Cooking with cannabis is no easy feat. Cannabis must be carefully and properly prepared in order to maximize potency and flavor. Simply throwing your buds into a recipe and hoping for the best won’t produce very good results. Here are 6 tips to keep in mind when baking with cannabis so your baked treats come out tasty and mind-alteringly good.
Be Mindful of Strains
Before preparing and cooking your cannabis, make sure you choose the right strain to cook with.
Just as different strains produce different effects when smoked, the strain you bake with will affect your buzz when you consume your edibles. Sativa-dominant edibles tend to produce an energizing buzz with plenty of cerebral euphoria, while indica-dominant edibles produce a strongly sedating and euphoric body high. Choose wisely, the difference between the two can be quite significant.
Decarboxylate Your Cannabis First
Cooking with raw cannabis will not result in the mind-blowing and delicious edibles you think it will. Most cannabis cooking experts recommend decarboxylating cannabis before using it to bake or cook. Decarboxylation is a process that converts the THCA that coats raw cannabis buds (crystals) into the psychoactive THC responsible for marijuana’s mind-altering effects. Sometimes this can happen during the baking process itself, but it’s best to ensure that your cannabis has been ‘activated’ before cooking with it. Decarboxylation is key to making strong and potent edibles.
Grind Your Bud – But Not Too Much
It’s important to grind your bud before doing any kind of cooking or baking with it (duh!). But, be careful not to grind it too fine.
While some cannabis chefs recommend using food processors and coffee grinders to grind the bud you cook with, doing so may actually lower the quality of your edibles. Completely pulverizing your flower has been known to give it a more bitter, grassy flavor, and may even cause your infused butter or oil to turn a darker shade of green. Stick to a coarse grinder or a regular grinder instead.
Don’t Overdo It!
It’s easy to get carried away when baking with cannabis, especially if it’s your first time, but try to remember not to overdo it.
Using top-shelf AAAA flower is really not necessary when baking edibles. A little really does go a long way. In fact, many people prefer to get rid of their shake and loose leaf buds by cooking with them instead of smoking them. While you don’t necessarily have to cook with your leftovers, don’t waste your money on the best buds in town either. Even mid-range flower will be good enough to produce some seriously strong edibles. (Save the good stuff for smoking to get the maximum flavor!)
Additionally, be careful not to add too much to your recipes. Consider how many milligrams of THC you are actually adding to your edibles with each gram of bud, oil, or cannabutter. Just one gram of 15% THC cannabis will add a whopping 150 mg of THC to your edibles if properly decarboxylated.
Stir, Stir, Stir!
Make sure that everything is stirred in well and evenly distributed throughout each individual edible you are baking. Concentrating all of your infused oil or butter on one half of the pan is a sure-fire way to bake a batch of brownies that is amazing and disappointing at the same time. Stir as much as possible throughout the baking process to ensure that your ingredients are properly mixed.
Don’t Feel Like Baking With Cannabis? Grab Some Edibles or Oil
We carry some great edibles, and now is the perfect time to experiment with them! Still want to cook but without the hassle? Try adding some cannabis oil or tinctures to your culinary concoctions.
You can grab great bud, edibles, and more on our online menu.
