Cannabutter is a basic item in a marijuana chef’s kitchen.
It’s long been a favorite base ingredient for making tasty marijuana edibles.
You can put it on toast, your lover, a baked potato, or any place you’d use butter.
There are many recipes and methods for making cannabutter, including slow crock pot cannabutter recipes that promise the highest potency.
We’re giving you a marijuana cannabutter recipe that’s a cross between the slow cook method and the fast food version because with this method you get the full value of your THC and other cannabinoids, without as much hassle.
Done properly, the marijuana cannabutter won’t “burn,” as it’s cooked by steam, rather than directly in a pot.
Your Tools:
A double boiler.
If you don’t have one, you’ll need a large pot and another saucepan that fits into the pot though not directly.
What you’ll do is fill the bottom of the larger pot with water and put the other pot on top so that the steam from the boiling water cooks the ingredients in the smaller pot without the smaller pot touching the water.)
You also need:
1 cheesecloth
1 rubber band
1 herb grinder
1 large wooden spoon
Reliable stove
1 storage container
1 Kitchen thermometer
Your Ingredients:
1 pound of organic, unsalted sweet butter (about 4 sticks)
One ounce or more of ground or chopped marijuana.
Instead of using leaves, use premium buds for the highest potency and quality.
Clean your buds of leaves that have no resin glands, and also remove stems.
Soak your cannabis in distiller or reverse osmosis water for three days before you use it, so you remove chlorophyll and impurities.
After soaking, spread it out on a cookie sheet and dry it at very low heat (no higher than 140°F) until it’s dry like it would be after a dry and cure.
Method for Making Marijuana Cannabutter
Fill the larger pot with water, not all the way to the top, just some at the bottom.
Cut sticks of butter into smaller pieces. Remember: use non-GMO organic butter.
Put butter into the smaller pot and place the smaller pot inside the bigger pot. Let it melt.
Once it’s melted, add cannabis and stir it in, removing any clumps or it sticking to the sides.
Turn the stove top to a low heat and bring the water to a simmer. Stir frequently.
Lower heat and add more water. You’ll leave the double boiler on the stove for about 4-6 hours, so monitor the water to make sure there’s enough simmering.
Because the steam can only get so hot, you won’t burn the butter or the pan.
This is why you can leave it on for as long as 6 hours. Leaving it on for that period of time is key as more THC will absorb into and bind with the butter.
Once the time is up, take the top pot off of the large pot and let it cool for about 5 minutes.
In the meantime, get your storage container (use glass or stainless steel storage for buds, cannabutter, and all other marijuana products) and secure the cheesecloth over the top of it with a rubber band.
Slowly pour the cannabutter mixture through the cheesecloth.
Then carefully take the cheesecloth off and squeeze the remaining cooked bud content so more butter oozes into your storage container.
Store in the freezer until it hardens, use as needed in any recipe that calls for butter, and place back in the freezer for longer-term storage.
You want to use your cannabutter within three months of making it.
And here’s an update: we had this article up for a while, and recently got this very useful set of revised cannabutter strategies from BigBudsMag reader Chief Chef:
Hey I saw the cannabutter recipe and I thought I’d share some really important tidbits…
I noticed the author didn’t include “decarbing” as the first step.
Decarbing is just drying your already dried weed out in a sealed container inside the oven, at a low temperature of say 200-250 degrees F.
What this does is turn inactive forms of THC into super potent digestible forms of THC (It’s guaranteed to your butter way stronger!).
I soak my buds in water for 24 hours to leach out any contaminants as well as the super strong herby flavor.
If there’s too much chlorophyll, it can make the stomach upset. I usually do the water cure before I de-carb my material.
The water soak part can get the flavor of your budder down from super-herbally all the way down to UN-detectable and downright smooth!
Thank you for helping all of us make potent, tasty marijuana cannabutter!
