How to Make Cannabis-Infused Oil for Cooking

Cannabis-infused oil is one of the easiest ways to get cannabis into your food without smoking it: you decarb your weed, gently heat it in olive or coconut oil in a double boiler for 5 to 6 hours, strain it, and use it in cold dishes. Just like cannabutter, cannabis oil is best used cold, in a salad or anything that doesn't get much heat. Cannabinoids barely dissolve in water but dissolve easily in fats, which is why oil and butter are the go-to carriers.

If you want to make an oil anyone can use without getting high, go with weed that's high in CBD and very low, or close to zero, in THC.

What you need to make cannabis oil

• 250 ml (about 1 cup) of olive oil (coconut oil works too if you prefer)

• 10 g of buds or 25 g of trim (about 0.35 oz or 0.9 oz)

• A pot and a bowl that fits on top as a double boiler

• A cheesecloth strainer

• A clean jar to store the oil

THC and CBD are fat-soluble. That means when you make edibles, you need a fat to carry them so your body can process them.

During the infusion, the oil soaks up THC and other cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids, turning into a potent fat you can then cook with.

How to make cannabis-infused cooking oil, step by step

Making cannabis oil isn't complicated, but you do need to follow a few steps. First, break up the buds so the cannabinoids and trichomes come off more easily. The other key step is decarboxylation, or decarbing: heating the weed so THCA turns into active THC. The double boiler alone only gets you a partial decarb, because 70-75 °C (158-167 °F) is too low to convert most of the THCA. For a stronger oil, decarb your weed in the oven first (around 110-120 °C / 230-250 °F for 30-40 minutes), then infuse it.

Heat water in a pot and set the bowl on top, then mix the cannabis and oil in the bowl. Let it cook in the double boiler for 5 to 6 hours over medium-low heat so the oil never goes above 70-75 °C (158-167 °F). Keeping that temperature steady is key; it should never hit 100 °C (212 °F). Pro tip: if the temperature starts creeping up, add more water to the pot.

When the time's up, strain the oil through the cheesecloth. Store it in a sterilized glass jar, ideally in a cupboard away from light and humidity.

Ideally, wait a month before using it so the oil and cannabinoids can settle together. You can use it in salads, pesto, sauces and however else you like, but we don't recommend cooking with it over high heat. Heating the oil breaks down some of its properties and makes it less healthy, like any oil you cook. Oils of any kind are healthier eaten “raw.”

How to use cannabis oil

If you want an oil with the full range of what the plant offers, high included, we recommend growing a THC-rich strain, or at least one with more THC than CBD.

That way you can make a cannabis oil that patients often use to ease intense muscle pain, cut down on seizures in some forms of epilepsy, boost appetite, help with insomnia and more.

Beyond its medical and therapeutic uses, cannabis cooking lets you work it into just about anything: brownies, cookies, pasta, coffee and so on.

How much weed should you use for cannabis oil?

When you make your oil, the amount of cannabis you use will depend a lot on your tolerance and on how potent your weed is.

Once it's ready, try a small amount first and see how it hits you. Go easy: edibles can take up to two hours to kick in. Here's a rough guide, assuming your weed was fully decarbed:

• If you use ½ ounce (14 g) of weed at 14% THC, each teaspoon of oil will contain around 40 mg of THC.
• If you use ¼ ounce (7 g) of weed at 14% THC, each teaspoon of oil will contain around 20 mg of THC.
• Or use an online edibles calculator to double-check how strong your oil is.

Common cannabis infusion mistakes

People make plenty of mistakes when they start cooking with cannabis, but most of them are easy to avoid.

First, a lot of people forget about decarboxylation or just don't pay attention to it, and they end up with a much weaker, less effective infusion.

Others add way too much weed to the mix and end up with an infusion that's too strong to use.

Another rookie mistake is using your best, top-shelf weed for edibles. You can make edibles with brick weed, leaves or already-vaped bud (ABV).

Finally, keep an eye on things while you're infusing. The recipes are pretty simple, but it's easy to forget something on the stove or let the heat get too high, and end up with a batch of burnt cannabis oil, or worse, a kitchen fire.