Making cannabutter, cannabis infused butter, is one of the most common and easiest ways to make cannabis infused edibles. Learning how to make your own cannabutter opens the door for endless possibilities from the simple pot brownies we know and love to something more fancy like chicken alfredo. With just a few ingredients and some easy to follow directions, you can make your own cannabutter at home to take your cooking to a whole new high.
How to Make Cannabutter
You just need a few basic ingredients to make cannabutter at home:
- Salted butter
- Tap water
- Cannabis material – buds, trimmings, or a mix of both
The only equipment or materials you’ll need will be a pan to melt your butter and mix up your cannabutter, some cheesecloth for straining your mixture and a cookie sheet to warm your bud first, part of the necessary decarboxylate process.
What Does Decarboxylate Mean? 
To decarboxylate your cannabis means to heat it up, low and slow, to release the bioavailable cannabinoids like CBDA and THCA to produce CBD and THC for the high we are looking for. Did you know that if you ate a bag of raw cannabis flower it is likely you would not feel high at all? This is because when we heat up the cannabis it causes a heat driven molecular reaction, known as decarboxylation, that converts cannabinoid acids into the cannabinoids we know and love.
First Things First, Gather Your Materials and Set up Your Cooking Place
Making cannabutter is an excellent way to use up the trimmings left over from harvest time. There is no point in wasting all that quality THC found in your lower grade buds and trimmings. Gather up your pot, about 28 g of cured trimmings is what we’ll use in this recipe, which is about an ounce of the smaller, sugary bud leaves. For this potent recipe, we’ll also use 14 g of cannabis flower, the quality of your choice. Here is a list of all ingredients and equipment to make sure you have everything ready before you begin:
- 28g of cured trimmings – preferably the small, sugary bud leaves
- 14g of cannabis blossoms – choose the quality you like
- 250g of salted butter – salted butter has a higher melting point
- 300ml of tap water – plus approximately 50ml for every hour of simmering
- 1 cooking pot – any cooking pan should work fine
- 1 sharp knife – or a kitchen blender to quickly grind your pot
- 1 stove – you can also use a slow cooker
- 1 cheese cloth – a fine kitchen sieve, or any kind of finer mesh material does the job
- Storage containers – glass containers look nice, plastic can also be used
- About 8-24 hours of your time – long-simmering at low heat is required
Decarboxylate Your Pot
It is very easy to decarboxylate your weed to make potent cannabutter. Skipping this step will give you a weak end product with very low levels of THC and leave you feeling like you wasted your time. Simply spread out your weed on some parchment paper on a cookie sheet so that it will not stick and preheat your oven to around 220° to 240° F, (110°) . Put the cooking tray in your oven for 30 to 40 minutes, set a timer so you do not forget!
Gently mix your buds around with a little shake of the tray every 10 minutes for even exposure. Remove your tray after the cooking time and allow it to cool off. Grind your decarbed cannabis with a hand grinder or blender. Now your pot is ready to mix with the butter for some low and slow cooking.
Melt Your Butter
Add your butter and water to a pan and start to melt over low heat. Remember that butter burns easily so keep an eye on it and keep the heat low. The addition of water here helps prevent scorching and will evaporate to leave your potent cannabutter behind.
Add Your Bud to the Butter and Let It Simmer
Once your butter has melted, mix in your decarboxylated cannabis and stir. Let simmer for about 8 hours over very low heat, just enough to produce small little bubbles without bringing to a boil. Be prepared to continually add water to the butter mixture, about 3/4 of a cup each hour may be needed to prevent scorching and allow for evaporation. Some recipes call for simmering your butter and bud mixture for just a few hours, although the longer you simmer the more potent your cannabutter will be. You can simmer longer than 8 hours for extreme potency, just keep an eye on it so it does not burn. You want to simmer your butter mixture uncovered, to allow the water vapor to evaporate and leave the butter mixture. This is important as the water will evaporate but the butter will remain in the pan.
Filter your mixture
When your cooking time is complete, you will need to filter the mixture to separate raw materials from your butter. Your mixture will appear dark like a brownish color. Filter your mixture through a cheesecloth or a strainer type of material that will separate the raw material from the butter. You can then fill your liquid into the desired container like glass or plastic and put it in the refrigerator to cool. After a few hours, you can scoop your butter from the surface and leave any brown liquid behind.
Your end result may have a greenish color, do not be alarmed. This green deliciousness will be the base for making many fun recipes like the suggestions here on Pinterest, or anything else your heart desires.
How to Dose Your Cannabutter 
This is a potent recipe for strong cannabutter that will make some fine edibles. You may want to experiment with some lower grade or less quantity of product until you tune into your perfectly balanced recipe. Edibles can be quite strong, and the high may not kick in for 2 to 3 hours so be careful if you feel like you want to eat more within the first hour.
To calculate the strength of your cannabutter, first begin with the THC content of the product you are using. If you are not sure of the THC content, make an assumption on the high-end of at least 20%. If we assume that your THC content is 20%, using 1 g of 20% THC pot would yield 250 g of butter which contains 200 mg of THC. This means to achieve an average portion of 10 mg per cookie or brownie, you would need to divide your butter into 20 portions.
Since this recipe calls for 28 g of trim and 14 g of bud, this is a potent recipe that you can experiment with. A quick and easy formula you can apply in any recipe is to start with the weight of your cannabis in milligrams, divide by 100, then multiply by the THC percentage. For example, with 1000 mg (1g) of pot, your formula looks like this:
1000/100 = 10
10 x 20 = 200
200 mg of THC
Do not be intimidated as making cannabutter really is a lot easier than you might think. The end result is well worth it and you now have a base to make just about any recipe that contains butter. With just a little practice you will be making edibles that make Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg envious.
*Remember to consume edibles slowly to enjoy the high and avoid a bad experience of consuming too much at once.
Mosca Seeds is your one stop for high-quality cannabis seeds to grow your own marijuana in the potent strain of your choice. When growing your own, it is a lot easier to have enough trimmings and lower quality buds to put to use in a cannabutter recipe. Check out our seed bank to choose the strain of your choice and enjoy happy growing or cooking with cannabutter edibles.