Okay, who out there also cooks with bud? Lemme hear ya say, "HELL YEAH!"
Edibles are a great thing, seriously. The high is long lasting and oh so pleasant…
If someone in your life is dealing with chronic pain, you should introduce them to edibles. Edibles, especially when made from Indica dominant plants, are fantastic for pain management. Dope treats can very often replace (or at least severely curtail the need for) opiates. Opiates are fun, don’t get me wrong, but lots of them on a regular basis is very hard on the body. Also, um, you may not have heard this, but they can be slightly addictive.
If you’ve never eaten bud and only smoked it, ya GOTTA try some edibles. How many times do you get to try marijuana in a new way??? If you are a regular consumer, just add my recipe to your rolodex and please: share yours! I would LOVE to see a bunch of tasty recipes added to this thread!
So, there are two very key things to consider when eating marijuana:
- THC is barely psychoactive right off the plant.
- THC is just barely water soluble.
Point one is critical. THC right off the plant will not get you high! The THC molecule (as harvested) is bound to a “carboxyl group” (COOH) and has a very low level of psycho activity. After THC is warmed (150F is sufficient), the carboxyl group breaks away and THC becomes drastically more active. When you toke, burning the leaf accomplishes this. With edibles, you must do this with an oven or microwave.
150 degrees F for 10-15 minutes is sufficient to free the carboxyl group (decarboxylate the THC). The actives in THC will boil off in the 250F to 400F range, so NEVER warm above 250F or you are loosing good stuff. Try to stay at or below 150, though, because you can boil off the essential oils that give the kind its lovely complex flavor.
Point two is also critical. THC is just barely water soluble. In bongs, this is a good thing, because you can bubble the smoke through water (to cool it) without loosing anything good in the water. As a sub note, this is why drinking bong water will make you vomit, but will not get you high.
In your stomach, a low solubility in water is very bad for things you want to get into your blood stream. Your stomach and GI tract are full of water. If the THC can’t dissolve into water, it can’t get into your system. THC doesn’t dissolve in water.
To get THC into your blood stream, where it can do some good, you need to first dissolve it into something that is easily absorbed by your GI tract. Edible oil is perfect for this. THC is highly soluble in most edible oils.
Butter and olive oil are both fantastic choices and easy to add to a billion different existing recipes!!!
SO, if you don’t like my recipe, just add the magic butter (or olive oil) to your own favorite tasty treat (or bread) and nosh heartily!
Ingredients:
- 8 grams kind bud
- 1 stick organic butter (NOT MARGARINE)
- 1 capful organic vanilla in bourbon
- 1 teaspoon dark maple sugar
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1.5 cups of good granola (organic is king)
- 3 big pieces wax paper
- Pinch of nutmeg
Firstly, a word on ingredients: you can easily skimp on them, but God sakes, WHY? 8 grams of kind has a retail value of around $100 in most markets for a REASON. Part of that reason is the high – another part is that delicious smell/taste. You’ll get to experience a lot more of that smell/taste when eating buds. Don’t fuck that flavor up with shitty artificial vanilla and maple syrup!!! And yes, margarine will work, but again, WHY????
Secondly, you can do the “warming in oil” part in a big pan over super low heat, but a double boiler works much better and much more safely. There is no chance of loosing magic and almost no chance of loosing flavor in a double boiler.
- Remove all stems and seeds from your bud and chop it up as finely as possible. Drying the buds completely will make them easier to grind up into powder.
- Melt the butter in the double boiler.
- Add the powdered bud to the double boiler and heat for 30 minutes. Cover the double boiler if you can to preserve flavor. Stir at least once ever 10 minutes.
- Add the vanilla and maple syrup to the oil and stir well.
Pour the granola into a large bowl. Add the nutmeg and sugar to the granola. - Pour the oil mixture into the granola mixture and stir well. Use a spatula or your finger to get every last drop of oil. Each drop is precious with THC!
- Put the bowl in the freezer for 15 minutes to harden up a little.
Scrape all the granola mixture onto wax paper (again, every little bit is precious now). - Roll the wax paper up like a joint, compressing the granola mixture down into a tight cylinder. Use a new sheet of wax paper if it tears.
Put the tightly rolled cylinder in the fridge for 1 hour to harden completely. It will hold its shape easily if you wrap aluminum foil around the wax paper.
After your cylinder of delight is nice and hard, use a serrated knife to cut it up into eight “coins.” Cut each coin in half, toss in a big plastic bag and put back in the freezer. Keep them in the freezer or the treats will soften and break apart.
Test ½ coin by eating it on an empty stomach and waiting a full four hours to see what happens. Eating too much marijuana will make you feel HORRIBLE – way worse than booze. Don’t eat too much!!!
As an end note, for those of you with vaporizers, the “skuff” (material left over after vaporizing) is still quite effective for cooking.
Bon appetit!