data on how long of a cooking time is required for best extraction? please read!

[CanGroIt]

Hey melodious fellow... Liking this thread!!!:thumbsup:

I'm starting to explore the cooking aspect of this wonderful plant. Been reading up and have been finding lots of different recipes but only few brake it down, and most contradict each other....

So let me get this right, you place your nugs in the oven to decarboxylate before using? Also wondering what bud weight to coconut oil ratio you use? Do you strain the coconut oil after it's cooked? Do you still have that weed taste after cooking with your cannanut oil???

Your answers would be much appreciated. Thanks in advanced...

CGI::::::

[melodious fellow]

Hey CanGro! The plants in your pic look beautiful! You are a lucky duck! I need to move to a hipper community before I can grow (5 years here!)

Decarboxylation is always a must before cooking! This converts non-active THCA to active THC. This process happens naturally with proper drying and curing and storage in glass jars. It is more important when cooking with fresh erb or lower-quality erb, but I always decarb just to make sure I'm getting the most out of my cooking.

For decarboxylating, I prefer 120 C (250 F) for 25 minutes because it preserves some of the tasty terpenes, but since I am lazy and impatient, I usually go with 145 C (190 F) for 7 minutes. According to the decarboxylation graph from the Journal of Chromatography that is around here somewhere, either is fine.

I have never measured the ratio of ground bud to melted coconut oil, but I make sure the ground herb is completely soaked and saturated in the oil. I guess I usually use about 3-4 tablespoons of oil per gram.

I usually don't bother to strain the oil after cooking. I just add peanut butter to the oil and eat with a spoon. Because I don't strain, I can taste a faint bit of weed. I don't mind it. Plus it is good fiber I think. If you decide to cook with the oil, make sure to keep the temperatures fairly low. If you strain your oil, you can probably go a little higher with your cooking temperatures, but I wouldn't advise anything much more than 300 F or you might start to lose some cannabinoids.

[CanGroIt]

Ok, so decarboxalation also occurs during the curing process, cool, didn't know that....

Well yesterday morning I decided to try some canna chocolate. I used a 7oz Hershey bar and 4grams of some sticky purple. I placed a square pyrex bowl on a flat iron cooker, like the ones you would use to make pancakes with. Placed like half an inch of water in the Pyrex bowl, then a smaller round glass bowl in the water and turned on the heat. I cranked it to the highest power level. Then i put some water to boil in a separate small pot on the stove. Once the water in the small pot got to boiling, I poured some of it into the square Pyrex bowl, up to half way. Then placed the broken chocolate pieces in the small round bowl to melt. Once all the solid chocolate was melted I added the grinder bud. I stirred it in until the cannabis was well covered. Right after putting in the grinded cannabis, I poured some more boiling water into the square Pyrex bowl. Stirred every thirty seconds or so for ten minutes. Then using a tablespoon, I scooped up portions and placed amounts into an ice cube tray, then into the freezer. They were ready after 30 minutes.

I know you were looking for science facts and all but I just ate one of these about half an hour ago and I just wanted to share with you what I did. I haven't felt like a high from them but I do feel relaxed, like shrug my shoulders and feel like I just got a massage type of relaxed.... I'm definitely going to try your coconut oil method. Ultimately I'm going to attempt, try and perfect making BHO and using that to cook with.....

CGI::::::

[StoneMeadow]

Thanks for the link StoneMeadow. Not sure where ya found it, but I'm hoping to find a lot more like it.

I found it in my copy of Medical Marijuana Handbook, which includes a fair bit more information and recipes. As a newbie to all things marijuana I found the book very helpful.

[rudy2010]

mel - The butter sticky is pretty detailed. The info BobBong presented seems to have been strongly verified. If you decarb the weed before making tincture you are making Green Dragon.

I have confirmed that cooking the butter at least 22 but not more than 24 hours results in stronger butter than cooking 8 to 10 hours. I have not tried cooking the butter more than 24 hours.

I have seen a wide variety of information on making tincture and even the Green Dragon thread needs some cleaning up. The original recipe by Master Wu has the decarb temp too high. Also the amount of time to soak is from 20 minutes to several months for tincture or Green Dragon. I have only had tincture made from weed that was not decarboxilated. The weed was in the alcohol for 2 months then strained and soaked another two months with fresh weed. The results are excellent. I have never tried making Green Dragon but I have a bottle of 151 and plan to give it a try.

[StoneMeadow]

Ok, so decarboxalation also occurs during the curing process, cool, didn't know that....

I know you were looking for science facts and all but I just ate one of these about half an hour ago and I just wanted to share with you what I did. I haven't felt like a high from them but I do feel relaxed, like shrug my shoulders and feel like I just got a massage type of relaxed.... I'm definitely going to try your coconut oil method. Ultimately I'm going to attempt, try and perfect making BHO and using that to cook with.....

Yes, decarb occurs naturally over several months. If you look at the left side of the scanned page I posted above, you'll see where the author suggests 390F for 5 minutes in a sealed container. Bearing in mind the the evap temp is 350, I set my oven for 300, and while it was coming up to temp I put ground bud on an aluminum foil boat, then put that in the oven for 5 minutes. That way there's no danger of flashing off the good stuff, and no having to wait an hour or more like you have to at lower temps.

It came out with a very pleasant toasted smell, and works great with a quarter gram or so in a tablespoon of peanut butter. Gives me a prolonged (several hours) relaxed feeling like you describe, though it does take an hour to kick in.

[CanGroIt]

I'm hoping to find some solid science on how long of cooking time is required

Been thinking about how to find out the best method using science.... Experimentation will be the only way to find out what is the best method to extract the most out of the plant material.....a lot of experimentation and storage of samples....

The saved samples can then be taken to a lab for chemical composition testing. Each sample will have a unique chemical compound structure.... It would be imperative to use the same cannabis batch and same extraction solution for just one set of results. After different strains and different extraction solutions have been tested, one can look at the results and determine which extraction solution and time had the best results.... If I had the software and lab equipment, I'd definitely do something like this....

CGI::::::