by Spencer Grey
Most folks are familiar with the process of making cannabis butter. You take a whole bunch of weed, grind it up, soak it in butter, strain it, and refrigerate it. That’s all well and good, but what if I told you there’s an easier way to make edibles that will knock your socks off? It turns out you can use a little bit of marijuana concentrate to make the dankest infused foods you can imagine. Before you laugh us out of the building, consider these three reasons to try BHO infusion.
Photo by Till Westermayer, Freiburg, Germany [CC BY-SA 2.0]
Potency: The most obvious perk to BHO edibles is their off-the-wall potency. This isn’t something you’ll want to try if you’re inexperienced with cannabis-infused foods!
Flavor: Since you’re not going to be dealing with grams and grams of plant material, you won’t get the flavor of plant material either. Using this method it’s entirely possible to end up with an edible that has almost no marijuana flavor to it at all, so be careful and utilize responsible labeling practices. If somebody accidentally gets into something you made with BHO, they probably won’t know until it’s too late.
Ease: Rather than making pounds of cannabutter at a time, using BHO allows you to add a punch of THC to foods on a batch-by-batch basis. Plus, you won’t be grinding up an ounce of green or waiting hours for it to cook over low heat. This whole process takes about 45 minutes max once you get the hang of it.
The Disclaimer
This is absolutely not for the faint of heart, or those who are anything less than experienced with cannabis-infused foods. Every individual has a different tolerance level, and may be negatively affected by edibles.
To ensure you don’t lose your mind, start out with half a portion and wait at least 90 minutes to see what it does for you. Edibles take a long time to get you going, and eating too much without waiting to see the effects is a recipe for disaster. Exercise caution!
What You’ll Need
The equipment list for this project is pretty short. You’ll need:
Parchment paper
Oven-safe dish
Saucepan
1 g BHO
2 tsp liquid or powdered soy lecithin
Coconut oil or butter as called for by your recipe
Dabber
Torch or lighter
Aside from an oven, that’s really it!
Determining Dosage
The first thing you need to do is figure out your dosage. This is 100% up to personal preference, but here are some general guidelines to help you determine how much to use.
One gram of BHO can contain anywhere between 60% and 95% THC. Assuming your BHO tests at 70%, you have 700 mg of THC at your disposal. The simplest way to calculate potency is to look at the yield of your recipe. If you have a cookie recipe that yields 30 and is made using one cup of butter, that means using your full gram of BHO would pack each cookie with 23.4 mg of THC. The standard dose for edibles in most states is 10 mg, so these cookies would result in a total knockout for most people.
Again, use your best judgment to determine how much THC is right for you.
Instructions for Infusion
Decarb Your Concentrate
This step is absolutely essential. BHO isn’t “activated” without being decarboxylated by heat, so skipping this step will result in… well, nothing. To decarb your BHO, get your oven set to 200°F.
Put your concentrate on the parchment paper, and place them into your oven-safe container. Heat the concentrate in the oven for 20 minutes. It may expand and start to bubble, so be sure your container is at large enough to accommodate this.
After 20 minutes, turn off the oven and leave the concentrate inside to cool slowly. Once cool, transfer the now-sticky oil into the freezer for 10 minutes. This will allow you to get the stuff off the parchment paper for use with little mess or hassle.
Add BHO to Your Oil/Butter
While most baking recipes call for butter, coconut oil is the best infusion medium for THC, since it’s got a higher fat content. But if you can’t bear the idea of eschewing butter, it will work just fine.
Heat your butter or coconut oil in a saucepan over low heat until it’s melted and steamy, but not boiling. Grab your BHO with a dabber, or the end of a fork. Hold it over the hot butter/coconut oil, then lightly apply heat from a torch or lighter to melt the concentrate off the tool, into the saucepan, and stir until fully incorporated.
Be careful not to burn the BHO! You only need enough heat to liquefy it, and the hot butter/coconut oil will do the rest. DO NOT try to microwave the BHO, as that will render it useless.Add Lecithin
Add two teaspoons of your liquid or powdered soy lecithin to your mixture. This ingredient isn’t strictly necessary, but it helps make THC easier for your body absorb. That means stronger, longer-lasting effects can be had.
That’s it! You now have butter or coconut oil infused with more ganja goodness than you may know what to do with. At this point, your butter/oil is ready to be used in your recipe. And thanks to the much milder cannabis flavor, you’ll find that you can use recipes that just don’t taste great when you use traditional cannabutter. After trying this, you’ll never go back!
