Cooking Edibles: Seven Mistakes and How To Fix Them

Cooking homemade edibles is tricky, and it’s easy to make small mistakes here and there. But if the product does its job, what else matters, right?

You can improve the flavor and consistency, spare time and money — and do it by tweaking a couple of steps along the way. Of course, there isn’t One Right Way to cook edibles. Trial and error are the part of the journey. Here are seven mistakes that you’re probably doing while cooking and how to fix them.

1. You spend too much money on flower for edibles

Sometimes people throw a half ounce of cannabis into a slow cooker in the hope that it’s going to make a good cup of infused butter. Ouch.

Here’s a ratio that will make your life easier:

1:1 — 1 cup of oil to 1 cup of ground cannabis (ca. 7-10 grams)

Lipids in the oil only bind to that amount of cannabinoids. Everything besides is a waste of a good flower.

How to fix: less is more
Buy less cannabis. Consider adding cannabis stems, trim, or cannabis flower that’s been already vaporized.

2. You throw ground cannabis right in the slow cooker

A rule of thumb: before cooking with cannabis, decarboxylate it. It means that you don’t need to throw raw flowers into your dish. Cannabinoids remain not activated and bind to lipids. So, you won’t feel anything. Like, nothing.

How to fix: decarboxylate cannabis in the oven
You can set the temperature low in an oven and keep it steady, preventing cannabis from burning. Simple!

3. You decarboxylate it wrong

You have to decarboxylate cannabis correctly. That means setting the oven to the right temperature, letting cannabis heat for a good time, and keep mixing it to activate the most surface area.

How to fix: know the right directions
Here’s what you need to do:

For those in a hurry, set the oven to 300°F (150°C) and cook for 10-18 minutes, stirring every five minutes. However, the slow-cooking is always best.

4. You grind cannabis into powder

If you wonder why your edibles have a strong grassy flavor, the answer is simple: the grind of your cannabis is too fine. If you tend to overdo it in a food processor, it:

How to fix: use a hand grinder
Once your cannabis decarboxylated, grind it coarsely with a hand grinder. A coarse grind allows cannabis to effectively absorb without pulling in unwanted plant material.

5. You improperly strain the oil

Once you’ve got an infused oil, it’s time to strain out the plant material. Use cheesecloth because it allows oil to pass through while separating from plant “garbage.” If you still have some plant material after straining, you’re doing it wrong.

How to fix: let gravity do the straining for you
Don’t squeeze the cheesecloth to get every drop of oil out. It will push out plant material back. Just relax and let fat, heavy drops of oil pass through the cheesecloth. You’ll be amazed how clean your oil can be.

6. You bake too little (or too much) oil into your dish

Homemade edibles often remind of Russian Roulette. But it shouldn’t be so. Run a “strand test” beforehand to understand how much infused oil you will need based on its potency.

How to fix: test the potency before baking it into a dish
Here’s how you do it:

To ease the process, scoop the perfect dose onto each individual dish (if appropriate).

7. You distribute the potency unevenly

It feels unfair when you get a piece of a homemade edible and feel nothing while your buddy is high up there. It means that the batch of butter wasn’t stirred well enough.

How to fix: stir well. Like, really well.
Stir like your life depends on it. This will ensure that the oil is distributed evenly and your perfect dose makes it into each piece of the final product.

This post is based on this Leafly article.

(Sweedsy in no way encourages illegal activity and would like to remind its readers that marijuana usage continues to be an offense under Federal Law, regardless of state marijuana laws. To learn more, click here.)