Many people smoke weed to get high – and while this is undoubtedly a good way to get your marijuana fix – did you know that you can also cook with weed?
Using marijuana in food is probably easier than you think. It’s also a great way to cash in on the health benefits of weed without actually smoking it, which is useful for preserving lung health.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to use cannabis in food or DMT, including the most important thing that you should do when cooking with weed that most people forget. Here’s how to cook with weed.
How To Cook With Weed
Cannabis is an aromatic, flavorful, and nutritious herb to cook with. You can cook with either THC or CBD, depending on the desired intoxicating outcome of your favorite recipes.
You may have to adjust your heating techniques when cooking with weed. Here are some tips to ensure your recipes come out just as you want them to.
1. Pick your cannabis product or strain
The first step to cooking with weed is to pick out the product or strain you want to use in your recipe. If you’re making an infusion with cannabis flowers, then start by smelling a different variety of strains to see which ones you like best.
Your noise can point you in the best direction when it comes to pairing the aromas of flowering buds with your desired recipe.
You can also pick out a strain of weed based on CBD or THC profile. Other popular weed products to cook with include CBD oils, infused honey, and cannabis cooking powders.
2. Find your ingredients or a recipe
After you pick out the type of cannabis you want to cook with, it’s time to determine what kind of recipe you want. Do you crave something sweet or savory? You can use weed for either.
If you’re cooking with weed or hemp home, then keep in mind that adding weed to your recipes will give them a bit of a green, Earthy, or herbal flavor. This is why picking a strain that smells desirable is important as you don’t want to ruin your recipe with a flavor you don’t enjoy.
3. Decarboxylate and create your infusion
The most important to remember when cooking with weed (that most people forget!) is to decarboxylate your hemp or cannabis flower. Decarboxylating is the best way to make sure you get the desired “high” from your weed edibles.
It also ensures you get the entire range of health benefits that CBD and THC have to offer, including reductions in anxiety, depression, insomnia, chronic pain, and seizures.
In their acidic forms, CBD and THC do not bind to the body’s cannabinoid receptors, meaning that you won’t do much for your senses. However, you can easily make these compounds more bioactive by heating them.
You can activate CBD by putting it in the oven at 295°F for 30 to 60 minutes and 240°F for 30 to 60 minutes to activate THC. Some people use even higher temperatures than these.
To do this, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and chop the flower buds into grain-sized pieces. Then cook for your desired time. After you successfully decarboxylate your cannabis product of choice, you’ll want to create your infusion.
We recommend using something that has dietary fat in it, such as butter or oil, especially if you’re mixing it with food. If you buy a professionally made product, then you won’t have to worry about this step.
4. Start cooking!
The final step is to incorporate your infusion into your recipe. Be sure to use your infusion as an ingredient in your recipe. This means you’ll need to have the proper accessories and equipment on hand.
One of the best things to make with weed is cannabutter, which is cannabis-infused butter. You can then use cannabutter to cook all of your food in – vegetables, meat, etc.
To make cannabutter, you’ll need one cup of ground decarboxylated cannabis, one cup of water, and one cup of butter. Melt the butter in a saucepan with one cup of water and add in the ground cannabis.
Allow the mixture to simmer for two to three hours while stirring occasionally. Then strain the water from the butter with a cheesecloth and put it in a jar. Store in the fridge and use in your everyday cooking, remembering to adjust the dosing of butter depending on who you cook for.
Final Thoughts
If you’re not ready to cook with weed or use it in food just yet, then you can always buy edibles from a dispensary. This is a sure way to make sure you get the high you desire in a recipe that’s delicious enough to claim as your own! Check out some of the best marijuana edibles here.