Cooking with cannabis

A cannabis edible, also called cannabis-infused food, is a food product that contains cannabinoids, especially THC. Cannabis edibles are consumed for both medical and recreational purposes.

Because cannabinoids are soluble in fats and alcohols, cannabis must be cooked with one of these two substances in order to infuse the cannabinoids into the food and activate their psychoactive effects. During preparation, the cannabis or its extract must be heated sufficiently to cause decarboxylation of its most abundant cannabinoid, THCA, converting it into the psychoactive THC.

The oil-solubility of cannabis extracts has been known since ancient times, when Sanskrit recipes from India required that the cannabis be sautéed in ghee before mixing it with other ingredients. Making a tea by boiling cannabis in water is a highly inefficient way to extract psychoactive cannabinoids. Adding milk (which contains fat) when steeping, however, makes it much more efficient than using plain water.

Modern interest in edible cannabis is credited to the publication of The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook.Toklas included a recipe for "Haschich Fudge" which was contributed by artist and friend Brion Gysin when it was published in 1954. Although it was omitted from the first American editions, Toklas' name and her "brownies" became synonymous with cannabis in the growing 1960s counterculture.

Some authors claim that oral consumption of cannabis, when properly cooked, is a more efficient way to absorb cannabinoids than smoking it, and can result in a similar psychoactive effect or "high" as smoking cannabis, although it may be delayed or mitigated due to slower absorption of the THC from the digestive tract. Whereas the effects from smoking cannabis are usually felt within a few minutes, it can take up to two hours to reach full effects after ingesting it, and effects can last from 6 to 8 hours. Cannabis produces THCA, an acid with the carboxylic group (COOH) attached. THCA is not very psychoactive. It is only when the carboxyl group is removed that the THCA becomes THC, which is psychoactive. Liquid THC and other cannabinoids have a boiling point of between 180-200 °C (355-392 °F). Before it turns gaseous, the carboxyl group is released from the molecule as carbon dioxide and water vapor at around 106 °C (220 °F). In the cooking of edible psychoactive products, some research indicates heating cannabis to a temperature of 122 °C (251 °F) for 27 minutes to be the optimum method to optimize THC:THCA ratios.

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