Homemade edibles are one of the most popular ways to use legal cannabis – and one of the easiest to get wrong. The two usual mistakes are skipping the decarb step (nothing happens) and eyeballing the dose (too much happens). Here’s the whole process, done carefully.
Step one: decarboxylation
Raw flower is mostly THCA, which your oven converts to THC. Break the flower into small pieces, spread it on a parchment-lined tray, and bake at 115°C (240°F) for 30-40 minutes, stirring once halfway. It should turn lightly golden and smell toasty. Skip this step and your butter will be mostly decorative.
Step two: infuse your butter or oil
Combine the decarbed flower with butter or a cooking oil in a saucepan or slow cooker with a splash of water, and hold it on a very low simmer – never a boil – for 2-3 hours, stirring now and then. Strain through cheesecloth without squeezing hard (squeezing pushes plant material through and makes it grassy). Chill, and if you used the water trick, pour off the water once the butter sets.
Step three: do the dose math before you bake
This is the part that saves your evening. Estimate the total THC going in: grams of flower × THC percentage × 1000 gives you milligrams. A batch made with 3.5 g of 20% flower holds roughly 700 mg. Divide by your yield – in a 24-cookie batch that’s about 29 mg per cookie, which is a LOT. Cutting the infused butter with regular butter is the easiest way to bring each serving down.
Step four: start low, go slow
The standard guidance for edibles is to start at 2.5 mg THC or less and wait at least two hours before even thinking about more. Edibles come on slowly and last much longer than inhaled cannabis. Label your batch, date it, and store it locked away from kids, pets and anyone who might mistake a cookie for just a cookie.
Kitchen notes
- Infused butter keeps about two weeks refrigerated, longer frozen.
- Heat degrades THC – bake at or below 175°C (350°F) where you can.
- Potency in home cooking is always an estimate. Treat your first serving from every new batch as an experiment.
Want a shortcut? Legal edibles from the menu come lab-tested with exact doses printed on the package. Either way, we’re at Church & Woodbine in Keswick if you have questions.