Beyond Buds

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Beyond Buds Page 17

by Ed Rosenthal


  HOW IT WORKS

  Food-Cannabis Chemistry

  The first time I got high from consuming cannabis, my host heated tomato sauce from a jar and added two teaspoons of ground trim that was mixed with a tablespoon of olive oil. We were high by the time we stopped eating, stoned within the hour, and didn’t come down until hours later. Obviously, cooking with marijuana is not rocket science.

  Still, following a few simple procedures in preparing the herb will result in a better dish and a more enjoyable experience. An important point to remember is that THC and other cannabinoids are not water soluble. Good cannabis consumables couple the plant material with an ingredient that can dissolve the cannabinoids, such as alcohol, oil, butter, or fat-containing milk products. Lecithin, an emulsifier that allows oil to mix but not dissolve in water, is sometimes used as an alternative carrier or in conjunction with solvents such as oil or alcohol.

  Mild heat plays an important role in cannabis cooking. THC starts out in the plant as THC acid (THCA). THCA is much less psychoactive than THC. Chemically, it is THC with an attached carbonate molecule (COOH; or carbon, oxygen, oxygen, hydrogen). It detaches easily with heat, and evaporates as water vapor and carbon dioxide, converting THCA to its psychoactively effective cousin, THC. This process, called decarboxylation, happens naturally when marijuana is smoked or vaporized. For use in food stuffs, heat must be applied either before or during cooking.

  THC has a boiling temperature of 314.6°F (157°C). Once it reaches or passes this temperature, it evaporates and forms tiny liquid drops as it cools. Prolonged heat also chemically alters the THC. Heating marijuana for 30 minutes at 250°F (121°C) converts almost all the THCA to THC; the THC rapidly converts to the much more sedative and less psychoactive CBN. To get the most out of your marijuana ingredients, keep a close eye on the cooking temperatures and times and modify some techniques.

  The oven temperature for baking is typically set at 350°F (177°C). This won’t evaporate off all the THC because, while the oven may be 350°F (177°C), only the surface of the batter reaches this temperature. If you’ve ever roasted a Thanksgiving turkey, you know that even if the oven is set to 350°F (177°C), the thermometer inserted into the bird only has to hit just under 200°F (93°C) to call the bird done—and a turkey cooks for hours. Baking temperatures indicate oven temperatures, not the food temperature.

  Extend the high with Kannabliss by Couchlock. Drink before using cannabis for a longer-lasting buzz, even with low-grade weed.

  Photo: Couchlock

  Stove-top cooking must be closely monitored to avoid evaporating the THC. Frying and sautéing food reaches temperatures as high as 400°F (204°C), well above THC’s boiling point. At this temperature, the cannabinoids quickly escape as vapor, leaving little to consume. To prevent this add grass, hash, kief, tincture, oil, or a butter/oil-THC mix directly to the sauté only when the dish is almost done.

  When is Cannabis Edible?

  If you’ve ever eaten raw buds or other plant material, you know that it can give you a buzz, but it is neither a very efficient nor an appetizing method of consumption, although it isn’t dangerous. Marijuana isn’t called herb for nothing; in cooking, it is used as an herb. It can be added directly to foods such as soups or stews, but some people find the green chlorophyll flavor objectionable. If the pieces are too big, people often find the texture chewy, like an herb leaf.

  Eating food made with hash or kief is different than eating raw vegetation. Kief consists of the THC-containing glands, which are a fine golden to green powder depending on quality. Hash results when kief is pressed under warm conditions. The gland heads break and the oils emerge, forming a dense, sticky mass. Hash eating has a long history, both as a food ingredient and as a standalone edible. Kief is rapidly gaining popularity because it’s easy to use in foods. Just sprinkle it on or in the food shortly before eating.

  The first time I ingested kief, it was mixed with olive oil and stuffed into a size #00 capsule that was kept in the refrigerator. One was enough for the evening. At times that evening, I thought I was living in slow motion.

  Eating kief or hash alone occasionally results in a mildly uncomfortable stomach. However, they are excellent choices for enhancing food and they have little effect on the digestive system. They are especially good as direct additives in dishes that already contain oil. Both kief and hash are concentrates so you only need to use a little. Make sure it is thoroughly mixed into the dish to avoid “hot spots.”

  Kief Shaker

  For convenience keep a “kief shaker” handy in the kitchen. Salt shakers work great. Place a few grains of dry, uncooked rice in the shaker to absorb moisture, keeping the kief dry and ready to shake. The shaker is easily used during cooking or to “season” food once it’s prepared. Adding some post-preparation kief is the best way to make a marijuana sauté because it avoids the high heat that would vaporize the cannabinoids. Golden kief is a fine condiment for pizza, just like parmesan cheese.

  FUNKY FLAVOR FIXES

  Ask Ed

  Ed:

  I like to eat marijuana-laced food, but I don’t like the taste of it. Is there any way to avoid getting that funky green flavor?

  Lauren

  Nova Scotia

  Lauren:

  Eliminate the pigments and chlorophyll that give marijuana-laced food its “green” taste.

  One way to do this is to use kief rather than marijuana.

  Another method is to clean the butter or oil before cooking with it. Chlorophyll and other pigments are water soluble so they can be separated from the butter. Melt the marijuana butter, add water, and let it simmer for a few minutes. Cool it. The fatty part of the butter or the oil, which contains the cannabinoids, rises to the top. The water, with the pigments, is underneath. Remove the top part and throw the water away. The process doesn’t eliminate all the pigments, but it does reduce their presence.

  ASSIMILATION AND DOSAGE

  What to Know Before You Start

  Ingesting food or beverages infused with marijuana or an extract is a different experience than inhaling it or using a tincture. The cannabinoids, marijuana’s active ingredients, are metabolized differently when digested than when inhaled, altering their effects. Ingesting, there is not an immediate rush. Instead the time to onset is much longer, and the effects are longer lasting. The sensation begins gradually a half-hour to an hour and a half after ingestion. The high lasts between three and six hours, depending on dose and speed of digestion.

  Getting the dose right is much more important when ingesting than inhaling. Inhaled marijuana creates effects within seconds that are fully felt within a few minutes, making it easy to self-titrate—that is, to achieve the desired level of high or medication. Marijuana edibles take much longer for the effects to be felt, and they come on gradually, making it harder to judge if the dose is right.

  The amount of food you’ve eaten, how the food was prepared, and the cannabis’s potency all affect how your body processes the THC and other cannabinoids, which affects the length and intensity of the high. Eating cannabis is more likely to produce a psychedelic experience than inhaling. Inexperienced people trying ingestion should use caution and have a buddy nearby.

  Alcohol is the most rapid form of delivering cannabinoids. Sublingually (drops under the tongue), it is directly absorbed through mucus membranes in the mouth and throat, taking five minutes or less. It is also the shortest lasting. The high and other effects are similar to inhaling because the THC and other cannabinoids and terpenes pass through the mucus membrane directly into the bloodstream, similar to how the cannabinoids in smoke pass into the bloodstream in the lungs. In a mixed drink it reaches the stomach, where there is a slight delay before it enters the bloodstream. The onset is rapid because alcohol, a small molecule, quickly passes through the stomach lining.

  Ingested THC is slowly metabolized as it passes through the digestive system. The cannabinoids are delivered to the bloodstream over a longer period of time, so
the effects last longer. THC in butter takes the longest to get into the bloodstream and has the longest-lasting effects.

  The fats in milk products absorb THC and other cannabinoids and emulsify them because of the lecithin they contain. India’s Bhang (marijuana) Lassi drinks are dairy based. Dairy and soy milk contain lecithin, an emulsifier that breaks oil into small bits so they remain suspended in water. Lecithin also speeds the absorption of cannabinated milk products, decreasing absorption time better than oil or butter bases alone.

  Since the effects of smoking are quick and are felt all at once, a common experience of novice marijuana eaters is to think that the first mild effects of an edible, felt after 30 minutes or so, are all they are going to get. Most of the effects are still on the way, but they double the dose. When the high starts to reach its peak an hour later, it will be much more than expected.

  A similar mistake can be made if you don’t know the edible’s potency. Just because it tastes great doesn’t mean having a few extra bites is a good idea. Relying only on the experience of others is not wise either, as the effects of edibles differ from person to person. Use caution when consuming any cannabis food product for the first time, even if you are a veteran smoker. Choose modest portions.

  As a host, monitor the amount of cannabinized food guests consume. Never give or let people consume spiked food without their knowledge.

  Don’t underestimate the temptation of the munchies. Prepare for them by having something other than cannabis treats to snack on. This is especially a good idea when making a dessert dish or something for a group gathering. Everyone can continue to snack without going overboard.

  Treating Overdose—Too Much of a Good Thing

  Marijuana’s toxicity level is so low that it remains undetermined. Statistics suggest that a person would have to ingest several thousand times the typical amount of cannabis to reach a level that interferes with bodily functions. Putting this in perspective, coffee has fatal effects at 100 times the typical amount. Hence the statistic: No deaths result from marijuana overdose.

  Eating marijuana is the easiest way to get too high. The delayed effect and gradual onset make dosage harder to gauge and can lead to consuming more than necessary for the desired effect. This can be an unpleasant experience, partly because the difference in effects between inhaled cannabinoids and cannabinoids metabolized in the digestive system creates unfamiliar effects. Avoid this problem by using restraint in eating cannabinized foods until you determine proper dosage. It is always possible to eat more, but once it’s in your stomach, there’s no going back.

  Edibles have less “plateau effect” than smoking. People reach a certain high when smoking, then stay about that level even if they continue to smoke. That effect doesn’t occur with ingested cannabis. Most of the time, when people have eaten too much they will be excited and a little hyper for an hour or so. Then they’ll tire and fall into a deep sleep. This is usually the best option for dealing with an excessive dose.

  If you eat yourself beyond your comfort limit there are a few things that can be done:

  •Remember that you are in no physical danger, even though you may be experiencing a distorted reality. Although the high will last several hours, the most intense feelings occur within an hour after the effects begin. Those intense feelings will soon fade.

  •Remember that these sensations will all pass in a little while.

  •Sit or lie down and try to relax. If you are lying down you cannot fall so any feeling of spinning, imbalance, or dizziness will not result in injury. Keeping your eyes open may relieve some of these symptoms.

  •Remember the anxiety is all in your head. There is another reality out there.

  •You may experience chills. Treat them by keeping warm.

  DOSAGE GUIDELINES

  From Marijuana Herbal Cookbook by Tom Flowers

  For a person weighing 150 pounds who has some experience using marijuana, a single edible dose is in the following range:

  Marijuana leaf: ½ to 2 grams

  Average bud: ¼ to 1 gram

  Sinsemilla: ⅛ to ½ gram

  Kief and hashish: ⅛ to 2 grams

  Using these guidelines, ¼ ounce makes the following number of servings:

  Marijuana leaf: 4–15 servings

  Average bud: 8–25 servings

  Sinsemilla: 8–34 servings

  Kief and hashish: 4–34 servings

  You can see that these are rough guidelines. The reason is that the potency of bud, kief, and hash varies so much. Smoking the material before cooking with it helps gauge its strength. People’s tolerance levels also vary.

  PREPARING THE HERB

  The guidelines for preparing marijuana for use in cooking do not differ much from preparing it for smoking. Remove seeds and stems.

  Before using any marijuana, inspect it closely for mold. Gray mold or bud rot usually appears in humid climates while the plant is still growing and is seen close to the stem where moisture can get trapped. Other molds result from improper drying, curing, or storage. Some molds produce black or brown spots. Moldy pot is not suitable for any use because it may contain toxins. Anaerobic bacteria can be detected by the ammonia smell they release.

  Bud bits, dried trim, and leaf can all be used, alone or in combination, to make cannabis butter, cooking oil, milks, or flour. The marijuana should be dry to the point of being crispy before using. To eliminate any residual moisture, spread it on a cookie sheet and place it in a 90°F–100°F (32°C -38°C) oven. An electric food dehydrator set on low is useful for decarboxylating the leaves. Once the material is brittle to the touch, it’s ready to use.

  All the glands are on the surface of the leaves, so they do not have to be ground to make contact with butter, cooking oil, or alcohol. When making these building blocks for cannabis cooking, most people filter out the marijuana plant material once the cannabinoids have been extracted. Leaving the leaf material whole makes filtering it much easier.

  COOKING POINTERS

  •Cooking with marijuana, especially leaf, creates dank odors. Keep the temperatures low and choose a place to cook where this won’t be a problem. Carbon filters and negative ion generators eliminate the odors.

  •Snack foods or beverages make the best cannabis treats. Heavy foods like pastas are taxing on the digestive system. They slow the onset of effects and limit the amount of THC absorbed. Second portions can be sleep inducing.

  •Spread the cannabis ingredient evenly throughout the dish for a consistent dosage.

  •Eating cannabis often causes the munchies. Have healthy noncannabis snacks on hand to satisfy them without being tempted to overdo the cannabis treats.

  •Clearly mark cannabis butters, oils, or foods to avoid accidental ingestion. Keep out of reach of children and pets.

  Some recipes use marijuana flour. Prepare it by removing all the stems, large and small. Grind the material to a powder using a food processor, blender, or coffee grinder. After operating, don’t open the grinding device immediately; wait a couple of minutes for the gland dust to settle.

  USING HASH, KIEF, OR HASH OIL IN FOOD

  While this chapter focuses on using leaf and trim material to make ingredients, hash, kief, and hash oil are easy-to-use, excellent ingredients for cooking. They concentrate the cannabinoid dose without the vegetation, resulting in a cleaner, less “green” taste.

  Using concentrate oil is a good way to have dosage consistency when making edibles. Dabber’s Delight is a CBD-rich concentrate that is orally safe.

  Not much concentrate is needed for each portion, making it even more important that these ingredients are mixed thoroughly to keep portions uniform. Alcohol and butane solvents remaining from processing hash oil evaporate quickly when exposed to cooking heat.

  Hash, kief, and hash oil need some preparation before they are used in cooking. Grind, shave, or chop the hash to a fine consistency using a coffee grinder or blender. Then add cooking oil or alcohol and blend into a mush or slush usin
g a blender or by placing everything in a jar with a tight cover and shaking it.

  JUICING

  Many people juice raw marijuana for its health benefits. Juicing fresh buds and leaves lets you ingest large amounts of THC in its nonpsychoactive acid form, THCA, and CBDA, the acid form of CBD, which has anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and cancer-fighting properties, as well as stimulating effects on the immune system. The juice also contains terpenes, which have mood-altering and therapeutic qualities. It doesn’t produce the high of decarboxylated bud, but the terpenes produce noticeable effects.

  The therapeutic potential of raw cannabis has not been studied in clinical trials, but reports of individuals achieving good results, such as Dr. William Courtney’s wife Kristen, who, attacked by Lupus, improved dramatically after treatment with the raw juice. Dr. Courtney recommends using it in large quantities, as much as 100 times greater than you would smoke. Many other people also report medical improvement for a variety of chronic physical ailments. Effects may be immediate or take weeks of treatment. Drinking large quantities of marijuana juice as a dietary supplement may be rough on kidneys and gallbladders, so it is not recommend for people with conditions affecting those organs.

  Commercial juicing devices such as wheat grass juicers are the most efficient. Juice is made by dropping fresh-from-the-plant bud, trim, and leaf in the blender, then straining it using a sieve or squeezing it through cheesecloth to eliminate the drained vegetative material. If you are not averse to alcohol, soak the solids in grain alcohol or high-proof vodka, then squeeze it out to remove the remaining cannabinoids. The juice tastes bitter, so most users mix it into other drinks.

 

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