cooking and decarboxylating

I've been trying to figure this out but not having much luck. I know cannabis has to be decarboxylated in order for the THC to be bioavailable. But does it have to be pre-decarboxylated before making butter and cooking with it? I mean, wouldn't the simple act of cooking it decarboxylate it? Some places say just toss in the cannabis others say it has to be decarboxylated before hand. Thanks for any feedback!

I am new at cooking also, but I followed a simple recipe after reading all types of extravagant recipes and simply simmered some good bud in coconut oil for awhile and made tea. I didn't expect the results. I was stoned for hrs. I would think that decarboxylate would be the best result, but I am new. Just my own opinion.

you only need to decarb if you're going to eat the actual plant matter, if you make butter you don't need to. decarbing breaks the cannabinoids free so your body can absorb them. dissolving the thc in oil does the same thing with no heat involved. you only heat cannabutter to get the oils loose to bond with the thc, etc.

by the way, i like to use a crock pot, pound of butter, my broken up trim/popcorns, then fill with water and simmer for at least 6 hours. strain it through cheese cloth or even a metal coffee filter, put it in the fridge, then pour the water off the next day

@Roger A. Shrubber idk about the oil thing. i've disolved hash into coconut oil and eaten it with no effect. then repeated the same thing after decarbing and got a heavy stone... same goes with decarbing before making the butter. since you should generally decarb for 10-20 minutes, most cook times dont let the baked good cook for more than 10 minutes. i think brownies are 8? ? but yea you're definitely right about decarbed plant matter being consumed plain. it's pretty funny that it works.

I always decarb- 240F for 40 minutes- for baking and tinctures. The internal temperature of most baked goods does not get high enough long enough to decarb cannabis. Enough people report good results just cooking the cannabis in butter for hours that I think that method works. Check out High Times The Ultimate Cannabutter Experiment. It compares four methods of making cannabutter and gives testing results for the resulting butter.

Joker1121 said:

I always decarb- 240F for 40 minutes- for baking and tinctures. The internal temperature of most baked goods does not get high enough long enough to decarb cannabis. Enough people report good results just cooking the cannabis in butter for hours that I think that method works. Check out High Times The Ultimate Cannabutter Experiment. It compares four methods of making cannabutter and gives testing results for the resulting butter.

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I agree, but find 240°F for 20-25 minutes is plenty. However, I use visual cues to tell when it is done. That is, when the decarbing is onging, CO2 bubbles are being released, and come to the top. When they stop, it is done. One factor is the age/dryness of the plant matter one starts with, as the material naturally decarbs in a few months.
And yes, the internal temperature of baked goods does not reach a high enough temperature to decarb.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

you only need to decarb if you're going to eat the actual plant matter, if you make butter you don't need to. decarbing breaks the cannabinoids free so your body can absorb them. dissolving the thc in oil does the same thing with no heat involved. you only heat cannabutter to get the oils loose to bond with the thc, etc.

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This info is completely incorrect. Cured bud has very little THC and lots of THCA which will not get you stoned. You need heat to convert the THCA to THC, dissolving cured buds without heat in oil will leave you with very, very little THC. This is documented in thousands of books and studies on how to make edibles.

Everyone I've known and read who have tried both decarbing and not, will tell you when they decarb before cooking, their end product is much more potent. I completely agree with what the Joker says above. If you need you're own proof, try it for yourself and come back to tell us your results.

For baking its nice to decarboxylate as once done you can pulverize the plant matter with a food processor and incorporate it into the brownies, it actually gives it a pleasant nutty flavour too!

I used to make my butter with just dried material, but one time I had decarbed material left over that I didn't use from an oil run. I used it to make the butter. Tremendous increase in potency. I decarb before making butter every time now!

ok,so stupid question.how do I decarb my bud?

well, since it was pointed out to me i was in error, i looked it up, just break it up good, put it in a 220-240 degree oven for at least 30 minutes, some say 45, a few say an hour. the next time i try it im planning on 225 for 45 minutes and see what happens

Roger A. Shrubber said:

well, since it was pointed out to me i was in error, i looked it up, just break it up good, put it in a 220-240 degree oven for at least 30 minutes, some say 45, a few say an hour. the next time i try it im planning on 225 for 45 minutes and see what happens

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thank you.much appreciated.I have a whole bunch of trim I planned on making butter with.would you guys recommend decarbing for butter as well?seems after reading this thread,thsts a yes?
OK so I just read through the post again,I plan to decarb even making butter.thanks again

Decarbing makes huge difference in quality...
I grew up working in a bakery from age 10 until well after high school. An older hippy baker caught me trying to make brownies when I was about 16 and went about teaching me instead of busting me.
I still do it the same today as I was taught, not to say I haven't tried other ways but best results are what I learned then.

Put a sheet of baking parchment on a lipped cookie sheet (nothing sticks to sheet and nothing is lost plus it doesn't make the kids chicken nuggets taste like weed the next day)
Preheat oven to 225F - Use a internal thermometer don't trust dial
Decarb for 1 hour
then onto whatever oil

I have used butter, olive oil and coconut oil as well as others. If you use butter clarify it first.
I tried to research what oil could hold the most THC for say a specific amount of each oil and all I could come up with that coconut oil had highest fat content. My thinking was if a recipe called for 1/4 cup of oil or butter how much stone could I get into that 1/4 cup?
I looked at different oils, crisco, and even peanut butter - hard to find data to compare.
At some point I figured adding more weed would be a waste, a diminishing return.
With the highest fat being in coconut oil it is what I tend to use as it has its own health goodness and being it behaves like butter where it can be melted and return to a solid it lends itself very well to any recipe calling for butter. I might be wrong but I think it has longer shelf life as well.

I typically use 1oz of sugar leaf for every 1/4lb of butter/oil so 4oz of weed to a whole package of butter.
In a pot with weed and oil/butter I add few cups of water to regulate possibility of burning.
Water helps later with leeching out the chlorophyll taste.
I boil for 10 minutes then go to low heat for 8 hours.
If water level drops too much I add more so oil or plant matter doesn't burn.
I tried 2,4,6,24,36 hours but 8 made it right.
I strain with cheese cloth into flexible plastic bowls with slanted sides and lids. Makes it easy later to twist bowl and get solidified cannabutter out with out breaking it.
I rinse the bottom of it to get any residual water/green matter off and pop back in freezer until I use.

I get great goodies, for some they are too powerful so options are to eat less, or cut your recipe with non-cannabutter/oil.
I live in a legal rec state and have bought treats from stores with basically no results, last test I hate entire $30 bag of brownie bites and felt nothing.

Something else I found makes it all taste better in the end is cure the sugar leaf in jars for weeks/months just like you do flowers = makes for less hay chlorophyll taste that the water leeches out. I can make a cookie that tastes like a cookie with no weed in it.

Skunkfarm tek ftmfw

293* @ 9 mins in a covered bowl.

Done

i made some licorice recently with 40g of bud i decarbed for 30 minutes @ 220F
7g (tootsie roll size) is plenty.
i think the sheet after drying was 600g's of licorice?



here's a loaf of sour dough i made with my recent trim.

taste like pumpernickel

iHearAll said:

i made some licorice recently with 40g of bud i decarbed for 30 minutes @ 220F
7g (tootsie roll size) is plenty.
i think the sheet after drying was 600g's of licorice?



here's a loaf of sour dough i made with my recent trim.View attachment 3823519 View attachment 3823520 View attachment 3823522 View attachment 3823525 View attachment 3823527
View attachment 3823534
taste like pumpernickel

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Please tell me you made the sourdough bread with cannabutter or cannabis infused oil, and NOT by dumping ground up leaf or bud into your bread flour.

Dan Drews said:

Please tell me you made the sourdough bread with cannabutter or cannabis infused oil, and NOT by dumping ground up leaf or bud into your bread flour.

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whatya mean? of course i made it by dumping ground up leaf or bud into my bread flour.decarbed first


lol

iHearAll said:

whatya mean? of course i made it by dumping ground up leaf or bud into my bread flour.decarbed first


lol

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Reminds me of my wife's grandmother making our wedding cake with glitter on the frosting, only she forgot to use 'EDIBLE' glitter. All of us had glitter shit in our teeth for days. I guess if you don't mind the overpowering taste of green bud in your sourdough and green bits of shit between your teeth, you should be golden.

Next time, you might want to try infusing the bud or kief in your butter or oil you use in your sourdough, unless you enjoy making your dentist cranky.

Dan Drews said:

Reminds me of my wife's grandmother making our wedding cake with glitter on the frosting, only she forgot to use 'EDIBLE' glitter. All of us had glitter shit in our teeth for days. I guess if you don't mind the overpowering taste of green bud in your sourdough and green bits of shit between your teeth, you should be golden.

Next time, you might want to try infusing the bud or kief in your butter or oil you use in your sourdough, unless you enjoy making your dentist cranky.

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You can eat straight pot. it needs to be dried and decarbed, then really really pulverized into what resembles protein powder. and sift out the stems over and over again until you're satisfied. I used a mortar and pestle here but there are others who swear by coffee grinders. If you use trim and fan leaves you get a flour-like substance that acts like flour in a recipe and doesnt get you stoned from just a half gram of plant material.you can eat 50g of trim (sorta still be careful). if you used straight prime bud you'd only be able to eat a bite and you'd bet in an hour you'll feel it.

It taste like pumpernickel in this sourdough instance, but i like to add some of the pot flour to my morning vegetable smoothies and it gets me pretty baked for a while. As a flour alone it taste just ok and doesnt resemble much of a weedy taste as much as it resembles a toasted hemp protein taste. but pallets are different all over the world so idk try it if you have a harvest coming up if you're feeling adventurous.