD for great results. 

We prefer not skimping on the weed because low-quality products make inferior-tasting goods. While selecting this ingredient, choose the terpenes you want to shine depending on the reason for the bake – myrcene is sedative, while limonene may uplift your spirit. 

Dose Properly 

Anyone that has ever eaten an edible knows they can get you higher than a kite if the dosage isn’t correct. If you are a beginner, you want to stay within the tested parameters – 1 to 5 milligrams of THC. Let’s use an example to show how a little goes a long way: If you take 10 grams of flower with a 20% THC level, you get 2,000mgs of THC. Decarb that to get 90% of the potency leaves you with 1,800mgs. If the base ingredient absorbed at least 60% of the THC, you get 1,080mg of product to create 216 services if each is 5mgs in dosage. This is safe since you will not overdose yourself, and you will not spend too much on the product. You can adjust the dosage with future experiments. 

Select the Right Infused Ingredient 

Cannabutter – weed and butter – and infused oils make the perfect component when cooking with cannabis. The oils and butter are easy to make as you only need to infuse regular butter or oil of choice with cannabis. Knowing which one to use makes your product ideal as it determines its taste.

For infused oils and butters, you want to strain all the plant material as it could reduce the shelf-life of your product. Cheesecloth is ideal for straining, but you do not want to squeeze out the oil as it may let in the plant material you want to get rid of in your butters. 

Why Do Edibles Hit so Hard? 

When you eat an edible, it is processed in the liver, producing a product called 11-Hydroxy metabolite, which is way more psychoactive than THC. It takes longer to feel any effects because these processes have to take place, and many people may feel the need to top it up after an hour of feeling nothing. You will get even higher, but you can bring it all down if you remember to breathe and takes things easy. 

Conclusion 

Go easy when cooking with cannabis because it is quite easy to take things a little too far. You may find yourself overeating the infused goodies and getting higher than you would wish, so you may want to make smaller batches first if you aren’t sure of your self-control. That said, start experimenting and go all the way because there are way too many recipes online to be stuck with one. All the best as you explore!