If you want to cook edibles, it helps to have some infused oils, butters, honey or even an extract to add directly to the food. Depending on your situation, different types of infusions or extracts will be better to use, like baking treats usually works out better when you use cannabutter and a quick infused dressing is made simple and quick with cannabis oil. Over the years, I’ve made various infusions a few different ways, some before more research and others after. Initial infusions I made using butter in a crock pot with trim, the more basic and accessible way to make cannabutter. You can also make oil in that same manner, which I also did at some point using olive oil. These were made earlier on in my cannabis journey so, as I am one to do with something I am becoming interested about, I began researching infusions to find out more information and techniques. One book I would recommend is The Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook by Robyn Griggs Lawrence. Note that I really use the book for reference because the first 20+ pages are very informative and gives great detail on marijuana in general, cannabinoids, calculating potency and dosages and, of course, outlines multiple ways to make infusions, which is really what we are after!
Here I’ll outline two ways to make cannabis oil: coconut oil and olive oil. The coconut oil is not necessarily labor intensive, but it is more time consuming. Remember, you could virtually take the ratios provided here and put it all in a crock pot, set on low and be able to forget about it for many hours, up to over a day. But, I like to have full control of the temperature and more involved in the process, so I simmered mine on the stove top. Another note, is that potency calculations are not exact. If you go to a dispensary to purchase purchase flower to use, then you will have a much better idea of your potency. However, generally speaking, your average marijuana plant has about 15% THC. You can use that number if you are using the buds themselves, but I did not here. The Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook coconut oil recipe uses both flower and trim. I made mine using strictly trim, so it is less potent than using bud, but it definitely gets the job done. The recipe below is based on the way I converted the recipe to suit what I had on hand. Coconut oil is a great oil to use because it has the higher fat content that the THC will adhere to during the cooking process. However, The Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook, gives you so many interesting options, including ghea, milk and alcohol tinctures. Of course, I gravitated to the more potent infusion techniques, and figure you would want the same.
Cannabis Infused Coconut Oil
Makes approximatley 5 cups
16 ounces trim (I ran mine through a blender briefly)
2 cups water
5 cups coconut oil
cheese cloth for straining
mason jar for storing
Combine water and trim in a large pot
Over low heat, press the trim into the water using a potato masher
Simmer for 5 minutes until liquid evaporates (this helps with bitterness and flavor)
Add coconut oil and simmer for 4-5 hours, or more
Once cooled enough, strain using cheese cloth in batches
Store in airtight mason jars
*Potency is approximately 450mg per cup
Now that I’ve shared with you a recipe that is a bit more labor intensive, I figure one that is virtually no labor and entirely hands off is another good one to share. Once I saw this recipe in The Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook, I felt silly for not having realized it on my own because infusing olive oil didn’t become a thing because of cannabis. Infused olives oils, ones you can buy at the store or make at home, is just a natural fit for cannabis. The fats in the olive oil naturally want to take on the terpenes, crystals and cannabinoids so it makes for a potent oil that takes almost no effort. Unfortunately, it does take time and patience. This oil can, theoretically, sit for as long as you like. It will get more potent over time. I have made this oil and left it for 2 weeks up to 10 weeks. It is kind of nice because I can keep them in rotation and strain and use them as I need. I also used strictly trim for this oil, but you can certainly use bud, either solely or together with trim. This recipe is great because the ratio is very easy to calculate and adjust to make the amount you want, depending on how much trim and/or bud you have to work with.
Infused Olive Oil
*Makes approximately 1 cup oil
2 cups bud and/or trim, broken up/coarsley chopped
1 cup olive oil
cheese cloth for straining
mason jar for storage
Put cannabis in clean, dry jar
Pour oil over cannabis, and push cannabis down into oil
Tightly close the jar and leave on a window sill for at least 2 weeks
Once ready, strain using a cheese cloth and store in a mason jar
*Potency is approximately 800mg per cup
These are two recipes that I use most often because they are both potent, but one is more hands on to make a large batch using healthier coconut oil and the other is effortless olive oil that I can keep in rotation. I use coconut oil more for sauteing and cooking, and the olive oil is great in more raw applications, like a salad dressing or drizzled on a charcuterie board (a posting on one of those to come soon). Now if you don’t have access to trim, or you don’t want to waste the bud to make the oil, there are other options. One easy infusion method is to buy an extract concentrate at a dispensary and add it to an oil or honey, as I show below, or you can just add it directly to the final prepared food. Below I show an infused honey I made just by adding a concentrate spray I bought at a dispensary to a delicious Portuguese honey I already had.
Now that you have a few options to make your own infusion oils, I hope you are inspired to get started on an edible journey! Once you have the infused oil in your kitchen, it makes infusing any food you can make very easy and quick. There are endless possibilities and ways to be creative if you have the base components to work with. So go get infusing and creating!
