How To Make Cannabis Butter with Shake
One of the most enjoyable ways to consume cannabis is with edibles.
While dispensaries offer a wide range of ready-made edibles for those of us who would rather stay away from the kitchen, if you enjoy cooking and love cannabis – homemade edibles are the way to go! Cannabis butter, also known as Cannabutter, is the perfect place to start.
The beauty of Cannabutter is that, when made well, it opens the door to a never-ending list of amazing cannabis-infused dishes. Just think about it. How many of your favorite recipes call for butter? A lot, right? Now imagine being able to turn every single one of them into a cannabis-infused meal or a freshly baked edible.
Cooking with cannabis can feel intimidating, but it is much easier than you think, especially if you decide to use cannabis shake. Just follow our simple advice on how to make cannabis butter, and you will be sure to succeed.
Before You Cook With Cannabis
If you’re not an experienced cannabis cook or haven’t had the chance to try a lot of cannabis edibles, there is one crucial thing you need to know before you get started.
Edibles provide a very different kind of “high” compared to other forms of cannabis consumption. While many people genuinely enjoy how edibles make them feel, it is easy to take too much accidentally. When you consume cannabis through food, it takes your body a long time to feel the psychoactive effects. This is because your body has to digest the cannabis before you start to feel anything. As a result, people often jump to the conclusion that the edible they just ate isn’t working and decide to either give up on edibles or consume even more. These are big mistakes.
What Is Shake?
Shake is a deeply underappreciated and misunderstood cannabis by-product. If you have ever handled cannabis flowers, you might have noticed that small bits and pieces tend to fall off the buds when they are being handled. Hence, the name shake. The more you shake your cannabis, the more shake you produce. Cannabis flowers are exceptionally delicate, so even when you just touch or pick up your buds, it is nearly impossible not to leave some sort of a trace of broken-off pieces behind.
You can usually also find shake at the bottom of your jar or bag where you store your cannabis buds. Some refer to it as the cannabis leftovers but looking at shake as a low-quality product is a mistake.
Why Should You Use Shake to Make Your Weed Butter?
Shake will cost you less than regular cannabis flowers and tends to be cheaper than most other cannabis products. Because many people prefer to buy buds over shake, shake is priced surprisingly well. While we would not recommend using shake for people who want to consume cannabis through smoking, if you’re going to cook with cannabis, buying flowers over shake might be an unnecessary expense. You don’t want your Cannabutter to be the most expensive product in your kitchen.
Second of all, making butter with shake is much easier than making butter with regular cannabis buds. When you cook with buds, you need to break them up or grind them up into smaller pieces. Using shake makes it possible for you to skip this step altogether and start cooking right away!
What You Need to Make Cannabis Butter:
You do not need much to make your own cannabis butter. All you need are three basic ingredients:
Cannabis shake
Unsalted butter
Water
Important: Do not use salted butter or any butter replacements, such as margarine.
You also do not need any specialized equipment. Everything you’ll need is already in your kitchen.
Here’s your list:
- Baking tray
- Parchment paper
- Oven
- Wooden Spoon
- Pot
- Container to store the butter
So if you have those three ingredients and a few basic kitchen appliances, then you are good to go!
4 Steps to Make Cannabis Butter with Shake
- Decarboxylate Your Cannabis Shake
If you want to use cannabis in the kitchen, you need to decarb it first. Decarbing, also referred to as decarboxylating, is a process that activates THC and its psychoactive properties in cannabis. You need this step to make sure that the THC mixed into your food gives you the high you’re looking for.
The easiest way to decarb your shake is to put some parchment paper on a baking tray and then spread the shake over the tray. You should then put the tray in the oven set at about 220 degrees F. Let it bake for anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour.
- Melt the Butter
Before you can infuse your butter with cannabis, you need to melt it. Put it in a pot with a splash of water at a low temperature and melt it slowly while continuously mixing. Make sure it doesn’t boil and that it doesn’t burn! Adding a bit of water to the pot allows for better temperature management. While some cooks say there is no need for it, we recommend adding a little splash of water at the very beginning of the melting process if you have never done it before.
- Add Decarbed Cannabis to the Melted Butter And Simmer
When the butter is almost completely melted, add your “baked” cannabis and let it simmer for about 3 or 4 hours. And when we say simmer, we really mean simmer. Do not let it boil! Keep a close eye on your butter and keep mixing it with a wooden spoon.
- Strain the Butter
After a few hours of simmering, your Cannabutter is now ready to be strained.
You might be tempted to skip this step, but if you do not strain the butter, the results of all your hard work will be highly disappointing.
While most people will use a cheesecloth to strain their Cannabutter, a very fine metal sieve will do the job too. Strain it straight into a container and let it cool down at room temperature.