Thread: MVP’s Killer Cannabutter Pictorial / Tutorial

Here is a nice, straight forward tutorial for making Cannabutter. In this thread you will learn how you can turn 1 oz of buds, 1 lb of butter and 3-4 hours of your time into a 3/4 lb of killer Cannabutter.

I’m gonna make this pretty heavy on photos and somewhat light on content so that all of the visually-oriented people out there that want to make Cannabutter can have some reference material. It is not difficult as I did this on the first try, and I am a guy that doesn’t spend a whole lot of time cooking, baking, etc.

First you need the right tools and ingredients
1 lb. of unsalted butter
1 oz. of good herb
1 medium sauce pan
1 crock pot
1 cannabis grinder (aka coffee grinder)
1 fine strainer (or cheesecloth)
1 Pyrex 32 oz. measuring cup
1 Oven thermometer
A couple of mixing bowls to hold the ground herb

And we are off to a make some Cannabutter.... but before we get going I want everyone to know that I read a ton of different recipes and the method outlined in this thread is a compilation. When stuck I found myself referring to Flameon's cooking posts to decide on which way to proceed when I had conflicting information.

OK, back on track, here we go..... As PROMISED, many pictures:

To clarify butter you basically melt the butter in the saucepan, making sure the butter does not burn. What you are trying to do is heat the butter and then skim off the water, cream, and other stuff off of the top.

We are continuing to make the clarified butter. Use a spoon to skim the frothy stuff off the top and set it aside. In the pics below you see that I got approx 3 oz of cream/water/stuff out of 16 oz of butter.

Once you have skimmed as much off as possible, pour the butter thru the strainer and into the Pyrex measuring cup.

UH, CORRCTION to post #1... It is a 16oz Pyrex measuring cup, not a 32 oz measuring cup. Doh!

This step is pretty self explanatory: clean the herb really, really well and then grind it up in the cannabis grinder. I use 2 bowls when doing this - one for stems and leaves, the other for the finished/ground herb powder.

My advice is to grind up the herb in small batches and then combine it into the mixing bowl as you go along. I use wooden toothpicks to clean the grinder, scooping the sticky trichomes into the bowl. If you don't clean it every 2-3 runs you will encounter problems.

As you are cleaning and grinding up your herb, you should have your crock pot warming up, and set the Pyrex cup full of butter in it while it comes up to temperature. I STRONGLY recommend the use of an oven thermometer so you can monitor the temps when it is cooking.

Once the herb is ground up, add it to the butter in the Pyrex that is sitting inside the crock pot. Stir in the herb as you add it to get a consistent mixture. In other words, do not dump it all in at once then stir... do it gradually.

So now we are cooking! Literally.... well almost. Before you start the cooking process you want to make sure that you place your oven thermometer in the bottom of the crock pot. See it there in the picture? It is vital to monitor temperature so you do not burn or overcook the butter and THC.

SIDE NOTE: When cooking with Cannabis, I always heat my crock pot on High for 30-40 minutes, then back it down to Low and finish cooking it there. With my particular crock pot it heats up to almost 250 F (a bit too hot) on High, so I let it get there, then take the lid off for 30 seconds or so, stir the butter, and set it on Low, where it maintains a temp of approx 225F +/-.

Put the lid on the crock pot, set the timer for 30 minutes, and make sure you don't wander too far and forget about the butter. Return to check the temperature and stir your butter within the 30-45 minute time frame.

In my pics you can see that the temps got close to 250 F, then dropped to 225 F when I returned and set it on Low.

From this point forward I check the temps every 30-45 minutes (with lid on, or heat escapes and cooking takes longer) to keep a consistent 200 F - 225 F range for the remaining 2-1/2 hours. If it is too hot, remove the lid and blow a breath or two of air into it, then replace the lid. Personally, any time I take the lid off I stir it just for good measure. If too cool (less than 200 F), set on High and monitor closely every 20-30 minutes.

In this recipe I cook the butter in the crock pot for a total of 3 hours......

This is the part where it gets a little tricky. I always cook late at night to avoid suprises - people stopping over, phone calls, etc - so I did not have someone to take pictures of the straining process. Pretty much once the Cannabutter has cooked for 3 hours, I pour the entire mixture thru the fine wire strainer and into a bowl or jar.

Normally you can just strain the butter into a jar or bowl, cover it, and throw it in the fridge to cool for a few hours. That is the easy thing to do.

But I get crazy ideas in my head sometimes, and this was no exception..... Once in the jar I thought of something I saw once on FoodTV, Alton Brown or Emeril or someone... an ice water bath to cool the butter.

In this case I wanted to try to press my Cannabutter into 'sticks' so I went a little bit extravagent.... I made little loaf pans out of some boards from my workshop, lined them with wax parchment paper, and cooled the butter in the water bath until it was the same consistency as cookie dough.

Then I took the spatula and scooped the Cannabutter out of the jar and into the DIY loaf pans, pressing the budder into the molds. I had to hurry at the end as it was setting up pretty fast. The last photo is of the used bud material that I drained off and tossed into the trash.

So that is How MVP Made Killer Cannabutter, and how you can make it too. Gotta love that deep green butter color.... Yum!

Wow!!! That was awesome thank you! That'll be around for a while! I am visual myself, and that made it very clear and easy to understand!
Question.
Can you, or is it advisable to use kief instead of flowers? What kind of ratios would you suspect that would be used? For say a very small amount of kief like a gram or 2 or 3 or 5? Whatever just curious?

sweet can u show more pictures is this as good hash or wat am kinda new to this cana butter

Originally Posted by 8182KSKUSH

Wow!!! That was awesome thank you! That'll be around for a while! I am visual myself, and that made it very clear and easy to understand!
Question.
Can you, or is it advisable to use kief instead of flowers? What kind of ratios would you suspect that would be used? For say a very small amount of kief like a gram or 2 or 3 or 5? Whatever just curious?

When I cook with Cannabis, I estimate that 1 gram of kief or hash = 1-2 grams of buds. Of course the better the cannabis the better the final product.

The reason I used 1 oz buds (Master Kush to be precise) and 1 pound of butter (which is 4 sticks) was to make it easy to scale the recipe up and down. Also note than I had approx 25% shrinkage in the butter.

An easy starting place for most people would be 1 stick butter : 1/4 oz herb... substitute kief or hash at an average of 1.0 gr = 1.5 gr herb, and you could make approx 6 tablespoons of good quality Cannabutter (after the 25% shrinkage) from approx 4.5 - 5 grams of kief or hash.

My best advice is to start small and experiment a little bit.

I should also note that when I cook I don't always use 100 percent cannabutter in my recipes. Sometimes I use 50/50 cannabutter/regular butter so that the cookies, etc are not too overpowered with the herb taste...

Originally Posted by Xyz505

sweet can u show more pictures is this as good hash or wat am kinda new to this cana butter

I'll try to get more pics, just tell me what you want to see. As mentioned above you can use hash to make cannabutter. Of course cannabutter is for cooking, not smoking....

excellent tutorial, the pics helped a lot.

Wonderful!! A couple of questions. Sorry if you said something already and I missed it.

What's in the bowl in the last pic? Your strained solids? Do you toss that stuff or what do you do with it?

Can I use salted butter? I can't stand the unsalted kind. Will it make a big difference?

I use the metal strainer to grind up my weed instead of a grinder and it ends up in pretty fine powder. Would I be able to use this instead of buds in a grinder?

You are measuring the temp of your crockpot. Do you ever measure the temp of the actual butter with a candy or oil thermometer? Do you know if the temps match.....whether measuring with an oven thermometer is the same as measuring the temp of the butter itself?

Thanks very much MVP. I'll definitely be trying this recipe.

This should be a sticky for sure. Not a whole lot of people will have an extra ounce of killer laying around unless they're growing, but this is a great walkthrough...cannabutter's simple but a tad tricky...I'm not incredibly comfortable cooking with it though, I'm much better at smoking it But the narcotic like stone you can get from brownies is much like the intense effect of something such as an oxycontin for me, only I don't throw up and I'm still able to function and think easily..I just don't much feel like doing it if I'm stoned off of space brownies ..which I would much rather feel like not doing something rather than physically and mentally unable to do it...Pot is great!

Originally Posted by Weedhound

Wonderful!! A couple of questions. Sorry if you said something already and I missed it.

What's in the bowl in the last pic? Your strained solids? Do you toss that stuff or what do you do with it?

That is the used buds I strained out from the butter. Yeah, I toss it there is nothing left after cooking it down.

Originally Posted by Weedhound

Can I use salted butter? I can't stand the unsalted kind. Will it make a big difference?

I don't know, but I would guess that the salt would be likely cooked off to some degree. Besides the Cannabis flavor will overpower about anything. If you try with salted butter post back and tell us what you discover.

Originally Posted by Weedhound

I use the metal strainer to grind up my weed instead of a grinder and it ends up in pretty fine powder. Would I be able to use this instead of buds in a grinder?

As long as it is ground into a fine powder, like flour, you should be just fine.

Originally Posted by Weedhound

You are measuring the temp of your crockpot. Do you ever measure the temp of the actual butter with a candy or oil thermometer? Do you know if the temps match.....whether measuring with an oven thermometer is the same as measuring the temp of the butter itself?

Haven't gotten that detailed yet. I keep temps in the range of 200 F - 225 F according to the oven thermometer and so far the results have been pretty good.

Originally Posted by Weedhound

Thanks very much MVP. I'll definitely be trying this recipe.

You are very welcome my friend. Please post back your experiences and questions so that everyone can learn from the trials and errors... I'll do the same!

MVP

Awesome post. Any clue on dosages? What do you make with the butter personally? What kinda high do you get?

Originally Posted by SantaClawz

Awesome post. Any clue on dosages? What do you make with the butter personally? What kinda high do you get?

Hey Clawz, when it comes to cannabutter I usually bake with it - oatmeal cookies w/ dried cranberries, or brownies of some variety - and I try to measure it so I get about .20 - .25 per serving. Although many make spaghetti or a broccoli pasta dish that works.

Often my approach means eating a few cookies or half a brownie. Really depends on how much the recipe can cover up (stand up to) the cannabis taste.

So far with this batch, no baking yet. I'm intereviewing for a new job and will probably have to take a whiz quiz or hair test.... I'll post back when I either sample or have my GF be the labrat for my next batch of cookies

Luck in your interview....

Originally Posted by MVP

I try to measure it so I get about .20 - .25 per serving. Often my approach means eating a few cookies or half a brownie.

TO CLARIFY WHAT I WAS TRYING TO SAY:
When I bake, I target approx .20-.25 (of a gram) per "serving" when using quality buds. The serving might be 2-3 cookies, or a half a brownie, depending on how the final product will taste.

For example, in my brownies I usually have the equivalent of 1/4 oz of buds, which means a serving is about half a piece, since I cut the 8 in x 8 in pan into 16 smaller squares. Each square has approx .44 gram of herb so 1/2 square is a serving.

For my cookies it is different since I use less herb, (usually equivalent of 1/8 oz) therefore 2-3 cookies equals one serving.

As we all know, some folks require more servings than others. Adjust to your specific needs.

Originally Posted by Weedhound

Luck in your interview....

Thanks my friend

I have found that a brownie mix that has peanut butter pieces is really good tasting. The peanut butter pieces add a secondary layer of flavor over top of the already existing brownie flavor masking what flavor of weed is left. Everyone who has eaten them say they can't taste the weed at all and they love the peanut butter.(usually i cook between an 1/8 or a 40 in vegetable oil with a bit of butter for flavor).

I really look forward to being able to try out this cannabutter recipe. my past experiences with it haven't been as good as with oil. I especially like the use of the crock pot and thermometer. Slow cooking that shit at a constant temperature is probably the best way to extract the THC from the weed and keep it in the butter because you have better temperature control.

Originally Posted by Potcake

I have found that a brownie mix that has peanut butter pieces is really good tasting. The peanut butter pieces add a secondary layer of flavor over top of the already existing brownie flavor masking what flavor of weed is left. Everyone who has eaten them say they can't taste the weed at all and they love the peanut butter.(usually i cook between an 1/8 or a 40 in vegetable oil with a bit of butter for flavor).

I really look forward to being able to try out this cannabutter recipe. my past experiences with it haven't been as good as with oil. I especially like the use of the crock pot and thermometer. Slow cooking that shit at a constant temperature is probably the best way to extract the THC from the weed and keep it in the butter because you have better temperature control.

Myself I add a nice Dark Chocolate frosting on top to help make them more tasty. I have used up to 3/8 oz in this recipe to make kickass brownies that taste good and put you into space. Peanut butter sounds good too if that is what you like - there is no "right way" to make it taste good, just personal preferences.

Good luck with the Cannabutter recipe, it makes it easier to bake cookies, create a pasta dish, etc with your cannabis...

i actually happened to do this myself about 5 days ago.

i myself used a paper bag from the food store FILLED with trim from my last grow.
i used a lb. of "salted butter"
*yes it will work the same, no it doenst ruin anything*
i didint skim the excess cream and stuff from the butter before adding the pot/keif/trim. i figured it got strained when i was donw cooking anyway.
i just melted the butter in a metal pan on the stove, reduced to very low simmer, ground all the stuff and added.
cooked on very low for about 5 hours, strained, and chilled.
i made some rice krispy treats yesterday and had a bunch of people oveer and we all got pretty stoned......

i think anyone with even a little cookin intuition can make cannabutter.

for you mvp. good write up.

Thanks for the picture tutorial,Its always better watching how someone does it.I wanted to make a Video of what I was doing when I did my Brownies last night,but I didnt have anyone to help me with that.

Excellent~!!! One word... Excellent~!!!

I do it the same but I grind the herb even finner, to a powder, then when cooking put a 1/16 water to the mix of butter and herb Usualy about 2 table spoons per 1/2 cup butter. And then cook (at lowest setting, or double boriler)for a total of 8 hours stiring every hour. Also to thoughs who just want like a 1/4 or an 1/8 get a little crock pot, a friend had one with potpurrie in it and he was like I cant cook cannbutter. thoughs are perfect for a small amount like one batch of brownies or one cake (I like cakes and pies) 10in. Banana cream/apple pie my fav. with about a 1/4 in it is good. I make it with a cake like crust so thats where most of the butter is. its freakin good


isint clarified butter called gueeeh

Originally Posted by Xyz505

sweet can u show more pictures is this as good hash or wat am kinda new to this cana butter

Cannabutter is how you make eatablies bra. you can use alcholo extraction as well. Its like smoking a bowl all at once and it last 4 times longer. its not exacticaly like smoking cause I actualy start to stumble and slur when I have had to much spacecakes. It is kinda like smoking hash as its a whole new level of baked.

MadSativa, it might not look like it, but the cannabis is ground into a fine powder using a coffee grinder. I think next time I will try adding a splash of water and letting it cook longer to see how it turns out. And yeah, Ghee is another name for clarified butter. I found this simple, yet interesting explanation:

From Wikipedia
The butter is heated on a low flame until a layer of white froth covers the surface. This state indicates the end of the process, and the liquid obtained on filtering the suspension is pure ghee. Adding a spoonful of water may help the texture and lower future melting point for use in cooking (when mounting sauces with fat to create a more silky sauce).