Cannabis has been discovered to be of immense health benefits and is sure potent in treating some illnesses that are resistant to drugs such as chronic pain and epilepsy. Traditionally, the conventional way of using cannabis and its products is by smoking. However, people are coming up with new and more effective ways of using the drug. This includes using oil extracted from cannabis and infusing cannabis into butter. As these are foundational ingredients that can be added while making meals. So rather than smoking more and more people especially in the medical marijuana sector are tilting to cannabis edibles.
The acceptance and popularity of edibles are growing really fast, about 30% of people who use cannabis do so in edibles either food or beverage. In this article, we would be giving you a quick run-through of important things you need to know and take note of while trying out making edible yourself at home. One key thing you must note is getting the right measurement of the cannabis you’d be putting in your edible so as not to be knocked out as edibles take longer to have an effect based on the process of metabolism. And as such can last longer and be more intense.
Picking The Right Strain
So before you even go-ahead to try and make a recipe or give yourself an infused treat you need to clearly know what aim you want to achieve based on the versatility of cannabis plants or strains. Cannabis is a versatile plant and has a unique chemical compound make up that varies across the plant and hence gives it different variations. These compounds are known as cannabinoids and are responsible for the effect that cannabis has on people. There are two prominent and abundant compounds known as THC and CBD. THC is a psychoactive compound that is responsible for the high people get when they use cannabis while CBD is a more medicinal compound that has relieving properties.
These two compounds are available in different proportions in the cannabis plants and based on their availability the cannabis plant is classified as either an Indica or a Sativa. Indica plants have higher CBD content and are used for aiding sleep and relaxation. The hemp plant is an indica by this categorization. Sativa plants on the other hand help increase energy, appetite, and feeling and hence have a higher amount of THC. The marijuana plant falls under this classification. So understanding this would help inform your decision on what you want to come up with.
Decarboxylation
This is the process of heating up your cannabis plant for the compound to become active. In more technical terms, the raw cannabis plant has the compound THCA as the active compound but when the cannabis is heated the THCA becomes THC which is the psychoactive element of the plant and in essence becomes activated. To decarboxylate your cannabis, heat up your oven to 240°F and then put your cannabis in it for about 45 minutes. When your cannabis turns golden brown from green then it is good to go. This method is used for cannabutter.
For cannabis oil, you’d need a high proof of alcohol, cheesecloth, and a spoon. Soak your cannabis in the alcohol and stir for about 3 minutes then sieve the green liquid. Repeat the process again to ensure that you have extracted the contents of the plant. Having done that heat up the green liquid till it stops bubbling by then the alcohol would have evaporated and your cannabis oil is ready for use. You can also use coconut oil or other oil with decarboxylated cannabis heated together but that takes a long time of up to 10 hours.
Infusion
Having decarboxylated and gotten your active cannabis you can then go ahead to infuse in butter which gives cannabutter or use the oil in your cooking or baking. For butter, add water to a pot then add your butter and heat till the butter melts then add your cannabis and leave it for about 3 hours stirring occasionally to allow the cannabinoids mix thoroughly. Allow to cool then your cannabutter is ready to use.
Some Edible Recipes
Having made your cannabutter and canna-oil making edibles is easy peasy, you can use them with just about anything you want to make from pizza to cookies, doughnuts, gummies, nuts, chips, and a whole lot more. To make your vegan weed brownies, you would need sunflower seed butter, honey, cocoa powder, flax, eggs, and cannabis. How about some crispy rice? Why not! To make this delicacy you need brown rice syrup, nut butter, and cannabis oil. What about some canna-banana, this is ideal for those who wouldn’t like to tarry in the kitchen or need some relaxation after a long day of work. Melt chocolate and canna-oil together and coat with your banana. Yummy right? I know!
For safety purposes, the serving recommendation of cannabis edibles is 10mg of THC. So how do you get this figure? The average cannabis plant has about 10% THC. One ounce of cannabis is 28 grams, 1 gram of cannabis bud has about 1000mg in its raw form. So a typical strain would be 10% of 1000 which is 100mg. So a gram has 100mg of THC. Thus, whatever you make should be rationed in a proportion that would give around 10mg of THC per portion, so a gram of cannabis used for baking should yield 10 pieces of doughnut, cookies or any item you are baking that way you are sure not to shoot into the skies. And just in case you do pine nuts help reduce its effect so keep that handy.
