Cannabis butter, often called cannabutter, is unsalted butter infused with decarboxylated cannabis or hemp flower. The short version: decarb the ground flower in the oven (240°F for about 40 minutes for high-THC flower, 250°F for 60 minutes for CBD hemp), simmer it in melted butter at 160°F to 180°F for 2 to 3 hours, strain out the plant matter, then chill the liquid so the butter firms up and separates from the water. One cup of butter made from an ounce of 15% CBD flower typically lands somewhere around 2,500 to 3,000 mg CBD, or roughly 150 to 190 mg per tablespoon.
Why Butter Works
Cannabinoids are fat-soluble. They do not dissolve in water, so brewing flower in tea or steeping it in plain water leaves most of the good stuff behind. Butterfat grabs onto CBD, THC, and the terpenes that ride along with them, which is why full-fat dairy is the classic carrier. Clarified butter and ghee work even better because the milk solids are already removed and there is less to burn.
What You Need
- 1 ounce of decarboxylated flower (hemp flower for a CBD-forward batch, cannabis flower where legal)
- 1 pound unsalted butter, or 1 pound ghee
- 2 cups water
- A grinder, a baking sheet, parchment, a saucepan, a fine mesh strainer, cheesecloth, and a jar
- A thermometer. This is not optional if you want repeatable results
Step 1: Decarboxylate
Raw flower carries CBDA and THCA, the acid forms that do not bind well to your body's receptors. Heat strips a carboxyl group off and converts them into CBD and THC. Skip this step and you waste most of your material.
Break the flower into rough pieces, spread it on parchment, and bake at 240°F for 40 minutes for THC-dominant flower. For CBD hemp, go a little hotter and longer: 250°F for 55 to 65 minutes. Stir once at the halfway point. Expect a strong smell, so open a window and run the vent hood.
Step 2: Infuse
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat, then add 2 cups of water. The water keeps the butter from scorching.
- Add the decarbed flower and stir.
- Hold the temperature between 160°F and 180°F. If it starts to bubble hard, pull it off the heat.
- Simmer for 2 to 3 hours, stirring every 20 minutes or so. Longer is not automatically better. Past 4 hours you mostly extract chlorophyll, which tastes grassy and bitter.
Step 3: Strain and Separate
Line a strainer with a few layers of cheesecloth and pour the mixture into a jar. Let it cool enough to handle, then squeeze the cheesecloth to get the last of the butter out. Put the jar in the fridge overnight. The butter rises and hardens on top; the water and sludge sit below. Poke a hole in the butter, pour off the water, and scrape away anything dark clinging to the bottom.
Potency Math
Take your flower weight in grams, multiply by 1,000 to get milligrams, then multiply by the labeled cannabinoid percentage. An ounce of 15% CBD flower is 28,000 mg of plant material times 0.15, which is 4,200 mg CBD before losses. Home infusion usually recovers 60% to 80% of that, so call it 2,500 to 3,300 mg in the finished cup. Divide by 16 for tablespoons or 48 for teaspoons.
If you want a number you can trust, send a sample to a lab. Guessing is how people end up in the couch for six hours.
Storage and Use
Refrigerate in a sealed jar for up to 2 months, or freeze in pre-portioned spoonfuls for 6 months or longer. Frozen butter is much easier to dose, because you never have to cut a crooked chunk off a soft block. Use it anywhere butter goes: brownies, cookies, sauteed vegetables, scrambled eggs, toast. Baking at 350°F is fine. Internal batter temperature rarely climbs above 200°F, so you are not cooking off the cannabinoids.
Mistakes I See Most
- Skipping decarb. The single biggest waste of flower.
- Boiling instead of simmering. High heat degrades cannabinoids and burns the butter.
- No water in the pot. It sounds unnecessary until your butter turns brown.
- Dosing by volume without a reference. Two tablespoons of a strong batch can be 400 mg CBD. Start at a quarter teaspoon and wait two hours.
A Few Practical Notes
CBD-dominant butter rarely gets anyone high, but hemp flower still carries trace THC, and full-spectrum batches can stack up if you eat a lot. Keep it labeled and out of reach of kids and pets. Edibles also hit differently than inhaled products because the liver converts cannabinoids into metabolites, and the effect can take 60 to 120 minutes to show up and last 4 to 6 hours. Rules on making cannabis butter at home vary by state, so check your local law before you start. If you would rather skip the oven and the smell, a lab-tested CBD tincture or infused oil gives you a labeled milligram count without the guesswork.