Making Edibles

[MeestaFeesha]

Hey folks, happy Monday, thought I'd create a topic to ask a few questions. Something I haven't mentioned, is I will be creating a lot of edibles/tinctures/butter/oil from the crop that I have. It's my family member's preferred delivery method. I had fun looking up recipes last night, mmmm desserts..

Trying to figure out the process to create consistent dosing (never done that before! 🤘😅). My idea is to try out making some infused Coconut Oil, then mixing it with molding chocolate as well as peanut butter (or substitute it for 1/2 the butter in recipes).

I've done my research, and I guess my question is: what is the preferred infusion oil used in cooking? As well as, is it necessary to use cured bud? Will freshly cut down and then decarbed bud carry a poor taste?

I think I'll be decarboxylating (spelling? 🤷♂️) the kief in my grinder and making something sweet this week. Not the best cook or baker, I try, so these no bake options I'm looking at should be great!

[Gingerbeard]

I'm a dabber. I make butter with decarbed shatter. 90% of my flower gets blasted to make my own version of shatter. It turns out like real small sand. The whole process of decarbing, seeping bud in water and butter, etc. is too much work for this medicated individual. No cooking is involved past the shatter decarb. I decarb in a small Pyrex. When it's done, I put butter in the Pyrex, stir them until they mix. The Pyrex goes another dish with ice in it to speed up the cooling. Mixing takes 5-10 minutes when on ice. Consistend dosing is easy. If you put a gram of shatter/kief in a quarter pound of butter, you can make some day tripping kind of grilled cheese sandwiches.
I've done it with kief. Same process as shatter.

[MeestaFeesha]

Ah, moved away from most extracts back in '12-'13ish..still have all the dab gear at a old friend's place (keeps trying to take my heady gear).

Venture into Rosin Press at all? I've looked at building one, and have a bud pushing me to do it...pretty simple in reality. I've been toying with that idea to simplify the process as well. Do you have to decarb Rosin though? I figure it's already been treated at ~215*F (although, briefly).

[Gingerbeard]

I'm not a fan of rosin. It tastes like dirty hash.

[Obi-Wan]

All other things being equal, coconut oil seems to bond with the thc better but in certain applications there’s just no substitute for butter. Those are my go to choices and I follow the GWE recipe when I make mine.

“Assuming” 15% thc flower is used you can expect that recipe to yield 2 dozen edibles @ roughly 35mg. each, per 4 oz. of oil/butter used. A 5% variance in the thc percentage of the flower used can cause the mg/dose to vary up to 30% in this example. Exact dosing is nearly impossible unless you are using a lab tested distillate.

I personally prefer mini 1 oz. edibles so I can cut them in half when I have things to do or double up when I don’t. I’m actually doing some baking of my own today.

[MeestaFeesha]

Exactly the size I'm looking at. Mini-muffin tins are the best! I had been looking at silicon molds for chocolate too.

[Canuck147]

Obi-Wan -:knows - butter is the preferred method of oil in baking. The recipe for making cannabutter on GWE is easy. I've done it twice.
Save your best trim and use 2 ounces of it. Add some buds too.
Using a quarter pound butter for cookies - 7 grams of pot. 14 cookies = 1/2 a gram per cookie.
Easy peasy.

[Canuck147]

So just eat a 1/4 of it.

[alltatup]

Canuck147 So that'd be 125mg per quarter cookie, not too shabby. Me, I'm scared of edibles!!

[Canuck147]

I don't use them either

[Obi-Wan]

MeestaFeesha If you don’t already have one, pick up a 1oz. scoop like the one pictured below. They are perfect for the mini muffin tins and you can find them in most grocery/Walmart stores. If you’re really lucky you’ll find the 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 oz. scoops. If you come across a 2 oz. oven safe silicon mold you can play with the dose by precisely altering the portion. Also the smaller scoops are more functional with candies, chocolates, and fudge!!

[MeestaFeesha]

Bud! I make my amazon prime membership work for me 😋, actually just ordered a 3pack!...Did bourbon balls last Christmas with an Ice Cream scoop, ugh, those were too big for breakfast with coffee! 🤘😅, 🤦♂️

[MeestaFeesha]

Righteous, as straightforward as I remember it...I've done double-boiler in the past with friends, looks like the GWE way back in high school (🤷♂️).

https://www.growweedeasy.com/best-weed-butter-recipe - For those curious.

I recall reading a long time ago (I think on the icMag forums) doing a 'water-cure' of buds. This was well before legalization, their idea was smell mitigation. It worked, it also did leech out a lot of the chlorophyll. Any thoughts on that being beneficial to cannabutter creation? It would remove the water step in GWE's guide.

[YYCannabis]

I stopped baking with bud a while ago. I realized that once I had some good green butter, what was the point of turning it into cookies or brownies? If you just keep green butter, then you have more options for consumption: on toast/bagel/muffin at lunch; or maybe use it on rice or corn-on-the-cob at dinner.

Only way to control dosage is to experiment with each new batch. Spread a small amount, maybe 1/8 tsp on a slice of toast, then wait to evaluate the effects. Adjust up/down as necessary.

For my butter, I will start off by reducing it to ghee while my herb is decarbing (240 deg for 40 minutes). I use 1oz high grade herb (ground) to 1 lb butter which will become approx .9lb after conversion to ghee. Once the ghee is ready and the herb decarbed, I will mix the 2 together in a flip top sealing jar (or mason jar) and place it in my crock pot with 2” warm water in the crock - the sealed jar reduces the smell; set crock on warm/low. Shake jar every 2 hours so the herb and ghee mixes. After 6-8 hours, strain herb through cheese cloth into a large butter dish. Keep covered from light. Ghee can be kept in the fridge or on the countertop as long as it’s protected from light.

If if you don’t want to convert your butter to ghee, you can buy ghee at most markets...or just use the butter as is.

Cheers
YYC

[YYCannabis]

Oh yes...grated cheese and sour cream with bacon bits and green butter. Now I got the damn munchies thinking about it. 😊

[alltatup]

YYCannabis Brilliant!! I've been making ghee for years, and as you already knows, it stays viable for a long, long time. That is an excellent idea. I stick to tincture because it will keep indefinitely in the freezer, but Cannaghee sounds great.

[YYCannabis]

The great thing about ghee is that it is essentially “butter oil” and has a very strong affinity to THC and CBD.

[MeestaFeesha]

YYCannabis I very much like the crockpot way, I may give it a shot! I do intend to make a large amount of butter/coconut oil and really whatever else I can learn to make. I think I'll be seeing her later this week and can find out more what she wants, or is looking to achieve 🤷*♂️.

I did just throw this together to see what's up. 2g decarbed kief from the grinder into 1lb natural peanut butter simmered on/off the stove. With a little extra 🤘🤤.

[YYCannabis]

One more thing about making ghee... the ghee takes on a great nutty smell and taste. Once the herb is added, the two flavors and smells are delicious.

[MeestaFeesha]

After reading the post (+link) from ATU, I realized "Why not?!". I can't say that I've ever used ghee myself, but there's always time to learn! I assume it's still a 1:1..

Yea, decarbing was stinky with the kief as well. More so than I had thought it would be at least.

[YYCannabis]

Yup. 1oz herb : 1lb butter

[alltatup]

CLARIFIED BUTTER OR GHEE

YYCannabis idea of clarifying the butter is excellent because ghee is notorious for its very long shelf life. In other words, you wouldn't have to worry about rancidity.

Ghee-making is an art, but it's not that hard. Use a spotlessly-clean pot. Here are instructions:

http://maunikagowardhan.co.uk/cook-in-a-curry/how-to-make-ghee/

Just make sure that ghee isn't exposed to any drops of water, which can carry bacteria and ruin your batch.

[alltatup]

YYCannabis If you want a precise and stealthy decarb, check this out: I can't live without my two (they are small). I decarb trim and bud to make tincture.

[MeestaFeesha]

alltatup have you tried to use the 'Sleeve' as well as the 'Nova'?

[YYCannabis]

Thanks AllTatUp. I only decarb one oz at a time. This might be just what I need 😁

[alltatup]

MeestaFeesha I never heard of the Sleeve; I will look it up. 5 min later: ok I looked it up, and I don't need one; I already have a silicone thingy I use for decarbing concentrates etc.

YYCannabis The reason I bought it was because I wanted real precision with temperatures in order to preserve the terpene content in the buds; I'd been reading stuff that really put emphasis on the benefits of the chemical synergy of all the cannabinoids and terpenes present. And terps will evaporate easily if kept too hot or warm. But the effects of THC are totally enhanced and accented by the terpenes present; they're truly part of the medicine. On July 28, I decarbed a bunch of super sticky sugar leaf trim which is now soaking in the freezer in Everclear 190 for tincture. I'll just let it soak for a month or so. Deep Green Dragon Tincture!!!

And I just discovered a new technique: Ideally, I like to let bud cure for 2-3 months, but I'm not wait for 3 mos. till it cures to vape it. So I take small amounts out of the cure jars and put it in the Ardent Nova for around 40 minutes, and it makes it perfect for vaping.

[VtGreen1965]

I bought a Magic Butter Machine, I can sit back and trim while it makes butter in a couple hours, it's a pretty awesome machine for personal use.
And you can makes cooking oil and all that with it too.
But it's still recommended to decarb, too.