How to Make Edibles at Home: The Complete Guide

Stoners everywhere can rejoice: With the increased legalization of weed across the U.S., your favorite buds are now more available than ever.

Around 2/3 of Americans are in favor of marijuana legalization, and it’s not hard to see why. Many people are starting to realize its benefits, and we’re finding new, creative ways to consume it every day.

Whether you’re a veteran weed enthusiast or a complete novice, you’ve probably thought about making weed edibles before. If you haven’t, then you definitely should, because it’s super easy and takes the potency to a whole new level.

Keep reading for our easy-to-follow guide on how to make edibles.

Things to Know About Making Weed Edibles

Making weed edibles is easy, but not as easy as adding your stash directly into your food.

Raw marijuana will not get you high, so it’s important to understand the process before stepping into your soon-to-be cannabis kitchen.

Before we get into the specifics of how to make edibles, here are a few general things to know:

1. Weed must be heated to extract THC (the cannabinoid that gets you high) before making weed edibles. This is called decarboxylation, which we’ll get into in the next section.
2. Edibles are much more potent than regular weed smoking and last hours longer. If you’re a beginner, start with small amounts and work your way up.
3. Weed edibles take much longer to go into effect than regular weed smoking. If you’re not feeling any effects, wait at least an hour before consuming more.

Learning how to make edibles is easy, but always take the proper precautions. It’s best to start at home and learn how the edibles affect you first. That way, you’ll know what to expect.

How to Make Edibles: A Step-By-Step Guide

Making weed edibles is easy, but can go wrong if you neglect any of these steps. Read this carefully before beginning.

Step 1: Dry and Cure Your Weed

If you’re working with weed directly from a plant, you will need to dry and cure it before you begin the edible-making process. This is also necessary to do before smoking, rolling, or vaping the oil.

If your weed is already cured, dried, and smokeable as is, skip to Step 2.

1. Hang your freshly-harvested weed in a climate-controlled environment (~70°F), such as a small room or a closet. Humidity should be relatively low (~50%). If needed, use a heater, humidifier/dehumidifier, or an air conditioner.
2. Leave the buds hanging for about a week, or until they feel dry. Stems should easily snap rather than bending.
3. Place the weed in a mason jar or tightly-container, allowing room to “breathe.”
4. Keep weed containers in a dark closet or cabinet.
5. Turn the jars and gently shake every few days, opening the lids and reclosing them to bring in fresh air.
6. Keep the sealed containers in the dark cabinet or closet for about 6 weeks.

Once your weed is cured and smokeable, you’re ready to start making edibles.

Step 2: Decarboxylate Your Weed

Decarboxylation refers to the process of activating the THC in weed by heating it up. Normally, this is done by smoking it, but if you’re wondering how to make edibles with your weed, you’ll have to heat it up another way.

Luckily, if you’ve got an oven, you’ve got all you need to decarboxylate your weed.

Here’s a quick decarboxylation how-to:

1. Preheat your oven to 240°F.
2. Break up your weed buds onto a baking sheet.
3. Bake for around 35 minutes, or until the weed is golden brown.
4. Cool the buds.
5. Grind the buds into fine granules resembling table salt.

Note: Do not grind the weed too fine, as this can affect the taste of your weed edibles.

Step 3: Decide How to Make Edibles

If you’re wondering how to make edibles, there’s more than one way to do it. Check out the options listed below and decide which one works best for your preferences.

Making Cannabutter for Baked Goods

The easiest way to make edibles is by preparing a cannabis-infused butter or “cannabutter.”

Here are the ingredients you’ll need:

• 1 cup of ground decarboxylated marijuana
• 2 sticks (1 cup) of butter
• 1/2 cup of water

Here are the steps to make the cannabutter:

1. Melt the butter and water together, taking care not to burn the butter.
2. When the butter melts, add in your ground marijuana.
3. Simmer for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent boiling/burning.
4. Remove the cannabutter from the heat and allow it to cool.
5. Once cooled, use a cheesecloth to strain the plant matter while pouring the liquid butter into a bowl or container.
6. Chill the cannabutter in the fridge for 1 hour.
7. Once a solid butter has formed, separate it from the remaining liquid.

You can use cannabutter in place of any recipe using butter. The stronger the weed strain you use is, the stronger your cannabutter will be.

Not into following steps? You should maybe get this product instead and make things even easier.

Cannabis-Infused Oil

Another easy option for how to make edibles is weed-infused oil. Just like cannabutter, this uses a 1:1 ratio of ground weed to the product (oil) you intend to infuse.

You will need the following ingredients:

• 1 cup of ground decarboxylated marijuana
• 1 cup of whatever oil you like (coconut oil works great for this)

Here are the steps to make the cannabis-infused oil:

1. Heat up the oil, gradually adding the cannabis.
2. Let simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove mixture from the heat and allow to cool.
4. Strain the plant matter through a cheesecloth and collect the oil into a separate container.
5. Allow the oil to cool down in the refrigerator.

You can substitute this weed-infused oil for cannabutter, or wherever you would typically use oil.

Start Making Weed Edibles Today

Learning how to make edibles isn’t as complicated as it sounds. Once you’ve mastered the technique, you can get creative with your kitchen concoctions. Now that you know how to make edibles, start testing out these methods today!

For more culinary topics, check out our other blog entries.