Cooking with Cannabis
Munchy Brothers’ Chef Gives Tips on Holiday Baking – LPC
While many are hoping for Christmas cannabis edibles to hit the market soon, many won’t be available until next year. That includes Munchy Brothers-brand cannabis-infused chocolate chips, sugar, salt, and syrups. But Munchy Brothers founder and chef Pat Newton shared some tips on cooking with cannabis – including his “secret” ingredient.
Before you start cooking with cannabis, it’s important to prepare the dried flower, Newton said. This is called decarboxylating or “decarbing” the cannabis. This has nothing to do with watching your carbs though. Instead, it’s the process of using heat to turn the tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA) into euphoria-inducing THC. This happens naturally when you smoke or vape dried flower.
Decarboxylating slowly at low temperature is best for cooking with cannabis. Used crumpled parchment paper on a cookie sheet. (Crumpling helps keep the flower off the hot pan.) Leave in the oven for 45 minutes, then let it cool before using.
There are potential drawbacks: your kitchen will smell like cannabis. If this is a big concern for you, there are other methods. “You could literally break up some bud, heat up olive oil in a pan, and that would convert it,” Newton said. However, he implied it’s not the best method since the conversion happens faster. Slower is better. More expensive methods include a sous-vide (immersing a bag in hot water) and a specialized decarbox.
Cooking with Cannabis Usually Means Infusing with Other Ingredients – LPC
The best method of cooking with cannabis, Newton said, is to infuse it with other ingredients. Newton’s secret ingredient is butter. Once you have decarboxylated your cannabis, melt 2 pounds of butter in a pot and stir in 4 grams of cannabis. Allow this to simmer for 90 minutes. Newton recommends using a cooking thermometer to ensure the mixture doesn’t rise above 250F. (He recommends simmering the butter and cannabis at 180F.) Strain the butter with cheesecloth while it’s still warm to get out the bits of flower. Then pour into a mould like an ice tray and refrigerate overnight.
Oils work too. Mix 500ml of your preferred cooking oil with 10g of dried flower and simmer at 160F for 60 minutes. Strain with cheesecloth and refrigerate.
If edibles are on your Christmas list (or on the wishlist of family and friends), cooking with cannabis might be the best way to get them under the tree this year. But please, be responsible! Ensure that all cannabis edibles are clearly marked and out of the reach of children or unsuspecting adults.
You can sign up for cooking with cannabis recipes at the Munchy Brothers website. You can also click on the link below to go to the original article including tips on controlling the amount of THC in your food.
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