Cannabutter is a fairly easy product to create and can be used on a variety of edible products. Follow this step-by-step tutorial to learn how to make cannabutter effectively.

Before you begin, collect the materials you’ll need as well as all ingredients. Make sure you have everything beforehand.

Required Materials:

• herb or coffee grinder (Krups Coffee Grinder | Sharp Crusher Herb Grinder)
• measuring cup (Pyrex Measuring Cup)
• medium pan or pot (preferably with a lid) (T-Fal Pan with Lid)
• stirring utensil (T-Fal Pan with Lid)
• large bowl (Large Bowl)
• saran wrap (Plastic Wrap)
• cheese cloth (or wire strainer) (Cheese Cloth | Wire Strainer)
• stove

Ingredients:

The ingredients depend on the amount of cannabutter you want to make and how potent you want it to be. The more cannabis you include, the more butter you can make or the more potent it will be.

To make approximately 350 grams of cannabutter, use the following:

• 1 lb (unsalted) butter*
• 3 cups of water**
• 1 ounce of dried cannabis***

To make approximately 700 grams of cannabutter, use the following:

• 2 lb (unsalted) butter
• 6 cups of water
• 2 ounces of dried cannabis

Notes:

*You can use less butter to make it more potent or more butter to make it less potent.

**3 cups is an approximate figure. The actual amount of water used doesn’t matter as long as you have enough. Anywhere from 2 – 5 cups (or 4 – 10 cups) should be fine.

***The amount of cannabis used is subjective. Cannabis’s potency can differ drastically. 1 ounce of medium to high grade cannabis should be plenty. 20 – 30 grams of good grade cannabis is common for 35o grams of cannabutter, but you could get away with using 14 grams or more if necessary. If you use kief or hash the process is much easier: you use much less and don’t have to extract the cannabis once you’ve finished cooking.

Potency

The potency of your cannabutter is correlated to the amount of cannabis you use, the quality of cannabis you use, and the quality of your preparation. You can use shake, stems, and trim but they will be less potent. The quality of your cannabis will relate to the quality of your butter and any edibles you make with it. Lower grade or middle grade marijuana is great for making cannabutter, but much more is needed. If you use top grade marijuana you won’t need as much unless you want to make super potent brownies. Roughly, for lower and middle grade cannabis, use 1 – 2 ounces. For higher grade marijuana use 1/2 – 1 ounce cannabis. For extremely dank cannabis, you may be able to get away using 1/4 – 1/2 ounce. These numbers are just estimates. Doing the process correctly is more important than using a specific amount.

Additional Notes

This process will take a a few hours. Exactly how long depends on a few factors, such as how long you let your butter simmer. Leave at least six hours aside to make the cannabutter. It can take as long as eight to ten hours.

While making the cannabutter, make sure to handle everything carefully. Cooking with water and butter on a stove can be dangerous.

Step Two – Grind the Cannabis

In this step we will prepare the materials before starting the cooking process.

Grind until you produce a fine powder

Collect the cannabis, and grind it into a very fine powder. This step is important. You want to end up with all the material as small as you can get it. Also remove all seeds and stems from mix. Use a herb or coffee grinder to create the powder. You can also crush it with your hands or a spoon. This step may take a while, depending on how much cannabis you are using. If you’re using an ounce of cannabis, this can take a while, possibly 30 – 60 minutes or more.

When grinding the cannabis, you can use a herb grinder designed for cannabis. These often aren’t sufficient unless you own a high quality grinder. A coffee grinder will also work very well.

Once you’ve ground your cannabis in a very fine powder, it should something like this:

Again, keep in mind that grinding it into a very fine powder is essential for a quality product.

Step Three – Mix the Ingredients

In this step you will mix the ingredients and cook the combination to extract the THC from the cannabis and merge it with the butter.

Heat the stove and add the water to your pot. While the water is heating, add your butter to the water. Let the water boil and the butter melt completely. Once the butter has melted, decrease the temperature of the stove so it’s simmering and no longer boiling. Mixing the butter with the water allows for you to easily mix the cannabis with the butter without burning the butter or THC.

Add the butter and water to your heating stove-top

At this point you should add your ground cannabis to the melted butter. Continuously stir the cannabis in the pot. Break up clumps and mix the cannabis that seems to stick to the bottom. Make sure the stove doesn’t get to hot; you want a low simmer, otherwise you may burn your THC and lose potency. Check your mix periodically. Submerge and re-submerge the cannabis in the butter-water mix.

Add and stir your cannabis

Let the cannabutter simmer for ideally 1 – 2 hours. You can do it in as little as 1/2 hour, but if you let it go for 1 – 2 hours you ensure optimum potency. Some people recommend longer, but longer is unnecessary. Keep an eye on your cannabutter during this period.

Make sure your concentration does not get too hot at this point. If it gets to hot you could lose potency. During this period the THC (and other cannabinoids) will be extracted by the fat in the butter.

Step Four – The Extraction Process

In this step we will extract the cannabis from the butter and the butter from the water.

The purpose of this extraction process is to remove the cannabis plant material from your newly created cannabutter. If  you did the steps up to this point correctly, your cannabis plant material will be without THC content and therefore without mind-altering properties. You can discard it – it’s no good if you did everything correctly.

Turn off oven and let your product cool for 4 – 6 minutes. Be especially carefully during this step. Place the cheese cloth (or other fine strainer) over a bowl, doubled over. Use a rubber band or having someone assist you in holding it in place to make sure the cloth doesn’t slip into your bowl full of cannabutter.

Pour the cannabutter through the filter

Pour the contents of your pot careful through your cheese cloth. Take your time. If you’re using something other than a cheese cloth, it may be difficult to do this step properly. You want to strain out all of the green plant material. The bowl should fill with the murky butter. Squeeze the cloth to get out the remaining drops.

The filtered butter should look like this:

Filtered, warm cannabutter

Once you’ve separated the cannabis from the cannabutter, you should be able to see layers of butter forming on the top of the water in the bowl.

Notice the layers of water and butter

Hang in there, you’re almost done!

Step Five – Refridgerate and Enjoy

Once you’ve extracted the cannabutter, leave it in the bowl or place it in Tupperware and put it in the refrigerator.

After straining, it should look like this

Place in refrigerator

You should refrigerator your cannabutter for several hours until the butter solidifies; you may need to leave it overnight. Once the butter has turned into a solid, a layer of butter will be clearly visible.

Finished cannabutter

Cannabutter ready for use

Remove the butter from the bowl once you’ve let it solidify. It is recommended that you wrap the cannabutter in saran wrap. Scoop and scrape the butter from it’s container and drain the remaining water. If there’s butter remaining in the bowl, you can use a paper towel to sop up the water before you remove the butter. Place the cannabutter in saran wrap and compress it. Try to make it more compact and reshape it however you see fit.

Store the cannabutter in the freezer. By keeping it cool you are preserving the potency and making it last much longer.

Use your newly-create cannabutter for all kinds of tasty treats. Enjoy!

Cannabis cinnamon rolls

Make cannabis cupcakes

Cannabis brownies

You can use cannabutter in anything that calls for butter or oil. You can use it on just about anything!