Tips for daily medicating with edibles

[HYB]

So after many grueling years of debating I've finally bit the bullet and bought the Ardent FX. As someone living in a country where my medication is super expensive and pretty frowned upon I'm in the need of some edibles tips for more discreet medicating. I need to get 440mg thc a day in my system which usually comes to about 60-70grams of butter after infusion for a week's batch. I'm finding it hard to find recipes where to incorporate this amount without it also significantly affecting the taste or being almost impossible to split into 8 or 4 daily servings. So I have a couple of questions, it'd be awesome if someone with more experience in making edibles could answer:

-Can I get stronger infusions by lessening the butter/oil? The amount of butter I use now just about covers the plant material and is calculated with 700mg/oz oil in mind which is a lab tested result from Ardent's website. I don't have access to concentrates and neither dry ice or everclear, the strongest non-denaturated alcohol we can buy here is 60%.

-Can I make my butter taste better? I've been using clarified butter and the infusion comes out tasting super strong. I know sometimes water is added during the infusion to get out some of the green taste but is it an option when I infuse in the FX, I would think not? Is there anything I can do after the straining, or is water curing beforehand the only thing I could do here? I would rather not risk doing a water cure for the plant material if I can help it.

-Are there any healthy recipes where it's possible to incorporate this amount of butter? Or even a bit more unhealthy recipes where it's possible to mask the taste more. From the batch tests I've done peanut butter has been doing a pretty good job for me but so far all the recipes have a ton of calories, or have such a small amount of butter per portion I'd have to eat a ton of them anyway. Something I can easily take with me would be a bonus, the smaller the portions the better.

-What other options do I have besides capsules if edibles end up not working for some reason or another, and are there any good tips if I end up making caps? I'm a bit unsure about going with the vape oil route at least, and I'm not sure if topicals would work.

I could probably use the search and see that everything has been answered before but it's been pretty exhausting trying to look up so much info at once so I hope this thread is ok.

 

[justcametomind]

Why don't you simply decarboxylate your cannabis inside your oven, and take the required amount, followed by a full glass of water to mask the flavor and a small meal containing some fats to maximize the effect?
You will need a cooking thermometer because temperatures usually shown in oven knobs are not at all accurate.
Just look at this thread and many similar others:

Post your decarb method here!

Hey fellow FCers. I use cannabis for medical purposes and have been interested in preparing my own edibles for more effective longer lasting pain management. I have read fairly extensively on cooking with cannabis including the book: "the art and science of cooking with cannabis" which talks...

fuckcombustion.com

 

[bulllee]

I love to make cookies. here is a recipe I use. It uses 4oz infused butter, and 4oz infused coconut oil. If you have issues with taste then do a water cure on your weed before starting your butter. It works very well with abv if your using some.
I also add a 1/2 tsp lemon extract to my sugar cookies, and I will substitute 2 Tbls of cornstarch for 2Tbls of flour. The lemon will help mellow the cannabis taste and the extra cornstarch will give you much better crumb texture. Always chill your cookie dough !!!


This next recipe is from @LUCIC And Chong on the old Vapelife. It's the strongest oil I've tried with no concentrates added. You don't have to use abv.
Lucic and Chong
1.3k
Unfortunately, I've been going through a bit of a rough stretch right now. I caught pneumonia about 3 weeks ago, it's all cleared up now but my lungs are still struggling to recover. My Dr says it could be 2-3 months before they're totally cleared back up.

And since I take my health very seriously that means no vaping for a while, I don't want to do anything that will extend my recovery time. My Dr even told me that if I'm going to use marijuana to stick to edibles for the time being. I had some AVB chocolates in me freezer for a while that I've been working on, but since this is my new way of consuming marijuana for now, I need to make more. And I thought that I'd share my method for making super strong AVB edibles.

First off, I start with water curing the AVB. I measured one cup of AVB and wrapped it in cheesecloth, I did this 6 times to make 6 AVB balls.

Then to water cure it, I soak the AVB in water, changing the water a couple of times a day until the water comes out clear. Early on in the water curing I change the water multiple times in a day, the water will almost look like tea. And closer to the end I just change it twice daily. It took me 8 days of curing to get the water clear. I find that keeping something weighted on top of the AVB balls help, otherwise they float.

After the curing I ring out as much water as I could and then empty the AVB from the cheesecloth and put in in containers on low in the oven to dry it out again.

Now we get to my triple cook method. I use a slow cooker and coconut oil (butter would also work). I have my AVB divided into 3 equal portions, put one into the slow cooker, cover it with coconut oil and start cooking on low. Because of the triple cook I put a little extra coconut oil in as I know that I'll lose some with each straining process.

I cooked the first batch for about 6 hours, strained the coconut oil, and used that same coconut oil for portion 2 of the AVB.

The 2nd portion cooked for a bit longer as I put it in and then went to bed. It probably cooked for about 8 hours. Strain that AVB and use the same coconut oil for portion 3. Rinse, repeat. After about another 6 hours I double strained the last batch of coconut oil. Once just through the strainer to get out the bigger pieces, and a 2nd time with some added cheesecloth to get out some of the finer pieces.

My theory behind the triple cook is that I don't believe that the coconut oil is fully saturated with THC after one run, and the extra 2 will make it much stronger. Also, I have so much AVB that I don't really know what to do with it, so I would't be upset if it didn't work. But in my opinion it works great. This is the darkest AVB coconut oil that I've ever made. Usually it comes out a dark green, but this is so dark that it's almost black.

I just make simple chocolates with mine. 1 part oil with an equal part cocoa and maple syrup (or agave, simple syrup) to sweeten. By doing this it makes them extra strong as you are basically eating just the oil. When used in baking there will be a lot less per piece, usually.

Put them in molds and then the freezer.

Since I also can't vape my CBD, I also decarbed some CBD bud in a turkey bag (to keep the smell down). I read online that CBD needs to be decarbed longer, so I went 45 minutes at 250. The big chocolates are CBD and the little gummy bear sized are AVB (and really strong). I made about 180 little chocolate bears and 15 bigger CBD treats, that I'll be breaking into 3-4 pieces. I also got a bit more creative with the CBD ones and added puffed quinoa and dehydrated banana pieces. Should be set for a while.

 

[HYB]

Why don't you simply decarboxylate your cannabis inside your oven, and take the required amount, followed by a full glass of water to mask the flavor and a small meal containing some fats to maximize the effect?
You will need a cooking thermometer because temperatures usually shown in oven knobs are not at all accurate.
Just look at this thread and many similar others:

Post your decarb method here!

Hey fellow FCers. I use cannabis for medical purposes and have been interested in preparing my own edibles for more effective longer lasting pain management. I have read fairly extensively on cooking with cannabis including the book: "the art and science of cooking with cannabis" which talks...

fuckcombustion.com

I don't really need a decarb method as the FX does the decarbing for me. As for why I don't just eat the decarbed weed, I have a really easily upset stomach which can't deal with eating 2g of raw plant material a day. Butter, while tasting almost as bad as raw plant material, is at least more easily digestible.

TLDR

Thanks for the cookie recipe, might work a bit better when it comes to my calorie consumption if I made the recipe amount for two weeks. If I had a proper freezer that is, but I'll try and put it to the test at least once when my previous batch is gone. I don't really have a proper oven and a very tiny fridge and stove, as I live in a single room apartment. It's why the FX does the decarbing and infusing for me, and why I can't use any slow cooker methods etc. My kitchen space (or space in general) isn't enough to do long water cures either, and my bud is simply so dry I feel I would lose some trichomes when water curing so I'd rather avoid it. I'll have to test it if no other suitable method of making the butter/oil taste better comes up though.

 

[sickmanfraud]

The easiest way to increase the strength of your cannaoil is to figure out how to make an ethanol tincture that you can concentrate so a dose of oil does not require constantly eating high fat / high sugar edibles.

I have been making a Green Dragon tincture and concentrating it into coconut oil. I use the "freezer " method.

I also use 2+grams a day and mostly via edibles.

One of my favorite recipes is 24 pieces about 80+ mg. I use the recipe from the back of the bag of chocolate chips. I concentrate my cannabis tincture and make a solvent transfer to put the tincture into 1/4 cup of coconut oil and replace the remaining 3/4 cup of oil the recipe calls foe with mashed ripe bananas.

By re cooking the oil I believe that you are degrading your THC to CBN. And as a general rule filtering should be done at the first chance you get so you are filtering a more diluted solution so your losses from filtering are less.

 

[bulllee]

The easiest way to increase the strength of your cannaoil is to figure out how to make an ethanol tincture that you can concentrate so a dose of oil does not require constantly eating high fat / high sugar edibles.

I have been making a Green Dragon tincture and concentrating it into coconut oil. I use the "freezer " method.

I also use 2+grams a day and mostly via edibles.

One of my favorite recipes is 24 pieces about 80+ mg. I use the recipe from the back of the bag of chocolate chips. I concentrate my cannabis tincture and make a solvent transfer to put the tincture into 1/4 cup of coconut oil and replace the remaining 3/4 cup of oil the recipe calls foe with mashed ripe bananas.

By re cooking the oil I believe that you are degrading your THC to CBN. And as a general rule filtering should be done at the first chance you get so you are filtering a more diluted solution so your losses from filtering are less.

I didn't think of that. I have been decarbing shatter and just adding MCT oil to make my tincture. Thanks for the killer tip.

 

[HYB]

The easiest way to increase the strength of your cannaoil is to figure out how to make an ethanol tincture that you can concentrate so a dose of oil does not require constantly eating high fat / high sugar edibles.

I have been making a Green Dragon tincture and concentrating it into coconut oil. I use the "freezer " method.

I also use 2+grams a day and mostly via edibles.

One of my favorite recipes is 24 pieces about 80+ mg. I use the recipe from the back of the bag of chocolate chips. I concentrate my cannabis tincture and make a solvent transfer to put the tincture into 1/4 cup of coconut oil and replace the remaining 3/4 cup of oil the recipe calls foe with mashed ripe bananas.

By re cooking the oil I believe that you are degrading your THC to CBN. And as a general rule filtering should be done at the first chance you get so you are filtering a more diluted solution so your losses from filtering are less.

Making tincture is the one thing I want to try and make as it's so easy. Most of the instructions I find call for everclear though, and the strongest ethanol I can buy without a doctor's prescription here is 60%. Everything else is denaturated aka poisonous, and I'm not sure if 60% does the extraction well enough as I'm really looking for minimum loss of active cannabinoids. I think my doctor would pretty much lose his licence if he gave me a spiritus fortis prescription on top of the MMJ one so I'm not going to risk it. But if you have any tips for me for working with 60% alcohol I would probably try it with a small amount of material, my meds cost me like 16usd a gram and I get a specific amount each year and not any extra so I really can't afford any fuckups.

The chocolates do sound promising though, but I would need a much more specific recipe (as I don't have access to the same chocolate chips you do most probably) and I'd have to adjust the dose at 110mg/thc/per piece/at 28 pieces. I dunno what you're talking about with re-cooking the oil though, as I don't do that. The Ardent FX has separate cycles for decarboxylation and infusion, and I only add the oil/butter at the infusion stage. Should not be any or minimal change to CBN there.

 

[sickmanfraud]

I forgot to comment

Making tincture is the one thing I want to try and make as it's so easy. Most of the instructions I find call for everclear though, and the strongest ethanol I can buy without a doctor's prescription here is 60%. Everything else is denaturated aka poisonous, and I'm not sure if 60% does the extraction well enough as I'm really looking for minimum loss of active cannabinoids. I think my doctor would pretty much lose his licence if he gave me a spiritus fortis prescription on top of the MMJ one so I'm not going to risk it. But if you have any tips for me for working with 60% alcohol I would probably try it with a small amount of material, my meds cost me like 16usd a gram and I get a specific amount each year and not any extra so I really can't afford any fuckups.

The chocolates do sound promising though, but I would need a much more specific recipe (as I don't have access to the same chocolate chips you do most probably) and I'd have to adjust the dose at 110mg/thc/per piece/at 28 pieces. I dunno what you're talking about with re-cooking the oil though, as I don't do that. The Ardent FX has separate cycles for decarboxylation and infusion, and I only add the oil/butter at the infusion stage. Should not be any or minimal change to CBN there.

Sorry @HYD The comment about the oil was more directed to @bulllee .

I know that 151 proof (roughly 75%) works, but works differently than 95%.

When using 95% you reduce your alcohol to the amount you want for a finished product. 75% will separate into water and alcohol. The solution is to reduce (in a double boiler) all the way to cannabis oil RSO. You can then add coconut oil to reconstitute to the desired concentration.

If you wanted to make capsules you would add 1ml of coconut oil per gram of cannabis you started with. For a tincture you could dilute to 4-6 grams per ounce of coconut oil.

PM me if I can be of help.