Dos & Don’ts Of Making Homemade Cannabis Edibles

Even though the edible market is thriving, some people prefer homemade products. Plus, with the holiday season looming, homemade edibles might be the perfect gift – both for the seasoned consumers in your family and the ones who may have long avoided cannabis because of past stigmas. Like all baking and cooking, making homemade edibles requires attention to detail (and maybe some trial and error), patience, and the right instructions and equipment. A primary goal for all DIY edible chefs is to avoid ruining a batch of excellent cannabis because details were skipped.

With edibles, primarily because of the lag time before the THC takes effect, it’s important to remember: less is more. It’s better to be a little buzzed and go back for seconds than to have one little taste test melt you into the couch for 6-8 hours. There’s a limit to how much the lipids in oil will bind to cannabis. To avoid wasting marijuana and money, use equal amounts of ground cannabis and oil.

As is the current rage with high-end chefs, chemistry plays an important role: you’re going to need to decarboxylate your cannabis. Decarboxylation happens when you heat up cannabis and allow it to release its effect. Adding raw cannabis into a mix makes everything taste terrible and doesn’t produce the desired result.

Next up: be sure to grind your cannabis carefully; it shouldn’t be too chunky and it shouldn’t be too fine – it needs to fall somewhere in the middle. If you grind the cannabis into a fine powder, your recipe will taste grassy and bad. Too fine of a grind also makes it difficult to strain the plant out of the oil. No one wants bad-tasting chunks of marijuana in their edibles.

Cannabutter, or cannabis-infused butter, is an excellent ingredient in cannabis edibles that often simplifies recipes. To stay on top of flavor and potency, taste as you go. Testing your cannabutter before cooking gives a good understanding of its strength and how much to use. While there are ways to make cannabutter by hand, there are also handy extraction machines that can help you whip up the perfect pot-infused spread in a matter of minutes!

Lastly, you want to stay consistent and avoid the temptation to “freelance” with your recipes. Stick to your recipe! While experimenting is part of the fun of cooking and baking, it’s all too easy to mess up your hard work with one tiny stray away from the precise instructions. Until you’re a seasoned vet and a cannabaking expert, you’ll find more success when you stick close to the tried and true recipe.

Follow these simple guidelines, and friends will beat a path to your door for your handcrafted edible treats.