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