Thoughts on Cooking with Cannabis

I have a slighty strange perspective on cooking with pot.

I'm very much a culinarily-oriented person. I grew up memorizing every word out of Alton Brown's mouth about the science of cooking. I spent a good while as a live-in chef/housekeeper/accountant a year or so ago, and while I've not been to a formal culinary school, I can whip up creations in my kitchen that nobody will turn down. Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is I'm so used to the established, concrete techniques that everyone in the world of food uses. I'm used to extreme technicality to make sure something turns out perfectly until it becomes second nature.

With pot, a lot of those sorts of things are removed. Yes, there are established techniques but even within the cooking-with-pot community, there's a TON of diversity. There is no one "right" method that is generally agreed upon (unlike, say, making a panna cotta. No matter which recipe you look at for a standard panna cotta, it's all pretty much the same.) Every Cannabis Cooking book I've read claims their way is the best, even when some are definitely lacking.

Why is this?

In the end, it comes back to pot being illegal in most places.

We are not in a position to get 100 of us together for taste-testing or put 20 of us in a room with an instructor who help us with every little detail until it's perfect. We can't host competitions. We can't even really, for the most part, openly offer people our wares and goods for tasting and comparison. We can not send samples of our finished products to labs and get reports on their potency/THC content. It's not like working with making vinegar or alcohol, where we can easily arrange for testing to see which techniques work the best.

In short, we can't industrialize it. We have no way to regulate the process. Unless you grow your own, you can't really count on the bud you're getting to remain of a stable, consistent quality. Then, depending on which technique you use, where you live, how high temp the food gets, the humidity levels.... all of this can affect your product, but because we can not really do side by side comparisons of all the methods out there, instead we're left to sort it out on our own.

Do not get me wrong. I have read through almost every single entry in this forum under "Recipes." People cooking with pot have made some really awesome things, and we have so many great ways to try cooking our bud. The things we have accomplished, in a field that mostly looked down upon, are spectacular.

But the cook in me wants pot legalized simply so that we can have these sorts of open testings and fill in the gaps our knowledge has. I'll rest better then, I think (it's 6:15am, and I have not been able to get to sleep all night, thinking about what a shame this is.) There is so much out there we can learn. So much out there that we have yet to learn.

I would encourage everyone here to experiment. Seriously. Find an area of marijuana production/cultivation/smoking-techniques/cooking-techniques/pipe-blowing, whatever. Something that interests you.... Find it, study it, and then... FIND WAYS TO MAKE IT BETTER. Let's find ways to try everything we would try if it were legal.

Heck, just tonight I went browsing through the internet to find techniques for creating secret stash places. I have successfully manipulated about 5-6 object in my room tonight so that they can easily be used for personal marijuana storage, and learning those techniques has given me ideas for other things to try.

It's not hard. Something will catch your mind, if you think about it. You will find inspiration somewhere in this big field. And if ya don't? Then light up another fattie :S5: and at some point your expanding mind will hit upon something. :thumbsup: