You’ll need to decarb BHO to activate the THC before using in edibles recipes.
Before cooking marijuana edibles with concentrates you’ll need to learn how to decarb wax (or BHO, shatter, dabs, butane honey oil).
Decarboxylation is the process of gently heating your butane hash oil in order to activate the THC in a way that your body can process via ingestion. We’ll show you the best way to decarb shatter by using a low heat setting in your oven.
It’s very easy to learn how to decarb shatter, the secret is to heat it long enough that the chemical reaction completes but without overdoing it.
If you decarb wax too long it will degrade some THC into CBN (a cannabinoid that will make you sleepy). This may be desirable if you’re looking for a bedtime snack, but for most people who want to learn how to decarb BHO the goal is to maximize the THC content of your edibles.
How to decarb BHO
Heat oven to 250° F . Place a measured amount of butane hash oil on a silicone liner on an oven-safe pyrex pan (or use parchment paper, as shown in the photos on this page).
Cook in the oven for approximately 25 minutes.
Monitor the shatter to know when it’s done. When you decarb BHO, it will bubble. The decarboxylation process releases water and carbon dioxide.Initially it will bubble large bubbles:Then smaller bubbles: You don’t want to overcook the shatter or it will make you sleepy. So keep a close eye on the bubbling throughout the shatter decarb process. Poke the bubbles with a skewer to loosen them towards the end, and then watch for new bubbles to form. Remove from the oven when bubbling slows, after 25-28 minutes.
Let cool for a few minutes then place the silicone mat or parchment in the freezer for a few minutes to make it easier to handle. Work quickly if you touch it with your fingers or it will melt into a sticky mess.
What is the potency of decarbed shatter?
The Magical Butter Machine can be used to decarb wax, shatter, rosin, and other cannabis concentrates.
Once you know how to decarb wax using the recipe above, you can do some quick math to gauge potency of the edibles you make from it.
If your concentrates come from a dispensary you can use the label instructions to calculate THC strength. If your shatter is 80% THC, for example, then one gram of shatter (1000 mg) would have 800 mg THC.
But if you’re not certain of the potency of your was, you can assume that your shatter is about 72% THC. 1 gram of concentrate at 72% THC would equal 720 mg of activated THC. This makes for some easy math. Simply divide 720 by the number of servings to get the dosage. If you want 20 mg doses, divide your recipe into 36 parts. If you want 30 mg doses, divide into 24 parts.
Make sure to do a test run in a safe place. It’s safe to assume that even if you followed this decarb process perfectly you may not fully convert all of the THCa into THC. So there’s always a little wiggle room in factoring potency. But it’s better to be under than over, you don’t want to ingest too much and find out the hard way you overdid it.
How do you decarb rosin?
The Magic Butter Machine’s decarboxylation kit makes it easy to decarb shatter and other cannabis concentrates with consistent results.
The steps to decarb rosin are identical to the steps above to decarb concentrates. Cooking with rosin is a great way to avoid the “planty” taste in many edibles since the process of squishing the rosin removes all the plant material.
Rosin can be made easily from buds, kief, bubble hash, or dry ice hash with a heat press. Since it’s a solventless extract, it’s perfect for cooking for medicinal patients without risking remnant butane from a BHO blast. Learn how to find the best rosin press.
Like all cannabis concentrates except for distillate you should decarboxylate rosin and then introduce it to a fat before cooking with it.
You learned how to decarb shatter – what next?
Now that you have just learned how to decarb wax and other cannabis concentrates, here are a few ways to use your decarboxylated concentrates in edibles recipes.
Decarbing concentrates is great for edibles recipes since they’ll tend to lack the green “leafy” taste of edibles made with flower or trim.
If you’re new to making edibles with shatter or concentrates, we recommend making the honey tincture. It’s very easy to make, and very easy to dose small amounts. It also tastes great.
Another option is to make cannabutter. The flavor of baked goods made with concentrates is far superior to those made with flower or leaves. You will barely notice the taste, even in mild-tasting recipes.
Then smaller bubbles:
Decarbing concentrates is great for edibles recipes since they’ll tend to lack the green “leafy” taste of edibles made with flower or trim.
