Making cannabutter is an easy but methodical process perfect for beginners. Heat weed, immerse in melted butter and steep.
Cannabutter (or weed butter) is regular butter that's been infused with dry cannabis to use for cooking, baking, or spreading onto a hunk of bread. Making weed butter is an easy but methodical process that any beginner can do.
I started taking a CBD oil a few years ago when I developed trouble sleeping and peri-menopausal induced anxiety. The sleep I could help by doing these few things every night.
The anxiety was tougher.
It saw me greet every morning by jumping out of bed, saying here we go again, and promptly forgetting how breathing works. In and out, I knew that much, but how often?
Should I count my breaths? I feel like I'm breathing too many times, why can't I get a deep breath? I'm dizzy, let's curl up in a ball on the floor next to the dirty cat food dish while I contemplate why my stomach is in a constant state of trying to turn itself inside out.
It was that experience and the success of using CBD that prompted me to grow my own cannabis plants for making weed butter. If you like growing things, I'm an experienced gardener who also writes for publications like The Old Farmer's Almanac - you can see my best vegetable gardening tips here .
My meno is pausing. And this THC butter recipe helps.
Cannabis can be split into 2 groups - THC dominant strains and CBD dominant strains. I recommend a 1:1 for making your own weed butter. That means your pot strain will have 1 part THC to 1 part CBD.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
7 - 10 grams of dried, decarboxylated cannabis (CBD or THC) - About 1 cup
1 cup of butter
1 cup water
Step 1 - Decarbing
- Decarb your cannabis by breaking it into pieces and laying it on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 40 minutes in a 240 F oven.
- Remove the decarbed cannabis from the oven and let it cool a bit. It'll have lost some of its green colour and turned crispy.
For a superior product work with the buds for this (on the left), not the stems or the leaves (on the right). Having said that, you can make marijuana butter using stems, leaves, shake weed and kief.
Whatever garbage pot parts you have - they can be made into cannabutter!
If you're wondering how to decarb kief, leaves and stems - do it the exact same way. By heating in a 240 F oven for 40 minutes.
Step 2 - Grinding
- Now you have to either cut or grind the buds so that it's smaller but not a fine powder, which is best for infusing. You can use a grinder (I have a fancy gold, metal grinder) or just cut it up with scissors.
Gold grinder on AMAZON in Canada.
Gold grinder on AMAZON in US - (currently not for sale in the U.S., but it does pop up every now and then)
TIP: A weed grinder is also perfect for grinding dried herbs. I use one for the grinding up the thyme, basil, oregano and sage that I grow and dry. It makes it the perfect consistency for cooking.
Step 3 - Infusing
- Combine 1 cup butter and 1 cup water in a pot and bring to the simmer until butter melts. Once you add your cannabis in the next step you don't want your mixture to go over 200 F.
Anything between 160 F and 200 F is O.K.
- Add your decarbed cannabis to the pot of butter and water and stir.* Let it steep at a temperature of around 180 for 3 hours stirring fairly often to keep things mixed up. Use a thermometer in your pot so you can keep an eye on it. If your mixture is at a boil you KNOW you've gone over 200 F. :(
NOTE: The reason you add water is to prevent your butter from scorching and burning. You'll separate the butter and water later.
*TIP: TO MAKE THIS EASY AND EXACT, AT THIS POINT POUR THE MIXTURE INTO A LARGE MASON JAR AND USE A STICK SOUS VIDE TO MAKE YOUR CANNABUTTER. JUST SET THE SOUS VIDE TO 180 F, FOR 3 HOURS AND WALK AWAY.
*I have made this cannabutter recipe two ways. With the above controversial method which inserts the Sous Vide stick right in the cannabutter as well as the more traditional method of setting the jar of cannabutter into a pot of water, with the Sous Vide stick in the water. I've found putting the stick right in the butter makes a more consistent product. But you do you! Either way works.
NOTE: You can also use a slow cooker and make crock pot cannabutter but remember to stir it the odd time and use an instant read digital thermometer to make sure you're staying at 180 F.
Step 4 - Straining & Storing
- After 3 hours take the pot off the heat (or turn off the Sous Vide) and strain your mixture through multiple layers of cheesecloth to strain the cannabis from the butter.
- Squeeze the cheesecloth to get all the butter in it out.
- Refrigerate the mixture of butter and water overnight. The next day the butter will have hardened at the top of the water and you can use a spoon to lift it out and put it in a new dish.
- The butter will be grainy and weird. Mash it with a fork and once it's softened enough, whisk it to smooth it out. If you want to be an overachiever you can use an electric beater to get it really smooth.
- Refrigerate until you want to use it.
In order for Cannabutter to have any of the beneficial effects of the CBD or THC your cannabis flower (bud) needs to be activated by decarboxylating (decarbing) it.
More on Decarboxylation
It's a big scary, sciencey looking word, but all it means is you need to heat up the cannabis to activate it. You need to decarb both THC and CBD to get the benefits out of them.
In fact, until you decarb the cannabis, what it contains is THCA and CBDA. It's only when you heat it that it becomes THC and CBD.
You decarboxylate cannabis by heating it on a baking sheet in the oven at 240 F for 40 minutes.
NOTE: If you're wondering how to make cannabis oil it's the same as making cannabutter. All the steps and measurements are the same. Instead of 1 cup butter, use 1 cup oil. Olive, grape, MCT (unrefined coconut oil) & avocado oil all make excellent carrier oils. *For the steeping phase DO NOT ADD WATER.
Orrrr - you can make it all in one machine. Both The Magical Butter machine and the higher priced Levo II can decarboxylate and infuse butter or oil all in the handy casing of a small countertop appliance.
Dosing
Dosing is a bit of a crapshoot but you can guide yourself if you know what you worked with to make your butter.
You can use this THC calculator for determining how strong your cannabutter is read this blog post on how to calculate cannabis dosing and stregth yourself.
TIPS
- To figure out dosing for yourself without all the math, just spread a small amount (¼ teaspoon or so) onto a piece of bread and eat it. See how you feel 1 hour later and adjust from there.
- Using more flower does not = more potent. The butter can only absorb so much of the cannabinoids so stick to a maximum 1:1 ratio. 1 cup of butter to 1 cup decarbed flower.
- Homemade infused cannabutter will last for about 2 weeks in your fridge.
- If you'll only use it occasionally store it in the freezer.
- If you find your butter isn't strong enough the easiest way to make cannabutter stronger is to just take more of it. If you add ½ teaspoon to toast, add ¾s or 1 full teaspoon. So basically eat twice as much.
To make cannabutter stronger you can also remelt the butter and infuse it again with a few grams of stronger cannabis and hope your butter still has room in it to grab more of that THC.
What to Make With Cannabutter
- You can use it in everyday cooking like regular butter. Just substitute 1 part regular butter with 1 part weed butter. It's as easy as that.
- Use it on corn on the cob.
- Melt it and drizzle it on movie night popcorn.
- Toss with cooked pasta and parmesan cheese.
- For your first attempt at cooking with cannabis try these delicious, classic pot brownies made with cannabutter.
- You can also just slather weed butter onto a hunk of bread about an hour before bedtime. It's an effective alternative to sleeping aids like pills or sleepy-time tea. (without filling your bladder up before bed)
- Cannabutter can be used in baking, but as you can also try baking with weed itself when you're feeling all pro about your cannabis cooking skills.
Kick the cat dish out of the way and enjoy effortless breathing and sleeping like an actual well adjusted human person who doesn't have completely unpredictable hormone levels and mood swings.
Ah yes. The stink factor. Baking cannabis in the oven for decarbing does create an odor. If you have an oven vent, run it on high. This will help a bit. But if you want a completely odor free way to make weed butter you might want to look into one of the small infusion machines like The Magical Butter Machine which you can get on Amazon. These machines don't completely 100% eliminate all of the marijuana scent, but they reduce them to very minimal levels.
Whether you're making CBD butter or THC butter, they process is exactly the same. Heat the cannabis to decarb, mix it with warmed butter, then steep.
You can use any amount that you want as long as you follow the 1:1 ratio measured in cups. So 1 cup butter & 1 cup weed. Or ¼ cup butter & ¼ cup weed. And so on.
Cannabutter needs to be stored in the refrigerator. Unlike regular butter, this very special butter has another ingredient in it - weed. It's that distinction that makes it more prone to mold. Also, leaving crumbs or anything like that in the butter will cause it to mold more quickly.
Keep your butter clean and in the fridge and it should last for 2 weeks.
You bet you can. Cannabutter freezes perfectly either in premeasured doses, or as an entire stick. Science says it'll last for 6 months but experience says it'll still be fine after that.
There are two possible reasons for watery butter.
1. Your fridge just isn't cold enough to make the butter solidify properly. Stick it in the freezer to get it in good solid form. But take it out before the water freezes as well. (fat freezes more quickly than water)
2. The butter might not be solidifying because of what the cow ate, believe it or not. The saturated and unsaturated feed an animal takes in is directly related to the fat in products made from that animal. Again the fix for watery weed butter is to just put the cannabutter in the freezer for a bit.
One ounce of weed will make 4 cups of cannabutter.
.25 ounces = 7 grams
7 grams pot = 1 cup cannabutter
Therefore:
¼ ounce (7 gr) weed = 1 cup cannabutter
½ ounce (14 gr) weed = 2 cups cannabutter
¾ ounce (21 gr) weed = 3 cups cannabutter
1 ounce (28 gr)weed = 4 cups cannabutter
Oh hi. You're still here. I know this was a mammoth post. As luck would have it, I'm well rested and feeling good so I have all the energy in the world to write 2,200 word posts.
Also, I don't mean to brag but, I'm kind of a world champion breather. I don't even have to think about it.
That's a great way to ruin a Sous Vide Immersion Circulator! The immersion circulators are designed to work with LOW viscosity fluids like water. Using one with butter and solid substances will destroy the device in record time. I make our cannabutter using an immersion circulator, but the mason jar is sealed. I place the sealed jar in a large stockpot, clamp the immersion circulator to the inside of the stockpot and fill it with hot tap water. Then I bring it to 180°F for 3 hours. There is no need to stir the butter inside the jar this way. Nothing will stick and nothing will burn.
Great post, Karen. I wonder what the leaves can be used for? Seems a shame to waste them.
It's use is a topic about which I plead mostly ignorance and maybe slight apathy - lol. But I have been investigating CBD to perhaps aid my arthritis.
Great post! Quick question - I have a dehydrator. Can I use that to decarbon... er... that step instead of the oven?
I use the dehydrator first, then the process mentioned in the article. If you have a lot to process, then the dried stuff can sit in jars until you’re ready to make butter.
Hi Bonnie! I haven't used the dehydrator for it so I couldn't say, but if your dehydrator goes to the correct temperature I believe it would work. ~ karen!
I would highly recommend purchasing either an Ardent brand NOVA or FX to simplify the whole decarb and infusion process. I have a NOVA and love how it takes out all the guesswork. The machine--along with a good dosage calculator, like the one you provided--basically does it all for you. It's great.
2nd the Ardent! Great investment.
Thanks, as always, for such a thorough post. Hopefully, the gov't will figure out how to get their cut on this amazing product sooner rather than later so that it can be widely (and safely) available. I know so many people who benefit from CBD including my 86 year old mother. I so appreciate what you do in this corner of the interwebs.
Thanks Deb! ~ karen
I'm glad you found something that works for you, Karen! One question, when you take it at night, does it help you with your anxiety the next day? Or is it the fact that you are able to sleep well that helps you through your day?
Thanks for everything you do.
Hi Jeanne. I take CBD oil every morning and afternoon to keep anxiety at bay every day. And many nights I sleep fine, but then I get into a cycle where I can't sleep AT ALL. When I'm in a cycle like that I just eat a small hunk of bread with butter an hour before bed and I know that I'll be able to sleep. ~ karen!
Thanks for a very informative and well written post Karen. I'm wondering about the 'aroma' in the house when cooking? Tolerable?
Grew my first plant this summer :)
Hi Sideroad40. The only time it really smells is when you bake it in the oven. It's strong, but it doesn't last long. ~ karen!
Oh Karen, where were you with this back when I was a teenager in the 90's?
A chemo survivor here, over a decade ago so my niece hooked me up with some emergency joints . :D
Anyway, chemo was horrible and the last round was so bad I finally crawled up to the bathroom, put on the exhaust fan, and blazed 'er up.
Saved me, and I have been a vocal supporter ever since, and have homemade cannaoil in the refrigerator now. The hype is real. Just needed the government to figure out how to tax it to legalize.
BTW!! I actually grew some a few summers ago, just as weeds, not to use, and let them go to flower. The bees were ALL OVER IT, NEVER seen a plant draw them in like that!!
I wonder what that honey was like. ~ karen!
THANK YOU for sharing your take and recipe. I appreciate you.
Started growing last year, we are 64 and 67. My husband suffers with generalized anxiety, depression, and ADD. For the uninformed, those things go get worse as you age. Then, he got shingles on his face/eye and was hospitalized with cellulitis. First time ever being in hospital, he wasn't even born in one! He refused gabapentin for post neuralgia, as we've seen the damage it does to people.
I have been gardening since I was 4, so the transition to herbal remedies was easy. I'd also like to point out that I had not smoked MJ since I was 16, and hubby NEVER. We don't drink, and won't even take acetaminophen unless absolutely necessary.
Our grown sons, all in their 40s, helped us. We grow legally here in Virginia. We are on IG as grannyganja.va if you'd like to follow. We are using old ways for a new age, and changing how we look at health and wellness for a new millennium. Our MAIN goal is to help others, with a specific goal of helping people to manage without alcohol and opioids and Big Pharma.
What is ig? I would like to follow for tips on how to grow. We do not have very good luck with growing, my husband uses for pain I don't use but would like to learn how to make edibles .
Hi Carol. I am on Instagram (IG) and grannyganja.va is my user name. If you look at the profiles of some of my followers, there are many tips for growing! The recipe here for cannabutter is your base of making edibles, such as brownies. Pinterest is also good for cannabis recipes!
Just a heads up... Don't buy the "less expensive" grinders that are made of plastic, all you end up with are minuscule shards of plastic in your weed or herbs. Dangerous for your health as well as a pollutant.
A non weed person here. But you've helped me learn why my grandson is growing and selling it (medicinal) now. Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us.
Hi Gayle! I wouldn't call myself a weed person really. Or a drinker. But I can now call myself a sleeper, lol. ~ karen!
Very enjoyable blog, congratulations on finding a homemade cure!
Can we please see photos of your growing set-up? :-)
Oh there's no big grow setup. :) I just started the plants inside under the same grow lights I start all of my vegetable seedlings and then brought them outside when the danger of frost had passed. I planted them in felt pots and stuck them in the sun. That's it. That's my grow setup, lol. ~ karen!
I love this post and love you for having the courage to do a diy on something so many people still have issue with. I have used cbd oil,dabs,flower,edibles, drinks ect. I am pro Marijuana and truly believe the benefits far out weight the negative if there is any. The only reason the laws are what they are in a lot of the US States is because big pharma has lined the pockets of our government. Thanks again for your recipe. On my way to the kitchen right now.
Or just take HRT. 😉
Especially helpful for those people (like myself) who think that butter is the food of the devil. Bleuurrgghh! From the heading I knew immediately that I wasn’t going to be making or partaking or even agreeing with any of it! 😂 But I still read your post because you always make me smile 😊 and hey, we’re all individuals and whatever works for you, go for it!
Butter is devil food? Who ARE you, lol! Clearly, I'm a butterlover. :) ~ karen!
I know. I’m in the minority. But there are a few of us and we seek each other out. Safety in numbers and all that. Sadly, I can’t get you on board? 😉
What a great post! Recently, low dose pot gummies with 1:1 ratio are what did the trick for moving me out of intense chronic pain and anxiety and I know it would’ve been a real game-changer with my peri-menopause symptoms. Peri-menopause symptoms wreaked havoc for me and I didn’t think it would ever end. So glad you found relief Karen and I hope others are encouraged to give it a try.
Before going further, pot is legal in my state, Illinois.
Initially, I was hesitant to try something that wasn’t prescribed by a doctor but after talking to a variety of people who either had themselves or knew someone who had had such positive results, I was ready and I’m so glad I did. The gummies and tablets greatly diminish my pain and there is no down-side. I feel just like myself in every way - the difference is, I’m pain-free or almost so.
I wholeheartedly encourage any one who is skeptical or tentative, to do further research. My words of caution that are also posted on almost every site: start with a very, very low dose and wait long enough for it to take effect. You can cut tablets or gummies to try half-dose or less. If you’re taking a tablet or gummies, you may need to take it with food. I was both surprised and happy that such a low dose could be so beneficial for me.
As always, thanks Karen for sharing your experience & insight in such a thorough way.
You're welcome! ~ karen!
An Aeropress coffee maker would make short work of that squeezing step
Expertly done. Your information on dosing is really helpful and rarely addressed. Sometimes it's so nice to get a full night's sleep, isn't it?
These days I wonder why anybody with a brain isn't loaded with anxiety....
Is weed legal in Canada? As in stores/dispensaries that sell the stuff? I've heard they sell edibles(?) like gummies in various doses? Might be an option for those in true need that this chemical helps without becoming a gardener and kitchen alchemist?
I known it's legal here in Illinois and while I somehow managed a tour in Vietnam and survived 72 years on this orb without every trying the stuff, I respect that it does have an honest medicinal use that helps many. Beyond that I got nuthin' other than sympathy for your woes and happiness that you found a little relief from them. Peace.
Hey! Yes, cannabis is legal across the entire country where you can buy whatever it is you want. :) ~ karen!