Cannabutter: Cannabis-Infused Butter

About Cannabutter

Cannabutter is the base ingredient in a wide range of cannabis edibles. This butter-cannabis infusion can be very potent if prepared correctly and it is also relatively simple to make.

Ingredient List

• 10 Grams Of Cannabis (Chopped/Finely Ground and Decarbed)
• 500 Grams Of Butter
• 2 Litres Of Water

Gear/Hardware/Tools List

• 1 Thick-bottomed Saucepot
• 1 Heat Proof Bowl (Glass)
• 1 Cheese Cloth
• 1 Elastic Band (large enough to stretch around the top rim of the glass bowl)

Method

Step 1: Prep

There isn’t much preparation needed for this recipe, especially if you have already decarboxylated your cannabis – if you haven’t, then now is the time!

Make sure your decarbed cannabis is ground into a fine powder, then set aside. Next, wrap your cheesecloth over the top of the glass bowl and secure it in place by stretching your trusty elastic band around the rim of the bowl.

Great, now that you have your filter system setup, we can move on to the extracting the CBD and THC from the cannabis flowers into the butter 🙂

Step 2: Extraction

In a thick-bottomed saucepan, pour in the allocated water and slowly raise the heat until you achieve a boil, then carefully add the butter to the pot and allow it to melt completely. Once all the butter has melted, reduce the heat to a point where the water is simmering, not boiling, then add your cannabis to the mix.

With the cannabis added, continue to simmer the mixture for the next 3 hours. Do not leave the batch unattended, it is important to keep an eye on the water level, as this will be reduced as time passes, so if needed, top the water up as you go.

A good rule of thumb is to never let the cannabis get closer than 5cm from the bottom of the saucepot.

During this time, the CBD and THC from your cannabis flowers will be extracted, this is as a result of the heat being applied to the mixture. The CBD and THC will attach to the lipids (fat) in the butter. Because THC and CBD are not water-soluble, you don’t have to worry about the water that is simmering away…

Step 3: Filtering

After simmering is complete, it is time to filter the plant-matter out of the mixture. Carefully pour the mixture from the saucepot through the cheesecloth into the glass bowl, attempting to get ‘most’ of the plant-matter to land-up closer to the centre of the cheesecloth, which will prove helpful in the next part of this step.

Now carefully remove the elastic band and the cheesecloth, then squeeze it out to get as much of the butter and juicy goodness from the plant-matter left over to ooze through the cloth into the bowl.

Step 4: Cool It Down

Let the strained liquid cool down to room temperature naturally, then put it into the fridge for further chilling. During this stage, the water and butter will separate, with the butter floating to the surface of the water.

Step 5: Separate Cannabutter From Water

Now that the butter and water have cooled down, you should notice that it has separated completely. Fortunately, our butter floats to the surface of the water in the bowl and hardens there, making it easy to remove.

Get a sharp knife and slowly work it around the edges of the cannabutter in the bowl as to ‘free it’ then delicately remove the cannabutter from the bowl and lay it down ‘upside-down’ on your clean working surface. Next, scrape off any unwanted residue (plan-plant matter that perhaps got through the cheesecloth) with your sharp knife.

That’s it! Your cannabutter is now ready for action 🙂 Enjoy!

Usage

Cannabis-infused butter can be used in many different recipes, in fact, any recipe that calls for the addition of butter would pass 🙂 If you are looking for something quick and simple, just think “toast” or “popcorn” 🙂

Remember: the potency (and thus, the total number of servings) is heavily dependant on the quality of your ingredients, namely the cannabis you use.