What if you take getting high to the highest level?
Eventually, it’s important to move beyond getting store-bought edibles and to make your own. Unfortunately, though, it can be difficult figuring how crucial skills, including how to make cannabutter or cannabis oil.
That’s where we come in. We put together the definitive guide on making this cannabis oil. Keep reading to discover everything you need to know to get started today!
What Is Cannabutter?
Our guide is going to walk you through all of the finer details of making cannabutter with oil. Before we go any further, though, we need to answer a pretty basic question: what is cannabutter, exactly?
On the most basic level, this is exactly what it sounds like: a combination of cannabis and butter. And it serves as the key ingredient for anyone who wishes to make their own edibles.
Interestingly, most cannabutter recipes allow you to substitute cannabis oil for cannabis butter. And that’s what our guide will focus on: making the cannabutter oil you need to start cooking.
If you get serious about making cannabutter or cannabis oil, you may wish to invest in a cannabutter machine. And you may eventually move on to other techniques, including crockpot cannabutter.
However, our guide assumes you are doing all of this for the first time. As such, we provide a simple recipe you should be able to follow with a few basic ingredients and some of the tools and utensils already in your kitchen. Then, you can whip up your own THC treats that really kick in as they digest.
Why Is Making Cannabutter or Cannabis Oil So Important?
There are plenty of cannabis fans who partake regularly without making their own butter or oil. That means we need to answer another question: why is making cannabutter or cannabis oil so important, anyway?
The short answer is that it is mostly useful for those who wish to make their own edibles and create everything from scratch. Otherwise, someone could simply buy premade edibles. Alternatively, they could buy cannabutter over the counter rather than create their own.
When it comes to making edibles, think of it like baking a cake. Some people are happy to buy a cake from the bakery when they get a craving and others are happy to buy the cake ingredients in a box and follow the instructions. But those who are really serious about cake get a kick out of making everything from scratch.
Making your own butter or oil opens up an entirely new world of making the edibles you can’t find at the store or creating edibles that are either more or less potent. And as with doing anything else in the kitchen, making your own butter and edibles is a very fulfilling process from beginning to end.
What You Should Know About Edibles
Here in a minute, we are going to walk you through a simple cannabutter recipe so you can get started. Before we do that, though, there are a few things you should know about edibles.
One positive side effect is that edibles tend to be longer-lasting than the flower is. They tend to take longer to kick in, but then the effect lasts longer than you might expect. This is good if you wish to relax for a long time or stay asleep throughout the night, but eating edibles is a bad choice if you have to do anything important later that day.
Here’s an interesting side effect of making your own edibles: any given bite may be way more potent than you were expecting. Store-bought edibles have a fixed amount of THC in them, allowing you to easily control your high (like eating a piece of a chocolate bar that you know has exactly 10mg of Indica in it).
If you haven’t made your own edibles much (or at all), it’s going to take some time for you to get the cannabis/oil ratio “just right.” So clear your schedule before you get high on your own baked supply because you might find yourself living out one of those “when the edible hit” memes while trying to deal with your anxiety.
With all of that important info out of the way, let’s dive into the main event: making cannabis oil!
How To Make Cannabutter With Oil
Below, we have a simple recipe that you can follow. One of the first things you will notice is that the recipe calls for you to use one ounce of cannabis flower to help get things started.
This should be plenty for starter purposes, especially if you are just making either edible desserts for yourself or using the butter to bake your favorite dishes. But if you are serving multiple guests and/or multiple meals, you may need to adjust the ingredients and effectively increase the potency.
Right now, though, you should follow the recipe “as is.” Perfecting the craft of edibles is going to be a long process of trial and error. But we feel confident you’re going to have fun doing it!
Gather Your Ingredients
The ingredients for this recipe are pretty simple. We already listed the main component: one ounce of dried cannabis flower. Unless you just happen to have your own plant on hand, this means snagging some flower from a nearby dispensary.
Next, you’re going to need two cups of oil. You can use many kinds of oil, including olive oil and canola oil. We are partial to coconut oil, but it all comes down to individual tastes.
Believe it or not, that’s all the ingredients you’ll need. Now, it’s time to gather the equipment you’ll need.
Get the Right Equipment
As we noted earlier, serious edibles enthusiasts may eventually want to invest in equipment that makes this whole process easier. But for your first time, we decided to stick with the equipment you probably already have around the house.
First, you’re going to need a large saucepan and a good wooden spoon. Next, you need some cheesecloth and a large, clear bowl. Finally, you’re going to need some tape (although something like a rubber band will do if you are all out of tape).
That’s it! Now that you have your ingredients and equipment ready, let’s make some cannabutter with oil.
Process, Blend, or Grind
As you might imagine, we get things started with that one ounce of cannabis flower. For this all to work, we need to make this flower as fine as we possibly can.
To do this, you can simply throw it in a food processor. Even a blender will do. And you might be surprised at how effective a coffee grinder works for these purposes (though if you’re going to do this regularly, it will be worth it to invest in a dedicated marijuana grinder).
However you get the job done, your goal is to make the powder very, very fine. Once you have achieved this goal, it’s time for the next step.
A Saucepan and the Right Amount of Water
Remember when we said to get a large saucepan? That’s because you’re going to be adding a lot of water. You need to fill the pan with about five inches of water.
Why this much water? Eventually, you’re going to be adding your flower to the pan (not just yet, though). And when you do so, you need to keep the flower at least two inches from the bottom of the pan to prevent burning. Therefore, about five inches of water gives you a good safety buffer to keep that from happening.
After that, we can move on to the easiest step of all!
When Boil Meets Oil
Once you’ve added the water to your saucepan, you need to set it on “boil.” And once the water is boiling, you need to add the oil.
That’s pretty much it for this step. If you were making traditional cannabutter, then this would be the step where you add two cups of butter and give it time to fully melt. But using oil instead of butter effectively speeds this part of the process up.
Now that the other elements are in place, it’s time to add the flower.
Adding the Cannabis
Before adding anything, be sure to switch the stove from “boil” to “low heat.” After that, you can add your flower. And if we’re being honest, now would be a good time to grab an engaging book or load up some podcast episodes on your phone.
That’s because you’re going to need to heat the cannabis like this for about three hours. The heat helps turn on the psychoactive parts of the flower (hence, the traditional need to smoke cannabis). But you need to monitor everything and keep the water from boiling, which can effectively ruin the flower and ruin your plans for making cannabutter with oil.
Unfortunately, you can’t just walk away from this. Instead, you’re going to need to stir it every 15 minutes or so to keep everything nice and evenly distributed.
Watch For the Color Change
For much of this process, the saucepan ingredients are going to look gross, if we’re being honest. The oil will try to separate from the water, and the flower will look like it is just sitting there.
Eventually, though, everything starts to merge together. And you should notice a change of color that makes everything look darker and thicker.
As we noted before, this process takes about three hours. Near the end of it, you need to grab the large, glass bowl for the next step.
Fetch A Bowl
You might have guessed this, but the oil you just created is going to go into this glass bowl. But not right away! First, you need to put a cheesecloth over the top of the bowl.
To make life easier, we recommend temporarily taping the cheesecloth in place. But you can always use a rubber band or other creative method of doing so if no tape is available.
It may go without saying, but you don’t want the cheesecloth to appear tight as a drum. Keep some slack in there so this next step doesn’t get too messy.
A New Kind of “Strain”
The next step is nice and easy: simply strain the mixture through the cheesecloth and into the bowl, taking care not to make a mess. Afterward, remove the cheesecloth from the bowl, but don’t take it away just yet!
That’s because there may be some oil left on the cheesecloth after you strained through it. Try to squeeze out any remaining oil into the bowl, but take care not to burn yourself because all of this is still relatively hot.
Because it’s hot, the next step is all about cooling things down!
Time To Get Patient
Look, we get it: you’re probably in a hurry to go bake some edibles now that you’ve created the oil you need. But you can’t rush things, and now is the time to get patient.
Your first instinct may be to cool the oil down in the fridge. However, you never want to put something this hot directly into the refrigerator!
Instead, let everything cool down for a couple of hours before you toss it into the fridge. Keep it there until everything is cool and solid.
Use and Store
Congrats: you’re almost done with this entire process!
At this point, the oil is ready to be used. Had you made traditional cannabutter, you would have to spend this time scraping it out of the bowl. But with oil, you can simply pour and use it as needed.
Whatever oil is left will need to be stored somewhere cool and dark. And so long as your glass container has a lid, you can simply keep it in the fridge for future use!
Your Next Move
Now you know how to make cannabis oil instead of the traditional cannabutter. But you can’t really get started in Oklahoma until you have a medical marijuana card.
Fortunately, getting a card is easier than you might think. If you’re ready to start making your own edibles, contact us today!
