Decarboxylation recipe

What Is Decarboxylation?

Decarboxylation is a chemical process that transforms the inactive molecule into an active compound. The process of turning THCA, which doesn’t have any psychoactive effects, into THC is known as decarboxylation. The cannabis plant typically contains THCA instead of THC before it’s heated or smoked. Decarboxylation is essential when processing cannabis for eating. When you eat cannabis, the bud often isn’t fully decarboxylated. But there’s always a way to produce more of those aromatic terpenes.

To make cannabis edibles or tinctures, the first step is decarboxylation.

Here’s a simple process for turning marijuana into a usable form. Decarbing, or subjecting the weed to high temperatures (~250°F/120°C) for about 30 minutes before using it in your recipe, can increase potency.

When smokers or vaporizers smoke or vaporize weed, it will turn into hash. The decarboxylation process happens first when you heat the fire/vaporizer. When you smoke marijuana, the heat turns the THC in your cannabis to THCA. When inhaled, you feel its effects.

Decarbing helps to break the plant down and extract much of our coveted terpenes, but it still leaves everything that’s good on the bud.

Decarboxylation occurs whenever you heat raw cannabis. Decarbing your cannabis at regular temperatures without heating it is the same as what happens naturally over time. Decarboxylation is a chemical reaction that removes a carboxylic acid group from the parent molecule.

Why Is Decarbing Important?

Decarbing is fundamental to creating effective edibles. Decarboxylation could be seen as the most important step in making edibles since it’s the process that makes your weed feel like weed when you eat it.

It may seem counterintuitive to cook your weed by itself. Won’t reduce the potency by removing this part make it less potent? No, removing that part will not affect the overall potency of your dish as long as you follow the instructions in this tutorial.

Eating weed before cooking it will not produce the psychoactive effects, so make sure to decarb it beforehand. Eating a whole ounce of raw weed would only leave your breath smelling like a dispensary.

Small Pieces of Weed vs. Grinding Your Weed

There is a heated debate over how to decarboxylate your bud. However, as long as you plan your day-to-day activities for the days in advance there is not a significant difference.

Small Pieces

Breaking your weed into pieces is essential because it will all be evenly spread from the heat than if you used whole nugs. The downside to breaking up your marijuana by hand instead of using a grinder is that it takes more time than simply grinding weed in a food processor.

If you have enough mobility in your fingers to break up broccoli florets with your hands, you can use the same technique to break up marijuana leaves.

Grinding

One benefit to grinding up your weed is that it saves time by letting you use a machine like a food processor, which does the work for you. Put in some cannabis, press a button for a few seconds and you’ve got your finished product.

I would recommend using the following approach, as it is easier than ripping up chunks of nugs. You can’t easily grind your weed too finely, which is good. The weed has been ground so finely that it is in powder form. Some growers claim that the grinding of weed can cause it to lose potency, but I did not observe this in my experiments.

Grinding up weed helps you get an easier to expel smoke, but it also means that the finest particles will fly out faster than they would if you were smoking. When trying to grind dry herbs, you can lose some between the grinder’s blades. You also need a container for decarbing and one to store all of your herbs in once it has been ground. If you want to keep all of your weed, consider breaking up the bud by hand instead of grinding it with a blunt object. You can reduce the amount of plant material you lose at harvest by making sure to collect and move it with great care.

Extra Note: Some devices that help make edibles (like the Magical Butter Machine) suggest that you don’t grind up your weed before using it in their recipes. To use the Magical Butter Machine, you have to break up your buds by hand. If you’re opting not to use a machine for the cooking process, it’s important to go into things armed with a grinder.

How to Decarb Your Weed: Overview of Methods

Before getting into detail, here are the most popular ways to decarb, what supplies you’ll need, and how they’re ranked based on convenience.

Baking Sheet

This is often the most common method for decarbing weed. Many people have all of the materials they need at home, so they don’t need to make a trip to the store.

It’s also important to mention that this is the smelliest way to decarb. If you use this method, know that your home is going to be flooded by an unavoidable, unpleasant, unmistakable smell of weed. Running a fan with an attached carbon filter helps significantly, but the air still won’t be purified.

Convenience: 7/10

Smell Containment: 1/10 (smelliest method)

Supplies:

Oven
Baking Sheet
Foil or Parchment paper (no wax paper)
Weed

Steps:

Put the oven temp to 250°F
Line baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.
Place broken-up or ground cannabis on a baking sheet
Bake cannabis for 30 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius
The cannabis should change to a brownish color

Oven Bags

The oven bag or turkey bag method reduces the amount of work necessary to create a succulent chicken roast. You don’t need to use this method and you can easily collect the finished product. In addition, the bag doesn’t get hot to the touch and stays below a simmer so it’s safer than boiling mason jars in the glass. If you don’t want the smell of cannabis to permeate your house, consider baking it instead.

This method requires something that you may not have in your house right now.

Convenience: 8/10

Smell Containment: 6/10