If you have 5 cannabis enthusiasts in the room, you will get 10 different opinions on how to make canna butter. It isn’t hard to do, but there are many different methods. Of course, the easiest way is to just go purchase some at a dispensary, but if you want a large batch to make cookies or other butter heavy recipes, buying enough may be too costly.

Do you grow your own cannabis? If you have your own plant material, (buds, shake, trim or leaves – dried or fresh), making your own canna butter will be very economical. Depending on what material you wish to start with you may have very weak or very strong butter. Both have their uses. Using flower, buds or collected kief will produce a stronger butter, but fan leaves will also medicate, albeit a weaker batch, it may be perfect for toast in the morning.

If you like the high cannabis provides you may want to decarboxylate your plant matter in the oven before you start the butter process. If you just want the anti-inflammatory effects, it’s ok to skip that process. Decarboxylation transforms the raw cannabinoid THCA (non-psychoactive but highly anti-inflammatory), into THC, which will present you with a high, depending how strong your plant material is. The slow cook method described below will decarb your product without taking the extra decarb step. There are many opinions on decarbing cannabis, so it’s best to look it up yourself decide for yourself. An accepted method is to bake the plant matter in the oven for about 40 minutes at 240ºF.

Very Simple Canna Butter

Cannabinoids are lipids that will attach themselves to fats, so as the plant material releases the cannabinoids they will bind to the fat in butter. It’s that simple. Here’s how you do it.

You can simply add your plant material to a pot of water. Use a lot of water so the plant material has plenty of room. Bring it to a boil, reduce heat and let it simmer on low for 4 hours for non-decarboxylated butter and 8 hours to decarb. You can add salted or unsalted butter in any amount you like (your choice), to the water after it heats up. An accepted amount of butter is 1 stick per oz of plant material, but again, your choice. After your desired time is up, you just let it cool in the fridge. Make sure there is a still lot of water in the pot because the plant material needs to have room to sink down as the butter rises when cooling. The plant matter mostly falls to the bottom of the container and the butter floats to the top. It will be pretty green because this method will fill your butter with chlorophyll as well as the cannabinoids (not a bad thing – chlorophyll is healthy). When the butter solidifies you may pop a hole in it and pour the water out. Place the butter on a cold plate, top down and scrape off any plant matter that is left, put the canna butter in a container and keep refrigerated. Be careful the first time you use it because you’ll have no idea how strong it is.

If you like, you can strain the plant matter out using a mesh strainer before refrigerating the liquids. If you want it even more clear of plant matter you can strain it through cheese cloth.

Canna Butter cooking low and slow in a crock pot.

Some people like to use a crock pot instead of a pot on the stove, and that works well too. You can set it and forget it, leave the house and not worry about leaving a pot on the stove. With the stove top method you will have to be there to add more water as needed. There are many different instructive posts and videos on the internet that will walk you through just about any method of making canna butter, step-by-step. Pick a method you are comfortable with.

There are also canna butter machines available, such as the Magical Butter Machine, (MB2E) These are easy to use, but the above mentioned method will give you the same basic butter product using the tools you already have in your kitchen.

Easier, Faster and Easy to Dose Canna Butter

If you don’t have any cannabis plant matter, don’t buy it to make canna butter unless you can find shake or trim for a decent price at a dispensary. It will be more cost effective to buy a concentrated cannabis oil CCO, aka FECO) to make your butter with. If you make your canna butter with a concentrated cannabis oil that has been tested for potency, (so you know what the strength is), and is stored in a syringe with measurements, all you will need to do is:

The math – if you have a 1ml (aka 1 gram) syringe that test at 80% THC, then you have 800mg of oil. Since butter comes by the pound, and usually in sticks of 1/4lb each. Adding the full 800mgs to a pound of butter will give you very strong butter, about 200mg per stick-1/4 lb. Adding half the syringe (400mg) will give you 100mg per 1/4 pound, and so on. If using the canna butter in a recipe you may want a stronger butter. If your just using it for toast, a weaker butter may be best. You decide.

Melt the butter stovetop or in a microwave. When fully melted, remove from heat and add your desired amount of cannabis oil, mix well and put in containers to be stored in the fridge. Each 1/4lb stick of butter is 1/2 cup, so using half cup containers will help immensely when using your butter in recipes

At Organtica, we offer 1 gram ($70) and 1/2 gram ($35) syringes of our very special, cold processed concentrated cannabis oil. Our oil (CCO) runs at 80% THC, is very clean and processed with 6x distilled, Non-denatured, USP Kosher, Food Grade, 200 Proof Ethyl alcohol, love and care. One-800mg syringe used with 2lbs of butter will make you eight-1/4lb containers at 100mg each. That means you spent $8.75 per 1/4lb of butter. We sell Organtica Patient Select Cannabutter in 1/2 cup (1/4lb) containers for $16, so making it yourself using our CCO and your time and equipment can save you almost half that cost. That’s a great deal for medicated butter.

Happy Medicating!