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Gwynne Ann Unruh is an award-winning reporter formerly of the Alamosa Valley Courier, an independent paper in southern Colorado. She covers the environment for The Paper.

Published March 10th, 2022 at 10:22 am

There are many ways to make cannabutter; each requires time and patience. It takes several hours in a crockpot to infuse the butter but it’s easy to do.

Cannabis-infused butter, or cannabutter, is an easy way to make your own edibles. Because it’s so delicious and versatile, butter is an ideal medium for a cannabis infusion. THC needs to bind to fat molecules, which are abundant in butter.

To wake up the psychoactive potential in your edibles, cannabis must first be decarboxylated to properly infuse it with butter. Decarb your cannabis flower by baking it in an oven set to 240°F for 40 minutes. This process converts THCA in the plant into THC. Once it’s done, you’re ready to start making your very own cannabutter.

Place a clean towel on the bottom of a large crockpot. Create a water bath by filling your crockpot with enough warm water to cover two 16-ounce wide-mouth mason jars;

Place a digital thermometer in the water and set the crockpot to high heat. When a temperature of around 185°F is reached, turn the heat to low. Never go above 185°F.

Put a stick of butter in each mason jar. Divide the decarbed cannabis flower between the two jars.

Using a clean towel, wipe the rim of the jars and attach the lid. Lightly tighten. Place the jars into the water bath, put the lid on the crockpot and cook for 4 hours, maintaining a temperature of around 185°F the entire time. After 4 hours, carefully remove the jars from the water bath and allow them to cool enough to handle.

Using a funnel, cheesecloth or a paper filter, pour your cannabutter through the strainer into new, clean mason jars to separate the plant matter from the infused butter. Save the plant matter if you plan to use it for other recipes

Put the strained butter into a flexible container or wide-mouth mason jar. You can also use butter molds. Place the container in the refrigerator and allow it to cool completely.

The infused butter will harden and solidify in the refrigerator. Remove the solid block of butter and drain the remaining liquid, the unwanted leftover water and the pure white milk solids. Store in the refrigerator and use by the expiration date on the butter. You can store it longer in the freezer.

You’re good to go. Never microwave to soften it for recipes. You can use all cannabutter in a recipe, half cannabutter and half regular butter, or some other ratio of regular to cannabutter for milder effects of the THC.

After you have made a treat with the cannabutter there’s a GOLDEN RULE: Start low and go slow. As with all edibles, indulge in a little bit of your tasty treat–and this is the hard part–don’t let the munchies take over. Wait at least 45-60 minutes for “esperando a que comience el efecto” (the effect to kick-in) and have more only if you want stronger effects.