how long to cook???

[Carpet Muncher]

like outdoordreams, i've read everything from 10+ hrs, down to a minute or 2 in a nuker. (firecrackers?) can someone please tell me the story on this? mostly i'm hoping the 2min version works, because i don't have odor control in my kitchen... and when i tried cooking it once, the smell scared the bejeezus out of me.

also, i keep reading about animal fat being the key ingredient, but doesn't vegetable/olive oil work just as well?

thanks!! CM

[Glass Man]

I have been thumbing through my book to give you an answer.

There's too much there for me to type, but I'll try to give you the Cliff Notes.

Time is necessary for the process. They reccomend heating a number of times, simmering for about an hour each time.

Vegtable oils can be used.

Water is used with whole (unground) herb for the finest quality, but is more time consuming. That's the method I used, because it's what Melo had told me to do, and also would seem to extract the most THC

Ground herb can also be used without using water, but still needs to simmer repeatedly for about a hour each time.

The oil or butter is strained through cheesecloth to remove the herb.

The process that I used is very smelly. Perhaps the methods without water would be less smelly, since water vapor wouldn't be given off. I don't know.

I've had friends who just mixed finely ground herb in cakes and brownies and cliamed it worked just fine. That might be your best bet, or at least worth trying first.

[meloyelo]

Well CM what I usually do is make curry, or chili, or spagheti sauce at the same time. Fills the kitchen with all kinds of wonderful odors which the weed smell mingles with and makes even more wonderful. I keep waiting for neighbors to come over and say "man that smells good what is it?" Oh yeah, I still like 2 hours.
-melo

[Carpet Muncher]

thank you GM and melo for the info.. i was afraid of that. lol

while yes i could cook something else to mask the smell, it never takes me that long to cook anything. :) i just realized that i can put the crock pot in the grow room.. the carbon filter will suck out all the fumes.

[ViRedd]

CM ...

I've gotten away from the canna-butter because I'm making hash from my trim now. I still make cookies though. Just grind up a 1/4 ounce of quality bud in a coffee-bean grinder into a fine powder and mix it into the cookie mix flour. Mix really well with a fork before putting in any wet ingredients because you want the cookies to come out with consistant potency. I use Betty Crocker cookie mixes. The peanut butter mix and the sugar cookie mix seems to work the best. Just follow the directions on the back of the package. Go easy on the cookies ... a quarter cookie at a time. Wait an hour to guage the effects of the quarter cookie, then go from there.

Vi

[grasshopper]

fwiw

[Bram]

when I mke canna-butter I bring a pot of filtered water to a boil a 275*f (I use a candy thermometer to moniter temps and keep steady. Once the desired heat has been reached, I add about 2 lbs of water leaves and 1 lb of unsalted butter/margarine. Let this simmer at 275*f for about 25 minutes or so. Pull off heat, strain through a good strainer ( I prefer to use a jelly press) into a large bowl, set the bowl in the fridge over night and scrape butter/margarine off top of water after it has cooled.

[ViRedd]

hey vi
if your using bubble bags?
use the leftover wet green stuff to make the butter with
a few sticks butter to about 1 quart leftover works real fine


fwiw

Thanks, grasshopper. I'll try it next time. I thought all the goodies were used up in the bubble process. :cool2:

Vi

[Carpet Muncher]

Time is necessary for the process. ....heating a number of times, simmering for about an hour each time.

for about 25 minutes or so.

Bram.. have you gone longer? and if so, was it more potent.. by how much?


so i guess my main question is, how long is long enough? also, how much of a difference does it make? not that it needs to be, (experience is fine,) but is it observable? iow, can you see the trichs are melted off at 8 hrs, but not at 25 min?

out of curiosity, what temp does thc vaporize at?

not trying to buck 'the tried and true', just wanting to know more about it?
and i was a cook, and i'm a lazy/efficient bastard.. alway looking for a 'better' way. :) and ime, anything that's broken down by an oil-based compound, doesn't take nearly that long..let alone under those conditions.. to break down.

CM ... I use Betty Crocker cookie mixes.


Thanks, Vi.. that's the most KISS way, so that's the way i'm gonna go. :)
how long does Betty cook her cookies?

[Bram]

I never went longer with it yet for 2 reasons. The first reason is the I am boiling the leaf at about 75*f below the activated vaporization point ( Volcano vaporizer set on 5 - 5.5 is about the same temp) so I figured by boiling for too long at this high temp I will cook off goodies instead of getting as much of them as possible into my butter. The other reason I havent gone longer, inreagrds to potnecy, is that the way I use my butter making brownies; you end up with about 1lb of water leaves to your single batch of brownies. Most people I give a brownie to only eat half of it at a time, unless they really wanna get fucked up.

[Glass Man]

I think this topic deserves some experimentation.

I wonder if "heat" is actually required to extract the THC. Perhaps "time" alone (or mostly) can achieve the extraction. I think I'll try soaking some bud in olive oil for a long while, and then test it each week. Maybe after a couple of weeks, or months the process will occur without cooking. Maybe not...but I have weed & time. ;)

After I've started the testing I'll post back here and let you know what I find. Btw, I'll use bud rather than trim to ensure that the THC level is high to begin with.

Peace,

[Carpet Muncher]

Glass Man, i totally agree.. the subject needs more study.

since i'm down to crumbs, i can't do much experimenting right now.. but last night i did try putting about a bowl full in a puddle of olive oil and nuked it for 50 seconds.. nada.

in a few wks i'll continue the experiment. :)

thanks!!

[ViRedd]

Thanks, Vi.. that's the most KISS way, so that's the way i'm gonna go. :)
how long does Betty cook her cookies?

Not very long. I think the directions say something like 8 minutes. I start checking mine at 7 minutes. As soon as the edges of the cookies start to brown, I take them out of the oven and let them cool. They get solid pretty quick and the bottoms are nice and brown. What I've found is, if you go the entire 8+ minutes, the bottoms are burned. It probably depends on how accurate the oven is.

Vi

[Glass Man]

I keep a cookie sheet on the bottom shelf of our oven all of the time and we use the upper shelf for cooking. It creates a heat shield (and drip pan) which allows me to bake without pre-heating the oven, and it keeps food from burning on the bottom. It's a cheap way to make a simple oven preform more like a convection oven.

Give it a try and you'll wonder why it isn't a tip which has been passed around for years. :)

[Carpet Muncher]

Not very long. I think the directions say something like 8 minutes. I start checking mine at 7 minutes.

see? that's what i'm talking about! 2+ hrs.. harumph! lol
i love it when science backs my laziness! :)

Glass Man, that's a great trick.. i used to use it on a cool-looking old oven i had.. made all the difference. (back in another life when i was catering out of a single apt.)

[joe6pack]

Well I remember bog had a candied bud recipe that called for heating your bud for 10 min at 350 on a cookie sheet - then drizzle with honey.

I've tried in pill making using the micro to heat ground bud with a little olive oil for a period of 5 mins but it does stink then mix with ginger and put in pills worked well. I also did a glass jar in boiling water with herb and a little oil inside for 15 minutes (ala cannabrex) too and that seemed to work as well.

Heating definetly increases the effect (by alot) as opposed to eating raw pot in my experience.

I know there are some folks (meduser I think) who know alot more about this subject which is decarbolization of the THC. I'd really like to hear more from those who know. hint hint