If you’re interested in reaping all the benefits of marijuana without smoking or vaping, making cannabis edibles can be a great alternative. Edible production is a fast-growing market, bringing the benefit of THC to the mainstream consumer.
If picking up cannabis edibles in your state is difficult, you can make your own at home easily. If you’re not sure how to make cannabis edibles, keep reading. We’re demystifying the process of cooking down cannabis so you can add it to all your favorite recipes.
Gather Your Materials
You don’t need fancy equipment or a ton of cannabis or hemp to get started. All you need is the product you want to turn into an edible, coconut oil or other MCT oil, a slow cooker, and some cheesecloth.
You can use any kind of cannabis product to make your edibles. Anything with cannabinoid content will yield a usable product. Just remember that the quality and potency of your cannabis when you start will directly affect how strong your edibles are.
Prepare Your Cannabis
The next step is to grind your cannabis. Avoid using a food processor or a blender. You’ll grind your starting product up too much and it won’t work as well.
If you’ve decided to use congealed or sticky hash, try to break it up into smaller bits. Don’t worry about getting it super fine, just increase the surface area as much as you can.
Activate the Cannabinoids
The next step is the most important part of the process. You have to introduce your cannabis to heat in order to activate the THC.
THCa has many of the same health benefits that THC does, but it doesn’t offer any psychoactive benefit. This means that if you want edibles that get you high, you have to get rid of the “a”, or acid. This is done through a process called decarboxylating.
This process starts right after the plant is harvested, but heat is required to accelerate it and make the plant as active as possible.
Basically, you have to light up your weed like you’re smoking a joint.
To do this in a big batch, preheat your oven to 220°F. This makes sure that your oven gets hot enough to activate the cannabis but not so hot that it sets it on fire. It’s a good idea to use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is calibrated.
At this heat setting, your material will be fully decarboxylated in around 45 to 60 minutes.
Infuse the Cooking Fat
Once your bud is decarboxylated, pull it out of the oven and add it to your crockpot and add your coconut or MCT oil.
If you would rather make edible butter or honey, you can substitute those for coconut oil. However, if you want a cooking oil packed with the most bioavailable THC, coconut oil or another MCT oil is your best bet.
Coconut oil is easily digested by most people, including those with gallbladder issues who have trouble absorbing most fats. This means that your edible will be more potent and you’ll reach a better, more intense high.
If you want to add even more bioavailability to your edibles, add a teaspoon of soy lecithin to the crockpot. This will help your body absorb the cannabinoids further.
Cook in your crockpot for roughly 2-3 hours.
Cool the Mixture and Strain
Once the time has passed, take your mixture out of the crockpot and let it cool until you can touch it.
Drape your cheesecloth over a metal strainer and slowly pour your oil mixture into it. Your goal here is to strain out as much of the bud as possible so your oil is smooth.
Once the oil has drained, squeeze any remaining oil out of the cheesecloth, by closing it up and twisting until no more oil comes out.
For a more thorough job of squeezing all the oil out of your remaining bud, consider running the closed-up cheesecloth through a potato ricer.
Add Cooled Oil to a Recipe
Now you’ve got fully usable cooking oil infused with cannabis. You can add your oil to any recipe that calls for oil or butter, take a spoonful straight, or add it to empty gelatin capsules.
You could also try to make edible gummies or candies and use the products from Dark City Molds to give your edible snacks a fun shape.
It’s that simple! Once you have your THC-infused fat, you can mix it with anything to make a delicious, edible snack that will give you all the benefits of pot without smoking or vaping.
When cooking or baking, don’t heat your oven above 300° or you’ll vaporize your cannabinoids and make the edibles weaker. Use more time to cook instead of higher heat.
If you have leftover oil after baking, store it in a cool, dark place.
The Benefits of Edibles
The biggest benefit of edibles is that you get a much more intense high. When you smoke or vape weed, it doesn’t go through your digestive system. But digested THC turns to another compound called 11-hydroxy-THC when it reaches the liver, and this compound is even more psychoactive than THC.
Also, the high from edibles lasts a lot longer. It’s important that you don’t overindulge in sweets laced with THC because you could reach an uncomfortable, “too high” feeling.
How to Make Cannabis Edibles
Now that you know how to make cannabis edibles, you can make the best cannabis edibles at home without the hefty price tag associated with store-bought edibles. The hardest part of making your own edibles is understanding the potency of your starting product, but once you’ve experimented with your oil-making technique, you’ll be a pro in no time.
For more marijuana life-hacks, keep reading!