Simple Pot Butter Recipe Using a Crock Pot

If you are looking for a simple pot butter recipe you can make in your crock pot, you have found the right article. The step by step, simple instructions are at the end, but please feel free to read through my pothead anecdotes and helpful tips. It might answer some questions you have in the end.

Out of the dozens of pot butter recipes I've tried, this one is by far the simplest with the fewest complications. It does take at least 12 hours, so it's not the fastest pot butter recipe.

If you are looking to make pot butter fast, the most potent quick-method I prefer is done through use of an espresso maker, and I describe it in my article "Turn Your Weed Ash into Potent Edibles in Less Than an Hour."

The espresso pot-butter method will have you so high you'll be glued to the couch for hours.

However, most people don't have an espresso maker they would dedicate solely to pot butter, and the clean-up is a nightmare for lazy potheads.

Also, pot butter high is great for the times when you need some pain or nerve relief and a little relaxation, but still want to be somewhat "functional."

So I have practiced and developed my own simple, economic way to make daily-use pot butter using a crock pot.

If you don't have a crock pot you can use a double boiler, but I have reservations with the safety of leaving the stove on for several hours unwatched - especially while high. This makes the crock pot the better and safer option.

POT BUTTER RECIPES

Pot butter is an amazing ingredient to keep around if you're looking for a constant, light buzz. Since being on lockdown, I use it daily to keep my body nerves and pain relaxed.

My favorite is pot butter on pancakes and toast, but really it can be used on almost anything you eat. I know people who use it to oil their homemade pizza or as dressing on salad, and some melt it in tea instead of milk for a lower-calorie option.

The method I describe below "clarifies" the butter (removing milk solids that burn easily) so it's great to use in replacement of almost any cooking oils.

I went ahead and made a list of recipes or meals I have used pot butter for, baked goods and breakfast being the most obvious:

Breakfast: eggs, toast, pancakes, waffles, oatmeal, coffee

Lunch: salad dressing, sandwiches, scones, tea

Dinner: pasta topping, pizza topping, marinating meats, compound butter for steaks

Dessert: ANY baked goods that call for oil or butter, especially cookies and brownies, rice crispie treats, streusel, pie crust, buttercream frosting, fudge

Also consider every time you grease a pan for baking or to saute something you can use this butter.

Butter cannot be used in a fryer, and I wouldn't recommend any super high temps even with clarified butter. It does not heat as high as a nut or vegetable oil might so it's best in low to medium heat items unless you're trying to brown it briefly.

POT BUTTER BROWNIE RECIPE

For a quick baking fix or treat, melt the pot butter and use it as oil in any baking mix that calls for it - the easiest pot butter brownies or pot butter cookies you'll ever make.

CBD, THC, AND PAIN RELIEF

CBD - stands for "cannabidiol" - molecule ingredient found naturally in some marijuana plants.

THC - stands for "tetrahydocannabinol" - the chemical that creates most of the psychological (high) effects in marijuana.

You can use a cannabis that has CBD in it for even further body pain relief, and it's something I recommend to my fellow fibromyalgia, autoimmune, arthritic, and similarly disordered friends.

A THC high helps you disconnect from your pain and it does feel better for the mental aspect, but you are still aware of the pain. CBD alone will not get you high but it actually physically relaxes your nerves and muscles offering real pain relief.

Combined, THC and CBD give me more relief than I find from heavy pain meds like Tramodol, and they don't come with the nausea, migraine, and other side effects meds can cause.

When you're buying your pot, just take a look at the label or ask your bud tender (dispensary guide) about CBD content.

WHAT TYPE OF WEED TO USE IN POT BUTTER

Trim is the best for pot butter, it's simply leaves and stems and little broken pieces of bud that can't be sold with other flower. It can be a mix of all different strains sometimes, which can be fun, or if you have your own grow then this is exactly what you do with that extra bunch of stuff that you don't smoke.

In my latest round I used a 17% THC potent batch of trim. I recommend 19% or higher if you want a really heavy buzz in baked treats, but I've gone as low as 11% for a nice steady body-relaxation feel with a little bit of headiness.

If you don't have your own grow, ask friends who do if you can buy their trim off them, or you can check with your dispensary. My local dispensary sells jars of trim for $25 a half ounce, which is an amazing price compared with typical flower which comes at $40-$250 a quarter ounce.

You can of course use regular flower, but I'd only recommend that if you're not into smoking or can't smoke where you are for some reason. It's much more economical to smoke your flower and eat your trim.

If the trim you use doesn't have CBD included, you can get CBD tinctures and add it into the butter for further pain relief. These are sold in and outside of dispensaries, sometimes without THC in them.

IS DECARBING NECESSARY?

Decarbing (decarboxylation) is essentially the practice of cooking your pot before cooking your pot, usually at low temps in the oven, and it supposedly activates the THC for better absorption.

My personal experience with crock pot butter is that decarbing does nothing extra. You are already slow cooking it, releasing and activating the THC as it goes along heating up. The fat in the butter absorbs it as it is released and there is only so much absorption that can be done, depending on the amount of butter you use.

There are a lot of experiments online, scientific this and that where people measure the before and after of THC content, etc. That's great.

I use my personal experience as the "science" behind my reasoning. I have never felt a difference and prefer to just take out the additional complications of decarbing and save them for another project.

When dealing with tinctures and recipes decarbing may be valid. That said, this recipe does not require a decarb, in the oven or boiling in water, or anything else. Essentially the process itself includes a decarb.

I also don't add water or boil my weed in water in advance. I have experimented with this, as suggested by other recipes, and never notice a difference. Water works for stove-top cooks to keep them from burning too quickly, but it is not necessary in a slow-cooker.

Pot goes in butter and in crock pot. That's it.

Fight me. Or just try it and see how easy it is.

THE BEST POT TO BUTTER RATIO

Every recipe out there will give different amounts of pot to butter. The basic idea is to put in enough pot to fully take advantage, but not so much that you are wasting pot. There is only so much THC the fat can absorb and once it's done it is done.

I have had success with ratios as low as half an ounce of weed to a pound (4 average sticks) of butter. I have never gotten a better high by using more weed in this ratio, but THC percentage is where you find the difference.

As long as you have a high percentage of THC in your weed (above 19% for a really great high), then a half ounce to a pound is fine for a good buzz. This would translate to an ounce of weed for 2 pounds of butter and so on.

Don't waste a ton of weed trying to add more and more thinking it will make you more high. It is the process of extracting the THC that makes it more concentrated.

If you want a bigger buzz, check out my espresso method with pot ash, or try a tincture recipe.

There is only so much fat in a pound of butter that can absorb THC, so you only need to add so much weed for this recipe, period.

CROCK POT POT BUTTER COOKING TIME

There are many debates and conflicting recipes that cover this subject. My expirementation has found that 12 hours is sufficient, 24 hours is fine, beyond that is unnecessary (I've gone as long as 3 days just to see) and less than 8 hours will reduce the amount of THC extracted.

I have seen claims that cooking it longer than 24 hours will ruin the pot, but I haven't found that to be true. When I left mine on for three days it was no different than the batch that was on for 12-24 hours.

Do not think you can make a quick batch in the crock pot. The temperature does not get high enough for that. If you want a fast recipe, again I recommend using an espresso maker after clarifying the butter.

CLARIFYING POT BUTTER

Simply put, clarifying butter is just removing the milk solids that will burn easily, leaving 100% fatty butter oil.

This is done by slowly heating up the butter until a whitish (green tinged) foam develops on the top that can be skimmed off with a spoon.

For this recipe, I recommend watching it for the first hour or so while the milk solids develop. Then scoop them up and spread them on toast as a treat while you cook. I do get a light buzz from this, even so early on in the process.

If the whitish film begins to turn brown the temperature is too high too soon and you should start scraping off the solids to keep it from leaving a bitter flavor in the butter.

Try not to scoop out too much of the actual pot, most of it should sink to the bottom of the oil. Obviously you need the pot to stay in the butter to further cook out the THC.

SALTED OR UNSALTED

Any baker worth his salt knows that you use unsalted butter in recipes so you don't over-salt or change the chemistry of what you're making.

That said, I prefer salted because it adds flavor to my toast or pancakes and that is my go-to for a pot butter treat. I have not noticed a negative effect to using salted butter in my baked goods, just realize you're already changing the composition of the butter just by clarifying it and adding pot, so baked goods will never turn out the same as with plain unsalted butter.

I recommend doing whatever you want. Potheads usually do.

POT BUTTER RECIPE

Tools:

Crock pot

Spoon

Seive or sifter (cheese cloth or paper towel alternatives)

Silicone or glass container (ice cube tray)

Ingredients:

1 lb. butter (4 sticks)

0.5 oz. to 1 oz trim or shake (ground up)

Step by Step:

Note: If it starts to burn or boil before milk solids are fully removed, turn it off for a short time to keep it from burning while you scrape. You can tell it's burning if the pot starts turning brown and/or smoking. Best advice is use a temperature control crockpot and keep it around 375 F, but if that's not an option just keep an eye on it. Once the milk solids are out you don't have too much risk of burning so you will want to get it to a higher temperature at that point to really extract the THC.

And that is my simple pot recipe explained. Have fun getting high!