So you’re looking to make some quality cannabis butter (cannabutter) to cook weed edibles?

Not every marijuana user likes to smoke rolled joints. Some love their MARIJUANA as edibles. This is so especially for people that use weed for medical purposes especially for pain relief. Having strong marijuana edibles relieves pain better and faster than smoking a joint.

The most popular and delicious marijuana edibles require Cannabutter as one of the main ingredients. Though you can still get great edible recipes that do not require Cannabutter, it still plays a big role in making the edibles. Other Cannabutter replacements are cannabis coconut butter, raw cannabis and cannabis milk.

This easy recipe for cannabutter is all you need to make yourself some homemade edibles with just an eighth (1/8) ounce of weed and a stick of butter, courtesy of Leafbuyer. So, pick up your favorite strain at the local dispensary and put your chef’s hat on. Let’s begin

How To Make Cannabutter

Ingredients/Supplies Needed:

• 3.5 Grams (1/8 Ounce) of Cannabis
• 1 Stick of Butter
• 6 Cups of Water
• Cheesecloth
• Strainer
• Cannabis Grinder
• Pot for Boiling Water
• Tupperware Container
• Low Weight Scale

Step 1: Grind Up Your Cannabis

To start things off, purchase an eighth (1/8) ounce of cannabis from the dispensary, or use a scale to measure out 3.5 grams from a larger container of herb. Next, put the cannabis into a grinder and turn it into a shake texture. Pretty simple so far!

(NOTE: Feel free to add a little bit more cannabis, or a little bit less, based on how potent you want your butter to be. After going through the process multiple times you’ll have a more solid idea of what dosage suits your needs best. Also, pay attention to the THC level of the strain you’re using; higher THC levels will result in more potent butter).

Step 2: Simmer and Cook the Cannabutter

Your next task is to pour 6 cups of water into a pot and heat it up to the point of simmering. Once you have a good simmer going on, then it’s time to add the stick of butter and your ground cannabis into the pot.

You will see the butter melt while you begin to smell the fresh odor of cannabinoids being extracted from the marijuana. Continue to cook and stir the herb/butter/water concoction occasionally for at least an hour. The longer you heat the cannabis, the more cannabinoids will be extracted. However, within an hour or two you should have it reaching close to full extraction, and that means full potency.

(NOTE: At no point during the process do you want to let the water reach boiling point. If cannabis is cooked at boiling temperatures, the cannabinoids will actually be “burnt off” or evaporated and the butter will lose potency. Probably not what you’re hoping for).

Step 3: Strain and Squeeze the Cannabutter

So, it’s been around an hour and a half. You’ve been stirring the pot with cannabis, simmering water, and a stick of butter. The fresh scent of cannabutter pervades through the house, which means you’re ready for the next step.

Line your strainer with cheesecloth and hold it over a Tupperware bowl that’s big enough to fit everything that is simmering in the pot, herb, melted butter, and water. Next, pour the contents of the pot over the strainer and into the Tupperware. The cheesecloth will catch all of the cannabis flowers from the pot and separate it from the rest of the ingredients.

Next, wring out the cheesecloth (full of marijuana leaves) and let the juices fall into the Tupperware. The soaked leaves will have plenty of extracted cannabinoids in them, so make sure not to forget this step. Forgetting to do so will severely reduce the potency of your cannabutter!

Once you’ve squeezed every last drop of cannabis oil out from the cheesecloth, you can toss the cloth and leaves into the garbage and prepare for the next step.

Step 4: Refrigerate the Cannabutter

Now, take that Tupperware full of cannabis oil, melted butter, and water, and stick it in the refrigerator for about five hours. Go out, have some fun. Grab a pre-roll and paint the town red. Or take a nap. Whatever you need to do, just know that you’ll have some fresh cannabutter ready very soon.

While in the refrigerator, the cannabis butter will begin to solidify and separate itself from the water. You’ll see a layer of light green butter rise to the top of the container, with the remaining water beneath.

Step 5: Pour Out the Water

Now that five hours have passed and the cannabutter has separated from the water, take the Tupperware container out of the refrigerator. Pull the layer of butter out from the container, using a knife or whatever kitchen utensil facilitates the process. You might need to break up the butter so that it can be picked up and removed.

Next, pour the water out of the Tupperware, and put the cannabutter back in. Now you’ve got yourself some edible marijuana! Just remember to keep the cannabis butter refrigerated.

High quality and potent Cannabutter comes with many benefits for both medical and recreational purposes. This makes it one of the reasons why the popularity of this product is on the rise in many countries with the legislation of the use of marijuana products for medical purposes. Its popularity comes further from the fact that is smoke free. Some of the most notable benefits are as follows;

Easy and cheap to prepare

Even if you are new to the preparation of extractions, making Cannabutter is one of the easiest processes to carry out. Whereas in many other extraction processes you require expensive tools and ingredients, with Cannabutter, you can use tools from your kitchen. You can also control the dosage of how much cannabis you want in your butter depending on the kind of edible you want to make and what you need the butter for. If done in a group, the activity of making Cannabutter can also be a fun thing to do for everyone.

Helps to alleviate pain

Cannabis has been one of the main natural treatments for pain especially for cancer patients recovering from chemotherapy for many years. The symptoms that come with cancer treatments include nausea, pain in different parts of the body, headaches and vomiting. Cannabis contains properties that help to alleviate all these symptoms and having the same in edibles is a big plus for the patients.

Helps to regulate body processes

Cannabinoids, which are the compounds in cannabis help to regulate various body processes by affecting the endocannaboid system of the body. Some of the body systems that the compound helps to regulate are increasing appetite, fighting off mood swings, improving memory and getting rid of anxiety attacks among many others.

Helps with relaxation

If you are feeling tired and need to sit back and relax, you can do as you enjoy edibles made with Cannabutter. THC contains compounds that help the body to relax and make you feel more creative.

More discrete than smoking

Using Cannabutter in edibles is discrete to smoking a joint. You could get out a cookie from your bag and eat it in front of people and no one will know that what you are eating contains marijuana. Once processed and in the recipes, the scent of the weed is absent. This is not the same with smoking a joint. The minute you light your joint, anyone close to you will know that you are smoking weed.

Versatile

Cannabutter gives you the option of making many different recipes. You can make cakes, cookies, or brownies with the recipe.

Side Effects of Cannabutter

As safe as Cannabutter is to eat and use on different recipes, it comes with a few side effects. The reason for this is that the main ingredient in the recipe is cannabis, which causes some side effects especially if taken in plenty and often. Some of the side effects include;

Varying THC concentrates

The preparation methods of Cannabutter and the quality of cannabis trim used can change the variation of THC content in the butter. This is especially if you opt to buy the butter instead of preparing your own at home, where you can control the amount and type of cannabis you se.

Slow effects

It takes longer for edibles to metabolize in the body than it does when you smoke weed. for edibles, the effects can take as long as four hours depending on the amount consumed, body mass, gender and frequency of consumption. If you smoke or vape weed directly, the effects take approximately three hours. There is also the danger of mixing the weed cookies with other ordinary cookies and posing a danger to the kids and pets.

It is very easy to over consume edibles made with Cannabutter especially if they taste and smell good. This may lead to high THC concentration in the body, this in turn could lead to mouth dryness, sleep disorders, altered senses, paranoia, hallucinations, psychosis, delusions and impaired motor control among others.

Guideline on How to Make Strong Cannabutter

It is important to learn how to make quality Cannabutter because the more potent the product the better benefits you will derive from the edibles that you make. There are many methods of making the butter. Some of the methods will give you low quality Cannabutter but if you want the perfect edibles, you need to use the best quality cannabis butter.

The following recipe is one of the best in the market because it is highly potent and ideal for both recreational and medical purposes.

Step 1 – Prepare All the Required ingredients and equipment

Besides the cannabis trim, all other equipment you need for the recipe are easy to find in your kitchen. Below are the things you will need for the preparation of Cannabutter.

• Boiling pot
• Potato ricer
• Stirring spoon
• Cookie sheet
• Best choice of cannabis trim
• Water
• Quality salted butter

If you are making the butter for the first time, you may not know the best cannabis trim to choose for your recipe, you can ask for advice from growers that know more about cannabis than you do. You can also use dried buds instead of cannabis trim for the recipe. If you choose to go with the dried buds, you will need a lesser amount than the cannabis trim.

The use of the potato ricer in this instance is to strain off your boiled cannabis after you finish the boiling process, which we will explain in the steps. The cookie sheet comes in handy for the decarboxylation process of the cannabis trim. This method involves burning of the cannabis trim and you could expect odor to fill up the room you are using for the process.

If you do not want the odor to attract your neighbors, you could use a crock-pot instead of the boiling pot. The problem however is that using a crock-pot will not give your butter the same potency as it would with a cooking pot. Boiling the trim in an open cooking pot with water gives the best effects. This recipe takes about four hours to prepare.

Step 2 –Decarboxylase the Cannabis

Some people skip this step but it is necessary if you want your Cannabutter to possess all the high quality effects it should have. The reason for the process is to help in activating some cannabinoids present in the cannabis to get the best effect out of that cannabis you are using. Below is the decarboxylation process.

• Using a food processor, break up your cannabis to the tiniest bits you can achieve. If you do not have a food processor, use something else that can help bream the cannabis.
• Place the broken cannabis on the cookie sheet
• Make sure that your oven is preheated to a maximum of 260 degrees
• Take the cannabis on the cookie sheet and put it in the oven
• Let it cook for 45 minutes
• When it comes to the oven temperature, opinions differ with some people saying that the best temperature is 200 to 220. Some also prefer to keep the cannabis for anything between 50 to 75 minutes if the temperatures are lower than 260 degrees.

Step 3 – Boiling

The boiling point of the mixture is one of the most important phases and you should therefore make sure you do everything right.

• First thing to do is fill up the boiling pot with a quarter to a third full of the cannabis trim
• In the same pot, put four cups of water for one cup of butter. Continue doing this not forgetting the ration of water 4 cups to one of butter until you fill the pot with 80% of the mixture.
• Boil the mixture on high heat
• The mixture should continue boiling as you stir it evenly for the next four hours.
• If the water evaporates during the four-hour boiling, add some more making sure to maintain the same level throughout the process.

As mentioned above, you have to remember that as the mixture boils, there will be a strong odor from the pot. You can use a crock-pot but remember to keep opening after every few minutes to check on the level of water and to stir the mixture.

Even by using the crockpot, the smell will still escape every time you open the lid. Again, it is important to note that you do not have to boil for necessarily four hours. You can choose to add another hour or two but after four hours, if the heat is at its highest, then you are good to go.

Step 4 – Straining

The straining phase is where you separate the liquids from the solids. The simplest way to do this is by pouring the whole mixture into a clean pot through a strainer. However, doing this will leave you with too much butter still stuck in the remaining hot cannabis. In this case, you will need to squeeze the remaining liquid out physically.

One way to do this is by waiting for the cannabis to cool just a little bit for you to use your hands. Using the hands to squeeze out all the liquid is long and tedious. You can improvise to speed up the process by using a potato ricer. Using a potato ricer cuts down on time used to squeeze out all the butter and it is more effective than using your hands.

Step 5 – Let the Butter Cool

As you continue straining out the butter, you will notice that the water will settle at the bottom of the bowl while the oil stays on top. Once you finish squeezing out everything, let the container with the mixture rest in a cool place for about thirty to forty minutes. After you are certain that it is cool enough, put the oil and water mixture in the fridge and let it, stay there overnight.

In the morning of the following day, take the container out of the fridge. Now, you will notice that you have your oil turned into Cannabutter while the water still sits underneath in the container. The tricky part comes in when you are separating the Cannabutter from the water underneath as you could get some splashes. You do not the water anymore and you can get rid of it after you get your Cannabutter out.

Scrap the edges of the container for any butter stuck there and put the butter back into the fridge. If you are going to use the Cannabutter immediately, you can leave it in the fridge. If you are not using it straightaway, store the Cannabutter in the freezer. Cannabutter can stay in the freezer for many months without going bad and you can use it with as many recipes as you want.