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Pot and pans: How to cook with cannabis

Published on November 29, 2018 by David Trifunov

Edibles made by the experts are expected in Canada within a year of legalization day, meaning if you want a hash brownie before Oct. 17, 2019, you’ll have to get crafty in the kitchen.

But cooking without weed is daunting enough, and adding herb to your spices brings another layer into play entirely.

Here are some expertly screened tips for those brave enough to get baked by baking.

Know your dosages

Jeff the 420 Chef is the source for all things sticky and delicious.

He suggests knowing your dosages beforehand, and provides a handy-dandy online calculator for helping you determine them.

He told Vice that amateur and professionals alike need to aim for 10 mg of THC per serving.

It’s not a contest to see who can produce the most powerful space cake.

“If you want to have a good experience, you should aim for that,” he suggests.

Know your delivery

Eating weed will take longer to hit you, and then it won’t release for a while.

If you’re new to the method, ensure you’re prepared. Clear your schedule after you clear the countertops for your marathon Mary Jane cook-off.

“When you inhale cannabis — whether through vaping or smoking it — the onset is usually between 10 to 30 seconds and the effects will last a couple of hours,” Shekhar Parmar, the CEO of Harvest Medicine, told CBC.

“When you eat it, the onset will take 30 minutes to an hour to kick in, but it will last between four and eight hours.”

Making Oil

Maybe you should skip this part? Look, we get it: you want to know exactly what went into your hash oil, so you’ll cook it yourself.

But that’s going to be hard.

Like, unless-you-aced-chemistry hard. And who among us aced chemistry?

No? You’re undaunted? OK…here you are.

Clean your bud, bud.

Jeff the 420 Chef offers a handy how-to video on his site that you need to memorize.

It starts by soaking weed in distilled water, then steeping it like tea and, finally, baking it dry again before making oil or butter.

You’ll need to change the water every 12 hours. You’ll have to boil it, and then plunge into an ice bath.

This all helps with a clean “decarboxylation.”

You can’t eat dried weed, you have to heat it. You could skip right to drying flowers in the oven, but Chef Jeff insists on clean cannabis, and says you should, too.

“By blanching, you’re basically getting a much purer flower to start with and later to infuse into your butter or oil,” he told Vice.

It will likely stink up your kitchen.

Take a shortcut

Buying cannabis oil is about as easy as buying dried weed, and gives you a wicked head start.

“Oil comes ready to go,” said Parmar, the Harvest Medical CEO. “You can essentially drop it into anything that you can buy from even Safeway, and now it’s a medicated product.”

Just remember not to substitute ½ cup canola oil with ½ cup canna-oil; you might really mess up the dosages.

Refer to that calculator for that.

Brownies are so 1977

If you are happy with your bud butter or your oil, you can start adding it to anything that calls for fat (and that’s pretty much everything).

Chef Jeff says his process produces oils and butters that don’t stink and taste great, meaning you can add it to your favourite recipes.

“Any recipe works, and that’s what usually blows people’s minds,” chef Amy Brown told Chatelaine.

“When people ask for brownies, I’m like, ‘Please, stop. We’re past that.’”

Remember: Don’t overheat your herb – keep it well below 350 F.