Does the transition to cooking cannabis at homes seem intimidating? Learning how to cook cannabis edibles may seem overwhelming at the start. However, once you master the art, it is a lot easier than you may think. If you have checked some other posts, you probably have come across some information about cannabis butter, cannabis oil, and decarboxylation, among other terms that may have scared you. However, you don’t need to worry because we will explain these terms shortly as they relate to cooking cannabis edibles. We will give you detailed information on how to cook cannabis edibles without a hassle.
In brief, making cannabis edibles begins with taking weed and heating it up in an oven before infusing it as an ingredient. Eventually, the combination is used in a recipe to cook marijuana edibles.
The process of cooking with cannabis is a bit more complex and detailed than this explanation, but this is just the nub on how to make cannabis edibles. Following are significant tips for cooking with cannabis:
Cooking Cannabis At Home The Best Strains of Cannabis
If you intend to get high without much struggle, you should always keep in mind that making the perfect cannabis edibles requires you to use suitable strains of weed. The first step in cooking cannabis edibles is choosing the best strain of weed to use. Following are the best strains for cooking weed edibles:
Orange Crush
If you want to have the best time with your friends over some cannabis brownies, Orange Crush got your back. This weed strain with the sweet flavor will give you a cerebral effect once you ingest it. However, you need to be careful when eating edibles made from this strain because its flowers have a high concentration of THC.
Zkittles
It’s among the most popular strains for cooking pot edibles. Why? It has the tendency of getting users into the state of blissful Nirvana. We all desire that state, don’t we? If you want to fall asleep quickly, you may try brownies made with these Zkittles.
Girl Scout Cookies
Girl Scout Cookies, just as the name suggests, is among the best to use to make weed edibles, especially cookies. Adding this strain of weed to your cookies will assist you in getting the much-desired cerebral high experience.
White Widow
The list of the best strains for cooking pot edibles will never be complete without mentioning the White Widow. The White Widow will give you a deep and refreshing experience. It enhances the taste of your edibles greatly and delivers a heavier high. The strain is easier to grow, making them popular among those who love cultivating their weed. By the way, if you need high-quality seeds, ILGM.com got you covered.
Purple Power
Are you an edible enthusiast who wishes to experience a robust and fast high? Then look no further because the Purple Power strain is the best for your edibles. This is the best strain that you can use if you desire to relax as you watch your favorite movie following a stressful day.
Now that you know the best types of strain to use, the next step would be to understand how eating edibles differs from smoking weed.
Consider the Cannabinoid Content
Cannabinoids refer to chemical compounds, which interact with particular receptors in the brain to produce some effect. The cannabinoids make a user experience medicinal relief for various ailments or feel chill.
The two main cannabinoids are THC and CBD. THC is the cannabinoid that makes you feel colors and taste sounds. CBD helps you to deal with depression, anxiety, and pain, among other benefits.
When cooking with cannabis, it is critical to consider the cannabinoid content of your strain of choice. Very high levels of either of the cannabinoids may result in unexpected effects.
Know the Differences between Smoking and Edibles
Understanding the differences between smoking and edibles is vital in helping you see the reason you may prefer cannabis-infused food to smoking. It also enables you to know how to consume your edibles to avoid any adverse consequences.
How does smoking work?
When you inhale the cannabis smoke, the active marijuana compounds, including THC, get into the bloodstream almost immediately, making their way to your brain. Here, THC binds to the CB1 receptors in the endocannabinoid system, resulting in getting high. Given the short time of THC reaching the brain, you’ll experience the effects of weed almost immediately.
How do edibles work?
Cannabis edibles will give you the same high feeling as smoking, or even more. However, when you eat cannabis edibles, the process of getting high is quite different.
When you ingest cannabis in the form of edibles, it gets through the digestive tract and is absorbed by the stomach. Then the active compounds of cannabis are metabolized in the liver. Here, THC is changed into 11-hydroxy-THC. This compound is longer lasting and more potent than THC.
Given that edibles have to go through the digestive tract, the stomach, and the liver, it takes considerably longer for the THC to get to the brain. However, once it hits your brain, it has a longer half-life, and it’s stronger.
Due to these differences, people can easily run into trouble with the overconsumption of cannabis edibles. Metabolizing THC may take up to 3 hours, making some people think the edible is not working. They end up ingesting more edibles, enhancing their dosage and the duration and intensity of their high.
With edibles, you should start with a low dose and wait for at least 3 hours to evaluate the effects. It is only after the evaluation that you may try to increase the quantity in minor additions, about 3mg, every 24 hours until you get your preferred experience.
Let’s now get to the real business, preparing your cannabis for optimal results.
Decarboxylate Cannabis: Don’t Use it Raw
As you think about cooking cannabis-infused foods, you need to decarboxylate your weed well first before using it. What is that? Don’t worry…if you aren’t familiar with this “big term,” because we will give you a quick run-down of the significance and process of decarboxylation.
In simple terms, decarboxylation of cannabis entails activating raw weed into an increased potent form. Scientifically speaking, it’s the process of physically adjusting the chemical structure of cannabinoid compounds in raw cannabis plants. Freshly harvested or growing weed plants have an extra carboxyl group or ring attached to a molecular chain of the cannabinoids found in flower trichomes. Decarboxylation removes the carboxyl addition from the cannabinoid molecule, thereby activating THC.
As fresh weed dries and cures following harvest, some natural and slow decarboxylation happens. However, heating is the most effective and quick way of triggering the reaction. That is why you may need to decarboxylate your weed before using it to prepare your cannabis edibles.
How Do you decarboxylate your cannabis at home?
Following is a step-by-step process to decarboxylate your weed at home in the oven:
- Preheat your oven to 250°F.
- Line your baking sheet with parchment paper to make it easy to collect and package your contents after baking.
- Place your selected and ground cannabis on the baking sheet. (When choosing the best cannabis buds, we would suggest using loose, less-manicured, and fluffy homegrown buds. ILGM.com has the best seeds you can use to grow your own weed at home. You should grind your cannabis ahead of this process because it makes your work easier. However, you can still grind it during this process. Don’t you have a grinder? Contact Grasscity.com for the best deal.)
- Cover your baking pan with foil to trap any weed goodies that could pop in the process.
- Place your baking pan in the oven and heat it at 250°F for about 30 minutes. However, if you intend to preserve more terpenes, you may use a lower temperature (230°F) but heat for a longer time (45 minutes).
- After the time has elapsed, remove the baking tray from the oven. Allow it to cool fully.
- Transfer the cannabis, which by now should have changed color from green to light brown, into an airtight glass container.
- Store your decarbed weed in a cool dark place.
Use Grinders to Crush your Carboxylated Cannabis
Now, if you are going to succeed in cooking cannabis edibles, you must always grind your carboxylated cannabis. Wait, really? Yes…You want a good-looking edible and great experiencing eating your cannabis-infused food. First things first. Let’s first understand what a grinder is. As you might have rightfully guessed, a grinder is a device used to crush cannabis buds into small pieces to use for your cooking. It can be as uncomplicated as a grinding card or as more complex as multi-chamber devices.
There are more ways to grind your cannabis, but a grinder gives you significant advantages. Grinders speed up the crushing process. It can be quite frustrating using your hands to grind cannabis buds, for example. Grinders also reduce wastage. Advanced grinders have a kief catcher that collects all the potent kief knocked off the weed buds while grinding. The kief can be added to the rest of the ground cannabis to be used for cooking weed-infused food.
Grinders also make the cooking process easier.
Buds processed through a grinder will be consistent and fine. As a result, they can mix easily with ingredients for cooking cannabis edibles.
Cannabis grinders also help maintain the potency of your weed. Most of the cannabis potency stems from the small hair-like structures in the bud called trichomes. These structures are delicate and can stick to the surface you are using to grind, especially your fingers, if you are crushing them by hand. A grinder helps keep the bud intact, making the trichomes stick on the flower.
With these benefits, a cannabis grinder is a must-to-have device. At Grasscity.com, you will find a wide selection of marijuana grinders that suit your needs. The experts here will not only guide you on the best grinder that meets your cooking needs and your financial ability, but they will offer you the best deal.
If you don’t know how to use a grinder, you will get all the information from your best vendor Grasscity.com.
Choosing between Butter versus Oils
Important: When it comes to cooking marijuana edibles, cannabis metabolizes easily in fats. Therefore, you are definitely going to need either cannabis oil or butter.
Marijuana butter or cannabis oil? When it comes to baking, cannabis butter is the best. However, the health-conscious and vegans can use cannabis oil, with less fat content, for the process. The results are almost the same. An essential point to consider when choosing your butter or oil is that the higher the content of fat, the more the THC it can absorb.
How do you get cannabis oil?
Similar to conventional oils, marijuana oil is made using an extraction process. There are different approaches used in the marijuana industry to extract oil. Most methods entail the use of a solvent, such as butane, or extreme pressure. The processes require expensive laboratory equipment and may be time-consuming. Without the proper equipment and the right training, extracting cannabis oil can be dangerous. As such, we recommend that you leave cannabis oil extraction to the professionals. Get your oil from dispensers.
How do you get cannabis butter?
You can either purchase cannabis butter from a dispenser or make your own marijuana butter at home. If you want to make it at home, you need a mixture of decarboxylated cannabis and regular butter in the ratio of 1 part cannabis to 10 parts butter. Preheat your oven to 250ºF and heat the cannabis for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, let the butter cool. You can use the butter right away or may choose to keep it for future use. You may refrigerate the butter if you want it to solidify faster.
How to Consume Edibles
Now that you have the primary information about cooking cannabis edibles, you can check some of the best and simple recipes you can try at home
- How to Make Delicious Cupcakes with Marijuana Butter
- The Best Recipe: Making the Best Cannabis Space Cakes
- Make a Delightful Marijuana Chocolate Cake
- How to Make the Best Marijuana Cookies
- How to Cook the Best Vegan Weed Cookies
- How to Make Delicious Cannabis Pumpkin Pies
However, you must consume marijuana nourishments cautiously. Dispensaries have a selection of different types of cannabis edible products, varying CBD to THC ratios, and different dosages. Making marijuana edibles at home is relatively straightforward, but it is fairly harder to control dosing and potency. Just be careful! If it is your first time consuming homemade cannabis edibles, eat a small portion and wait for 30 minutes to 2 hours to see the effects it has on you before eating some more.
This is it! You are now ready to start the journey. Get the best seeds from your best dealer at ILGM.com and grow the best quality marijuana plants for your edibles. Then grab a grinder from Grasscity.com for the best cooking experience. Try these additional recipes for a great experience.