Hey, so I have not made butter in quite a long time.
I don’t have any fancy equipment and my recollection of how I did it in the past doesn’t totally line up with the info I am finding online these days…so, figured I would ask in the most appropriate place I know.
The method I have used in the past was to take a good amount of dried trimmings, crunch them up by hand into a large pot of water, add a few sticks of butter and let it simmer for an hour or two.
Then, once it had cooled just enough to handle, strain it into a large bowl using a coffee filter, squeezing out all the oil. Let the bowl set up in the fridge until the oil hardens back into butter, then remove it from the surface of the water.
I chop my trim up, bake at 225 until the flower is color of the last pic (40-45 min in my airfryer). All ovens are different and heat up different so it’s best you know how much time you should leave it in yours. Some people over char their cannabis, and I imagine it being like any other spice; if you burn it, it tastes bad.
I then put everything in a mason jar (butter and decarbed cannabis), place that in a bath of hot water, and double broil for 3-4 hours. Drain with cheese cloth, let cool and use.
So, I have read about the whole decarb thing…put it in the oven,etc…
If I am putting it it in 200 degree water, aren’t I doing the same thing?
In reading a few things across the net, people seem to be very “ick” about getting the herb wet. This confuses me as I wasn’t expecting to do anything further with the plant material post-simmer. Probably just toss it in the garden and let it turn into compost.
Every minute and every degree of heat make a difference.
So I came up with the easy method of decarbing two batches at 100 C / 212 F “sous vide”.
One batch for 1 hr 11 mins and the other one 2 hr 22 mins.
Then simply eat 1/3rd of a teaspoon of each batch before breakfast, this way I’m feeling great all day long and a good sleep, it’s full spectrum slow release and quite reliable when it comes to dosage, which is not always the case with edibles and butter etc.
I’ve been doing this for a while now and it beats anything I’ve tried before.
No extreme ups and downs, just easy going, stable, clear headed, creative, happy, peaceful aliveness.
If I want to feel ecstatic I simply close my eyes and meditate and after a few deep breathes there it is, but I can snap out of it immediately as well, so it really aids self control which is key to a happy healthy life.
At the same time it also helps a lot with focus and getting stuff done, I’m better able to juggle many things at once, as well as laser focusing on one task, especially art.
I’ve always enjoyed making butter. I think it has to do with something about getting so much back from what seems like so little. From the scraps. It’s beautiful.
I’ve always done a low simmer in the largest cooking pot I can find. Unfortunately I don’t have a metric for the ratio of butter to material and go based on intuition and gut feeling, trying to maximize the butters potency rather than have a bunch of butter that’s minimally potent. Ideally maximizing the potential of the butter fats absorption rate even if it’s at the expense of wasting some trim because the butter got fully saturated and couldn’t hold anymore cannabinoids even if there was more in the trim.
I always seek out the highest quality butter with the highest percentage of butter fats as possible, I think it goes up to around 85%.
I was taught to bring to just before a simmer and to not actually let it just simmer. Aiming to keep it right at the point it’s just barely simmering, or it’s simmering very very lightly and stirring it calms it back down. Stirring every time it starts to simmer more than just a touch, for 12 hours.
When it’s done, and while everything is as hot as you can manage, strain it out with a clean white cotton t-shirt or cheesecloth. Thermal gloves if you have access, or a potato ricer or some sort of setup that you can really squeeze it well without scalding your hands. I’ve double or tripled up latex gloves before to help with insulating from the heat when wringing out with a t-shirt by hand.
I don’t think you need to crunch up the leaves and the butter will absorb the cannabinoids just fine without having to do so. Crunching them up too much might make the butter take on more chlorophyll than necessary.
When pouring off the strained liquid into containers to put in the fridge where the butter can resolidify, if you can, use containers that have a secure lid and can be stored upsidedown without leaking. That way when they resolidify and you flip them over and pop the top off, all you have to do is pour the water off and clean up the butter to your liking from there.
When using the butter, I try to also be mindful of the temperatures it may reach while baking or cooking trying not to overheat the cannabinoids. Much love
I got about halfway into my reply and thought to myself, I really need to talk myself into a sous vide machine. Very cool to see your post and read of your experiences. Much love
Put salted water in the bottom one and put another one on top, put your dried cannabis in there, I crumble it up with my fingers, and cover it with a lid.
Bring water to a simmering gentle boil, when you see a small stream of tiny bubbles going, that’s perfect. Then add the cannabis to the pot on top and put the lid on.
Make sure the water is always touching the pot on top.
After 1 hr 11 mins take half of the cannabis out, then let the rest go on until 2 hr 22 mins.
That’s the chart I used too, but it’s over 30 years old.
Would love to find one that’s more detailed, including more temperatures (100 C / 212 F) and a version for every seperate cannabinoid and the timeline extended to 12 hours.
All done with batches from the same plant.
Come on university students and teachers, get it done!
Cannabutter is awesome because its easy to make. Most important thing is to dial in your correct dose. I start w/ a 1/2 teaspoon. Then go to a teaspoon if I have to.
I love cannabutter on toast with red raspberry jam. Great with coffee.
LOL, It is 32 years old…
I’ve looked, but everything I’ve seen is either this or reworked versions of this…
I would like to see a more comprehensive chart as there are some shortcomings.
From what I understand; the THC, when the curve goes down again, transforms into CBN, it doesn’t just disappear.
And at lower temperatures and longer times there’s still THCa present that’s not converted into THC, so it’s good to have some of all of that for a more balanced effect, instead of just a spike in THC, which overloads your receptors and creates tolerance.
So that’s why I decarb in two batches for different lengths of time, to also include THCa (shorter time) and CBN (longer time). All of them are beneficial and healing.
