home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Newsgroups: alt.drugs
- From: an11488@anon.penet.fi (more Hair than There)
- Subject: Cannabutter
- Message-ID: <1993May2.025923.7908@fuug.fi>
- Date: Sun, 2 May 1993 02:49:40 GMT
-
- The first step in cooking magical cannabis-laced foods is extracting
- the cannabinoids (THC, CBD, and many many more) from the plant matter,
- usually in a oil/fat/butter-based solution, since the cannabinoids do
- not readily dissolve in water. My best FOAF has a method for doing
- this that he has not seen mention of in this forum. He got it from a
- little book called _The Art and Science of Cooking with Cannabis_, by
- Adam Gottlieb, orignally published in 1974. Gottlieb calls the product
- of the extraction `CANNABUTTER'.
-
- The procedure is actually very simple. He brings a pot of water to a
- rolling boil, then puts a small amount of butter in the water.
- Quickly, the butter melts, and mixes in with the water because the
- whole mixture is at a rolling boil.
-
- Then he puts the grass in and boils it. (Of course, he separates all
- the seeds first so he can plant them in the nearby park.) Now all the
- grass is riling around with the water and butter, and get this: The
- cannabinoids dissolve into the butter, while most of the nasty flavors
- and gook dissolve into the water. He stirs the stuff regularly. After
- cooking the grass like this for a while (say, half an hour), his
- kitchen really smells incriminating. He strains out the spent plant
- matter, squeezes all the juice out of it, and puts the liquid in the
- fridge.
-
- A few hours later, the mixture is cool enough that the cannabutter has
- solidified on the surface. It looks kind of scummy, but its just
- enchanted butter. He scoops it out and retains it in a bowl or a jar.
- The grass-nasty water is thrown out.
-
- The cannabutter can be used just like butter, in brownies, on garlic
- bread, or mixed with honey on your finger!
-
- Although this method takes longer than the usual saute-n-strain
- method, it has several advantages:
-
- * As explained above, the nasty shit is separated and removed from the
- fun shit.
-
- * You can make stronger cannabutter than by saute-ing, because you can
- cook more grass in the same amount of butter, due to the extra
- volume of the water.
-
- * There is no danger of burning the precious, price-inflated, hard and
- dangerous to obtain herb, as there is when you saute, because the
- water keeps the whole mixture at boiling temperature!
-
- If I have given any incorrect information, please let me know, so I
- can learn. (On Usenet, though, no email please.)
-
- --- more Hair than There
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi.
- Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized,
- and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned.
- Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi.
- *IMPORTANT server security update*, mail to update@anon.penet.fi for details.
-
- ==========================================================================
-
- oh, I don't think that heating for 1 hour will break down the THC: brownies
- and breads are usually baked longer, and they seem just fine ;-)
- I suppose that one does want to avoid _extreme_ heat, though... like
- open flame ;-) Anyway, I made my butter in a double-boiler, which is sort
- of a saucepan full of water, with another saucepan that mates on top of it,
- so that the bottom of one covers the top of the other (I went out and bought
- a very nice Revereware double-boiler recently, but I digress). So, in the
- bottom boiler, you put water, enough, say, that you have only an inch or two
- between the water and the bottom of the second boiler. In the second boiler,
- put 1 quart of water, 1/4 oz, and a stick of butter. Simmer the stuff over
- low heat for a few hours, at least: I waited till it turned brownish.
- (the double boiler keeps direct heat away from the stuff, so it's used to cook
- heat-sensitive foods such as eggs and butter, without burning them).
- Now, once you're satisfied with your mixture of butter, THC, water, and
- vegetation, prepare a bowl and something like a funnel lined with cheese-cloth,
- or a cheese-cloth bag. You can buy cheese-cloth at the grocery store: it will
- catch the vegetable matter, keeping it out of the bowl, inot which you pour
- the butter/water mixture. Squeeze as much liquid as possible out of the cheese-
- cloth. If you really want to, you could keep the now-hopefully-impotent bud,
- but I've always just pitched it.
- So. Allow your butter/water to settle and cool (I refrigerate it).
- The butter will rise to the top, and can be lifted out, but I usually am not
- satisfied with all the particles of butter that remain, so I run the water
- through a piece of cheesecloth and try to catch some of it. Anyway, that
- green gunk is butter, and you can spread it on your toast, make a sandwich
- with it, or cook with it. About two "pats" of butter stone me pretty well,
- but your milage may vary. I usually try to disguise the taste with something
- like a pepperoni and garlic pesto cheese on rye sandwich, but you tastes
- _probably_ vary ;-)
-