Cooking with CBD can be quite satisfying to say the least. The effects of CBD edibles last longer because the compounds are released into your bloodstream periodically.
You can use either a CBD concentrate, oil or the plant itself to make your own CBD infused edibles at home.
However, it is very easy to make mistakes when cooking with CBD.
Each option presents its own challenges that you must circumvent expertly for a better result.
By keeping an eye on some key elements, you are assured a better flavor and consistency. You will also save on money and product used.
You will end up using less CBD but still getting the same or better results. Maybe take some time off from practicing and gain some knowledge before going all in.
Mistakes to Avoid When Cooking with CBD
1) Ratios
During the infusion of CBD, a ratio of 1:1 CBD to oil or butter is advised.
A good rule of thumb if you are using CBD rich raw hemp plant or cannabis material, is for every 1 cup of butter you would use 7-10 grams of plant material.
You see lipids bind very well with cannabinoids. This means that using more CBD will only make the cooking oil or butter too potent, unless of course that is what you are looking for.
Having an excess amount of CBD poses the risk of you ruining the taste, tainting the color, and wasting product that could be used to make a new batch.
Stick to the ratio for a well-balanced oil or butter. If you are going with the plant option, you can use the stems. You may even use buds that you had previously vaped.
2) Do Not Simply Use Raw Plant Material
The cannabinoids in the plant need to be put through the process of activation. If this process is skipped, you are merely just adding raw plant material into your food.
It will be useless.
You will suffer through the herb taste to receive no benefits at all, plus you will have effectively wasted your perfectly good CBD rich plant.
Before the process of decarboxylation, CBD just sits in the hemp plant as CBDa, which is not a form your body can absorb.
The process of decarboxylation activates the CBDa into a form your body can better absorb and reap from, which is CBD.
The same is true when cooking with THC too. Let’s now discuss decarboxylation in more detail below!
3) Decarboxylation
Going through the motions is well and good. However, not doing it right is just as useless as not doing it at all.
And the same goes when cooking with CBD, or making CBD infused products in general from raw hemp or cannabis material!
If you are cooking with CBD isolate crystals or are simply adding CBD oil (such as a CBD tincture) onto your food, you will not need do this step as the isolate and the CBD oil is already activated.
In order to properly decarboxylate your raw plant material to turn the CBDa into it’s activated counterpart, CBD, you need to do a few things.
You should first set your oven to 245°F, and while your oven is warming up you should begin to grind up your raw plant material, whether that be hemp or cannabis.
Next you should get a baking sheet and cover it with parchment paper, after doing so, you can then spread your raw plant material across the baking sheet.
Place the baking sheet with the raw plant material into your oven and set a timer for 30 to 40 minutes. You could increase the temperature to 320°F and cut the time in half, but the low and slow route is recommend when decarbing in order to better preserve cannabinoids.
During the decarbing process, you should ensure to expose the entirety of the buds to heat. To do this, you should mix it up every ten minutes, in addition to rotating the baking sheet.
If you go with the higher temperature, mix every five minutes.
Decarboxylation can also be done with raw CBD oil or with something like CBD dabs, which follows the same steps as the raw hemp or cannabis buds.
4) Not Straining Your CBD Oil or Butter Before Cooking
After you have decarbed your CBD rich hemp or cannabis plant, and infused your preferred oil or butter with CBD.
You are not done! So please for your sake, do not pour the oil or butter with plant material into your favorite recipes, you need to do one final step and that’s straining!
Once the butter or oil has been simmering for the desired time you should use a strainer or cheesecloth placed over a container to separate the CBD infused butter or oil from the raw plant material.
You will simply pour the CBD infused oil or butter onto the cloth then let gravity work. The oil will seep through leaving behind the plant residue.
A popular mistake is squeezing the remaining mush for an extra drop of oil.
Well, as you struggle to go for that last drop you are also forcing residue through into the already clean oil.
You will also squeeze out some green color into what could be clean oil.
Just let it sit then take what you get and be content with it. Leave the rest behind. It is a simple exercise requiring scanty human intervention.
5) Rushing to Prepare, and Cook Your CBD Infused Edibles
It is understandable that sometimes you will want to whip something up quickly. It would be unforgiveable to infuse your oil or butter during these times.
To avoid this mistake, ensure to infuse an extra batch or two of CBD butter or oil for such situations and store.
This will save you the trouble of improper infusion when you are in a hurry, not to mention the money you will save by not wasting perfectly good CBD.
When you do it on a slow day, you will be more careful and therefore do a better job of preparing your CBD infusion.
Having some CBD infused oil or butter ready to go will even reduce the prep time for your infused meals in the future!
Save yourself the headache and the potential money wasted on CBD by simply taking your time when cooking your own CBD infused edibles.
6) Not Monitoring The Amount of CBD
Nothing sucks more than using too little or too much CBD in an edible, as too little will have no effect and too much will cause some inconvenient effects that you may not want.
That is the worst CBD can do, is be inconvenient.
To avoid this, test the potency of the CBD product that you will be using.
Whether it is the plant or oil or even concentrate, use it directly first and establish a baseline.
Then once this is done, multiply this dosage by the number of servings expected from the recipe.
Some people have a higher tolerance than others do but the numbers should not be that far off.
The desired effects will still prevail albeit weaker in some than others will. You could also just pour the same amount of a CBD tincture onto each plate of food being served.
This latter option offers the chance to adjust the dosage for those of you who will prefer more.
7) Distribution of CBD
You know when you season food then later when eating realize that some parts have more seasoning than others?
Well, the same can happen with CBD.
You could be experiencing the great benefits of CBD while someone else who had the same meal with you feels absolutely nothing.
This could very well be because the CBD was not properly spread into the food.
To combat this, you need to ensure that you are stirring the mixture vigorously and efficiently. The CBD should be evenly distributed for the dosage thing above to work.
The same applies to infusions of butter and oils. Mix very well so that every part of the oil or butter has a touch of CBD as desired.
8) Water
This is more of a preference than a mistake.
When infusing CBD into your preferred cooking oil or butter, adding some water into the mix will help keep temperatures low. As high temperature will cause scorching or burning of your highly valued cannabidiol.
The CBD might even be destroyed.
High temperatures are destructive to cannabinoids. Do not worry too much about having water in your butter or oil.
It will evaporate and none will be left in the end product.
This is a good bet to avoid heat getting out of hand. If you have doubts about using water however, just ensure to maintain a steady temperature otherwise and all will be well.
There are kitchen appliances, such as a food thermometer, to make this process a bit easier so you do not have to worry about the temperature problem.
9) Using Fake CBD Oil
This mistake is not only limited to fake CBD oil but also to otherwise compromised CBD products.
See a compromised product will have little or no CBD content whatsoever. In this case, you will be cooking with an unknown ingredient.
First, in order to avoid buying fake CBD oil or fake CBD products in general you should always use a reliable supplier, such as wellicy.com.
A company who would not intentionally sell you something whose legitimacy is questionable.
Also, do your due diligence!!
Research the product before using it to cook. Find out about the CBD content and any other ingredients in the product.
Find out about the extraction process and the results of third party testing. Go for the product with the highest natural CBD content.
10) Self-Limitation
Cooking with CBD is not limited to cookies and brownies, there is so much you can do with CBD in the kitchen.
From making CBD infused smoothies to using in salad dressing and even making bolognaise sauce.
It would be a mistake to think that there are meals that simply would not appreciate a dash of CBD.
The only limitation is that CBD oil or CBD infused cooking oil and butter cannot be used to sauté and deep-fry.
As these turn up the heat too high, which could potentially damage the structure of the CBD and therefore compromise the element.
You can sprinkle some CBD oil on the finished product though or just use it in another meal item like your salad or dessert.
11) Overconfidence
Before taking a big test, people always take smaller mock tests before the big day. Why is this? Apply the same idea when cooking with CBD.
On the first day, make a smaller batch and see how your CBD cooking skills match up.
The small batch will also help you recognize possible mistakes you made and also save you money on wasted CBD.
Plus, you will be able to tell if the recipe needs a tweak to either hide the taste or some other improvement.
The worst time to taste your result for the first time would be with the rest of your dinner party. That would ruin your credibility as the great CBD chef for eons to come.
Bonus Tips for Cooking with CBD
The popular advice is to use CBD concentrate in place of the raw hemp plant material.
While with a plant you would be sure you are actually getting CBD and not some strange synthetic element, but it also widens the field for all sorts of mistakes to be made.
Also, do not be afraid to use spices.
Give the recipe an additional dollop of lime or some more garlic, or use a bit more caramel.
In the case for CBD infused butter, use it with some butter. This way one will still taste the yumminess of butter mixed in there.
