Are you ready to make some cannabutter? This step-by-step beginner's guide will teach you how to make weed butter at home in a crockpot or slow cooker. You can then use your cannabutter to create all of your favorite edible recipes!
Features
- Just two simple ingredients are needed: cannabis & butter
- Perfect if you want a set-it and forget-it, easy option
- You just need a basic crockpot and some mason jars. Or use an Instant Pot.
Why You Will Love This Recipe
Cannabis butter, also called cannabutter, is one of the most tried and true cannabis-infused recipes.
It remains the most popular recipe in my Well With Cannabis Community and it's the perfect recipe to follow if it's your first time making edibles.
Once you have your marijuana butter made, you can use it in just about any recipe you want that traditionally calls for regular butter.
From sweet to savory recipes, like brownies and chocolate chip cookies, there is a use for cannabis butter in just about every recipe you can imagine.
As you go through this guide, keep in mind that there is no one best way to cook with cannabis and that working in a home kitchen is not an exact science.
While some guidelines you should generally stick with, many people follow different methods, and that's OK. There are many different ways to get the result of a delicious cannabis infusion.
Below you will find my step-by-step instructions to make cannabis butter at home with a crockpot or slow cooker, storage instructions, notes, expert tips, and thoroughly answered FAQs.
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Ingredient Notes
- Cannabis: The first step is to select your preference of THC, CBD, or CBG dominant flower, trim, shake, etc. You can purchase flowers from my online shop here. Then select your desired amount to use. Small batches can be made with as little as 3.5 grams; large batches can be made with up to 1 ounce of cannabis or more. Use the Flower to Oil Ratio Guide if you need help deciding how much to use. You do not need to grind the cannabis; just break the buds into small pieces.
- Butter: The next step is to choose unsalted butter, clarified butter, or ghee. You can also use this infusion process to make cannabis oil with olive oil, coconut oil, MCT oil, vegetable oil, etc. You will not have to remove milk solids from canna oil at the end of the process.
The Step-By-Step Process
Step 1: Lay a clean dish towel down on the bottom of your crockpot. This will help to prevent the mason jars from moving or cracking during the process.
Step 2: Fill your crockpot at least halfway with hot water. You want enough water to cover the sides of the jars you plan on using. However, be careful not to add too much water, as it may overflow when you add the jars.
Step 3: Place a thermometer in the water and set the crockpot to high heat. When a temperature of around 180°F is reached, turn it down to low heat. Note: any low temperature between 180-190° Fahrenheit will work. You may need to adjust to medium heat, depending on your crockpot.
Step 4: While the water bath is heating up, measure your desired amount of cannabis flower. Use the Flower to Oil Ratio Guide if you need help deciding how much to use. Record how much flower you used, in grams, so you can calculate your final potency with the edible dosage calculator.
Step 5: Gently break apart the cannabis buds by hand into popcorn-sized pieces and place them into a mason jar. Do not grind. Gently put the lid on the mason jar and place the jar in the oven for decarboxylation. The decarboxylation process is simple and can easily be done in an oven or Instant Pot. Bake at the time and temperature needed for each specific cannabinoid, see notes below.
- THCA to THC → bake at 240° F for 40 minutes
- CBDA to CBD → bake at 240°F for 90 minutes
- CBGA to CBG → bake at 220°F for 60 minutes
- THC to CBN→ bake at 240°F for 180 minutes
Step 6: After decarboxylation, place your butter or oil of choice into a mason jar (or another jar with a tight sealing lid). You may need more than one jar to make a big batch.
Step 7: Add your decarbed cannabis to the jar. If you are using more than one jar, evenly divide the ingredients between the jars for more consistent dosing.
Step 8: Wipe the rim of the jars with a clean towel, and add the lid. Tighten the metal ring to finger-tip tightness. It should be tight, but not too tight.
Step 9: Carefully place the jars into the water bath, put the crockpot lid on, and leave it alone to cook for 4 hours. You want to maintain a temperature of around 180-190°F the entire time. If you don't have a lid, aluminum foil will work.
Step 9: After the 4-hour cooking time, carefully remove the jars from the water bath and allow them to cool enough to handle. You are now done with the crockpot step and can discard the water bath.
Step 10: While the butter is cooking, prepare a straining area. You can use a coffee filter with a funnel, a fine-mesh strainer, cheesecloth, or a French press.
I do not recommend using anything not food-safe, like pantyhose. Pour the melted cannabutter through the strainer to separate the plant matter from the infused butter.
Don't forget to save the leftover plant material, also called the pulp, to use in other recipes.
Step 11: Add the strained butter to a container you would like to cool it in. A flexible container works well. You can also use butter molds. Place the container in the refrigerator and allow it to cool completely (overnight is ideal).
Pro Tip: If you're using butter molds, place the molds on a baking sheet to prevent them from spilling. Then use a spoon to get the pure, infused butter into the first two sticks of the mold. The third stick will contain the remaining infused butter and milk solids. You will then only need to remove the milk solids from one stick. The fourth stick will remain empty due to the loss of water volume during the cooking process.
Step 12: While cooling, the infused butter will harden and solidify, leaving a bit of liquid underneath. When completely cool, remove the solid block of butter and drain the liquid (it doesn't contain anything worth saving).
Your cannabis butter is now ready to enjoy 😀
Storage Instructions
Store your finished product in an airtight container in the refrigerator according to the expiration date on the butter you used. You can store it for a long time in the freezer. If you keep it in the freezer, wrap the cannabutter in individually sized portions to ensure easy and convenient dosing. Learn more about how to store edibles here.
If you store the butter in the fridge or freezer, never use the microwave to soften or thaw the butter, as it could ruin the final product with too much heat. Use my guide to get your cannabutter to room temperature safely.
Notes & Expert Tips
- If you are new to edibles, check out my beginner's guide to edibles first. They can be difficult to dose and even more potent than other forms of consumption. Friends don’t let friends eat edibles unprepared, so let me help you!
- If you’ve never cooked with cannabis before, consider starting with CBD flower to make CBD butter. Experimenting with a more affordable option means less heartache if an accidental mistake is made along the way.
- Be mindful of how much cannabis you add. Adding even a small amount to a cup of butter can result in a high final mg of THC. Before getting started, use my edibles dosage calculator to determine how much you should use.
How to Use Different Product Types
Using buds is one of the most common ways to make butter, but it's not the only way.
The best part about making pot butter is that you can use any type of cannabis you want.
Aside from seeds or roots, all parts of the cannabis plant contain some cannabinoids that can be infused into butter.
Some parts of the plant, like the buds, contain more trichomes than other parts, like the trim leaves.
Here are the most popular options to work with. Keep in mind that how much you use will also impact your final potency.
Cannabis Flower Buds
Cannabis buds, or flowers, will make a more potent butter than trim or leaves and exert stronger effects because the flower contains a higher concentration of cannabinoids.
Keep track of how many grams of weed you add to the butter so you can calculate the final potency of your cannabutter in mg THC (or CBD, CBG, etc).
How much flower you use is a personal preference and will dictate how potent your final batch of cannabutter is. Remember, the better the bud, the better the butter 😉
Shake, Trim, or Leaves
Using all parts of the cannabis plant is great for sustainability, and many people exclusively make their cannabutter with shake, trim, or leaves from the raw cannabis plant.
Because trim leaves do not contain nearly as many cannabinoids as flower buds, you may want to use more, up to 50% more by weight.
Also keep in mind that trim and leaves contain more chlorophyll, and will result in a more green-colored final product.
Kief
Kief is the fine, powdery substance that accumulates at the bottom of a hand grinder.
It typically contains the most cannabinoids and trichomes.
This means it will make a very strong butter, depending on your tolerance level.
Because kief is more potent than bud, you may be able to use less of it in this recipe, depending on the effect you're looking for. It is also a great option to use if you have a high tolerance.
Just remember that you still need to decarb kief.
If you've never worked with kief before, you can get my guide on decarbing kief and my guide for making homemade kief butter.
Concentrates
You can use cannabis concentrates like distillate or FECO to quickly and easily make a very potent cannabutter. These products are great because they state the milligrams of THC on the package, making dosing easy.
The most important thing is to decide how much or how little butter you want to use, as this will affect the final potency. Then warm the butter up in a small saucepan, stir in the concentrate, and mix well.
To Make A More Potent Cannabis Butter:
- Choose a higher-quality flower that contains more % THC, CBD, etc
- Add decarbed kief or cannabis concentrates like distillate or FECO
- Make kief cannabutter
- Use more flowers (increase from 1 ounce to 2 ounces or more)
- Use less butter (decrease from 1 pound of butter to ½ pound)
Frequently Asked Questions
While it's a simple recipe, here are the questions I get asked most frequently from my Well With Cannabis Community to help you make the best cannabutter possible.
Using a crockpot is the best method for a set-it-and-forget-it, basic recipe option, but you can also use the sous vide method with an immersion circulator or Instant Pot.
Butter is perfect for making homemade edibles because of its high-fat content. It is versatile and can be used in many recipes, ranging from sweet to savory dishes. Cannabinoids are lipophilic, meaning that they dissolve in and bind to fat. When cannabinoids are extracted with fat, they are more easily absorbed and thus more bioavailable in our bodies (1).
I prefer using Kerrygold unsalted butter because it has a higher butterfat content, meaning more opportunity for cannabinoid infusion and fewer impurities to remove. You can also use clarified butter or ghee, which will save you a step in the end. Ghee is butter that has already been clarified or has had the milk solids removed. If you want to clarify your butter ahead of time, gently boil the butter in a saucepan over the stove and skim all the foam, or milk solids, from the top. Do NOT use margarine or other types of ‘fake’ butter.
If you do not clarify your butter first, you will notice white particles on your cooked butter the next day. They are simply milk solids. These solids will be removed when you strain and discard the excess water.
You should expect a volume loss of 15-25%. This occurs due to the removal of the milk solids and evaporation of excess water. Volume loss is important to keep in mind, especially if you try to make a small batch to use in a particular recipe.
Place a heavy heat and water-safe item on the jar's top to weigh it down; a clean rock works well. Also, there can be an occasional mishap that results in a broken or cracked jar - it happens to the best of us without rhyme or reason. To help prevent this, use a mason jar specifically meant for canning or cooking. Do not use leftover glass jars from other products. Also, use a brand new lid so you know the seal is good and the contents inside will stay dry.
No. Color doesn’t have any correlation with potency. A very green butter is simply cannabis butter with a lot of chlorophyll, the green pigment that has also been extracted from the plant. You will have a deeper green color if you use trim or very fresh buds.
How to Determine The Dosing
Want to get a more accurate guesstimate of the potency of your cannabis infusions and extractions? Try our popular edibles calculator!
Not sure what your perfect dose is? Learn more here.
Want To Make This Easier? Use A Machine!
If the process of decarbing and infusing feels like too much work, an all-in-one countertop device may be a perfect all-in-one solution.
My personal favorites? The LEVO and Ardent FX, but you can review the most popular infusion machines here.
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Recipes To Make With Cannabutter
Now that you have your cannabutter made, it's time to try some delicious recipes. Check out my full selection of cannabis recipes here.
My Edibles Made Easy Online Cooking Course will teach you how to easily make cannabis edibles and topical recipes at home. This step-by-step video course will teach you how to infuse, extract, and create edibles with many different product types - all from the comfort of your own home.
Learn more and enroll today →
Easy Crockpot Cannabutter » Video + Photos
Equipment
- Strainer or coffee filter
- Silicone Butter Mold optional
Ingredients
- 7 grams cannabis flower
- 1 stick butter or ghee
Instructions
- Lay a clean dish towel down on the bottom of your crockpot to create a buffer between your mason jars and the crockpot. This will help to prevent the jars from moving or cracking during the cooking process.
- Fill your crockpot at least halfway with hot water. You want enough water to cover the sides of the mason jars you will be using. However, be careful not to add too much water, as it may overflow when you add the jars.
- Place a thermometer in the water and set the crockpot to high heat. When a temperature of around 180°F is reached, turn it down to low heat. Note: any temperature range of 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit will work. You may need to adjust to medium heat, depending on your crockpot.
- While the water bath is heating up, measure your desired amount of cannabis flower. Use the Flower to Oil Ratio Guide if you need help deciding how much to use. Record how much flower you used, in grams, so you can calculate your final potency at the end.
- Gently break apart the cannabis buds by hand into popcorn-sized pieces and place them into a mason jar. Do not grind. Gently put the lid on the mason jar and place the jar in the oven for decarboxylation. The decarboxylation process is simple and can easily be done in an oven or Instant Pot. Bake at the time and temperature needed for each specific cannabinoid, see notes below.
- After decarboxylation, remove the jar from the oven. When it is cool enough to handle, open the lid and place your butter or oil of choice inside. You may need more than one jar if you are making a big batch. If you are using more than one jar, evenly divide the ingredients between the jars for more consistent dosing.
- Wipe the rim of the jars with a clean towel, and add the lid. Tighten the metal ring to finger-tip tightness. It should be tight, but not too tight.
- Carefully place the jar into the water bath, put the crockpot lid on, and leave it alone to cook for 4 hours. You want to maintain a temperature of around 180-190°F the entire time. If you don't have a lid, aluminum foil will work.
- After the 4-hour cooking time, carefully remove the jars from the water bath and allow them to cool enough to handle. You are now done with the crockpot step and can discard the water bath.
- Prepare a straining area with new, clean mason jars and a strainer, paper filter, cheesecloth or French Press. Pour the contents of the mason jar through the strainer to separate the plant-matter from the infused butter.
- Add the strained butter to a container you would like to cool it in. A flexible container works well. You can also use butter molds. Place the container in the refrigerator and allow it to cool completely (it may take several hours).
- While cooling, the infused butter will harden and solidify, leaving a bit of liquid underneath. When completely cool, remove the solid block of butter and drain the liquid (it doesn't contain anything worth saving). Your cannabis butter is now ready to enjoy!
- Store your finished product in an airtight container in the refrigerator according to the expiration date on the butter you used. You can store it for a long time in the freezer. If you keep it in the freezer, wrap the cannabutter in individually sized portions to ensure easy and convenient dosing.
- To guesstimate the final potency of your cannabutter, input the required values into the edible dosage calculator. Remember, you will end up with approximately 20% less butter than you started with, so calculate accordingly.
Notes
- Don't forget to save the leftover plant material, also called the pulp, to use in other recipes.
- Pro Tip: If you're using butter molds, place the molds on a baking sheet to prevent them from spilling. Then use a spoon to get the pure, infused butter into the first two sticks of the mold. The third stick will contain the remaining infused butter and milk solids. You will then only need to remove the milk solids from one stick. The fourth stick will remain empty due to the loss of water volume during the cooking process.
- If you store the butter in the fridge or freezer, never use the microwave to soften or thaw the butter, as it could ruin the final product with too much heat. Use my guide to get your cannabutter to room temperature safely.
Peggy
can you take cannabutter out of freezer and re make it to make it stronger I made a few batches with shake but now I have a good lot of bud and would like to redo it by adding the cannabuttre to the water and creboxelated weed and recook it
Emily Kyle
Yes, Peggy, you can re-infuse to try and make it stronger. Good luck 🙂
Nina
What size mason jars did you use?
Emily Kyle
Nina, I used pint-sized mason jars 🙂
Melody
I have a very small crockpot that will only hold one 1 cup mason jar, so I'm gonna cut out the jar and just use straight crock pot. We'll see how it goes!!!;
Emily Kyle
Good luck, Melody, it should be just fine. Let us know how it turns out 🙂
Sarah
Can I used pre-decarbed bud from vaping?
Emily Kyle
Yes, you can, Sarah! Here is a full guide for making edibles with already vaped bud - if you need it 🙂
Barb
I did this last weekend and made chocolate kringle cookies. I was afraid there would be a weird taste but my Hubby said he didn't taste anything other than the cookies. I was pleasantly surprised that it worked so well.
Emily Kyle
I am so glad you had such a great experience, Barb! Thanks for letting us know 😀
Sum
I tried this recipe and I’m mind blown!! I followed every step and used 3.5 grams of cannabis.
After decarboxylating the weed at 250 degrees for 25 minutes, i put it in an old pickle jar with 1 stick of butter. I placed the jar in water in a pot on the stove and for 4 hours, I monitored the water making sure it stayed between 180 -190 degrees.
I used the cannabutter to make rice crispy treats. About 90 min later I felt high, about 2 hrs later I was in another dimension.
Great Recipe!!! Thanks so much!!
Emily Kyle
I am so happy you enjoyed this recipe, Sum, thanks so much for letting us know how your experience went 😀
Sam
Hi Emily,
I used this recipe to infuse 3.5 grams of flower with 1/2 cup of butter. Which I then used in a boxed cookie mix. The boxed recipe called for 1/2 cup of butter, so I used my whole infused batch. Based on your calculator, each cookie should have about 21mg of THC. My issue is that that have a VERY strong weed flavor. Is this due to the potency or could I have made a mistake to cause such a strong flavor?
Thanks for all the great info and recipes!
Emily Kyle
Hey Sam! Thanks for the kind words. The flavor is not related to potency, or process, but rather the amount of chlorophyll and terpenes that have made their way into your infusion. You can read more about chlorophyll and how to reduce the flavor here.
Scroller49
I’d like to know the proportion of cannabis to butter, ratio.
Say 1 cup of butter, should I use 2 oz of decarbolyzed bud, cook them up together to make the butter for my MJ cookies?
Björn
Can I skip the step of removing water? Making cookies and I usually add water anyway, figured I could just leave it in?
Emily Kyle
Yes Björn - I don't see why not 🙂
Emily Kyle
Hey Scroller49 - This Flower to Oil Ratio Guide will help you determine how much to use 😀
Anne
I am new to this. I have medical THC liquid and I want to use it in ghee. I have 1 gram vials. Please advise proportions.
Emily Kyle
Hello Anne. Does your vial state how many mg of THC are in each one? That would be helpful to know because then you can do the math from there. Then you will want to know what you're going to be making and how strong you want it to be. For example, if you want to make brownies with 10mg THC each, and one vial contained 1,000mg - you would want to use 1/10th of your vial. I hope that makes sense!
Anne
It says THC 84.6 percent
CBD .809 percent
THC 951.690 mg CBD 9.100 mg
I put the butter on toast. I want it to help pain of arthritis and neuropathy.
Emily Kyle
This means the entire syringe contains 952mg of THC. Have you ever had THC before? Do you know how much you want to aim for per serving? If not, I would say that 5mg of THC is a good place to start. If you’re putting butter on toast, let's say you’re doing 1/2 teaspoon per serving. There are 48 teaspoons in 1/2 cup of ghee. 48 teaspoons = 48 servings. 48 servings at 5mg each would be 240mg. Your whole syringe contains 952/240 = 3.9 so this means you would want to use approximately 1/4 of the syringe. If it is already labeled with measurements, it should be easy to do. Following this math, you can adjust the servings and how much butter you need to get the perfect ratio. I hope this helps! I emailed you, as well.
Honey
Oh my God,! Oh my God! I'm new to the pot stuff, my son is really unto everything pot so I want to make some pot butter and my friend told me how but I put one ingredient in the mix and screwed it all up. WATER, I THOUGHT HE SAID BOIL the weed in water and butter , so I have all this weed boiled in water and butter is there any way I can save it. Please help me out with this.
Emily Kyle
Hi Honey, no worries, water is not harmful to cannabis. Simply place everything in the refrigerator and let the butter harden. Then pour off the water, leaving just the butter and flower behind. Then proceed with the process as usual. I hope this helps!
Linden Peterson
Hello, are the temps for decarbing for conventional ovens or convection ovens?
Emily Kyle
Hey Linden - conventional 🙂 Thanks for asking.
Jennifer
Is there as much variation in the taste of raw cannabis strains as there is aroma and crazy names?
Thanks!
Emily Kyle
Hey Jennifer, great question! Some people find that the terpenes really influence the flavor, while other's don't notice a difference 🙂
Maddy
Hi! I'm in the middle of making this recipe, and I'm wondering if the crock pot and water is supposed to heat up to 180 degrees before I put the butter and cannabis inside, or is it okay to heat them all together and reach 180 degrees? I know croc pots take a very long time to heat water. could you help me out with this? thanks!
Emily Kyle
Hey Maddy, it's best to start with the water already at 160-180°F. I know crockpots take a long time to heat up, so feel free to fill the pot with water that is already hot 🙂
Christopher Lopatin
Easy to follow thank you so much Emily. My Cannabutter turned out wonderful. I had it on English muffin as well as Bagel. Next will be the Peanut butter Cookies. Is there a place to share photos? Thank you again
Emily Kyle
I am so happy it turned out well for you, Christopher! Please feel free to share your photos over in the membership community 😀
Steve
Hi Emily,
Why the need to use "unsalted" butter over salted ???
Emily Kyle
Steve, you can use salted if you really want to, but unsalted has a higher butterfat content, meaning more opportunity for infusion and fewer impurities to remove.
aleks
would it possible to also list the Celsius equivalent? Outside of america (you know, most of the world), we don't use Fahrenheit, and so i messed up a batch decarb'ing it at 240C instead, because i only read the number and not the units (yes i swear i wasn't high yet), but i bet this trips people up all the time.. so if you could just include the Celsius as well, anytime you include only the Fahrenheit, this would go a long way to not make this article so america-specific (and prevent non-americans from from doing foolish things like me)
Emily Kyle
Hello Aleks. I'm sorry to hear you messed up a batch 🙁 But yes, I will add celsius equivalents to our team's to-do list and hopefully get these numbers up soon. Thanks for the suggestion!
Jody
Hi Emily - Love your site and appreciate all the good info! The other night, I was using my decarb machine (similar to a Levo) and the power went out, so I have no idea how far the decab process progressed. Now I don't know what to do. I'm afraid that if I just start over, the flowers will cook too long and the THC will be ruined. On the other hand, if I assume it was nearly finished - and it wasn't - then my pretty flowers will be wasted. Any suggestions?
Emily Kyle
Hello Jody! Thank you so much for the kind words. I am sorry to hear the power went out. I personally would just start over, it's unlikely that an extra 10-20 minutes of decarbing will 'ruin' the THC. If anything, some of the THC will convert into CBN and make for a more sleepy end product. If you think it was nearly finished, you could just experiment with a small batch, see how it makes you feel, and then re-decarb if needed 🙂 I hope this helps!
Liesha
Hi there.
When it is 'set to forget', you say to leave it.. and then others say to burp every hour.
My question is, to burp or not to burp? And why?
Thank you 😊
Liesha
Emily Kyle
Hello Liesha, I've never heard of burping cannabutter; I don't do it personally, but if you like the method, go for it 😀
Cathy
I did crockpot method
The water is boiling is that ok
Emily Kyle
Hello Cathy. Boiling is OK, but I would reduce the heat a little bit, if possible 🙂 Good luck!
Jenny
Hey, love the recipes. What happens if my crockpot doesn’t keep the same heat temperature. It keeps dropping temperature even on high mode
Rayne
Hi I’m in the middle of making this but.I don’t have big jars is there anyway I can just put the butter and flower in the crockpot and then a jar?
Emily Kyle
Thanks so much, Jenny! You don't need a crockpot specifically, especially if its not holding temperature. You just want anything that will hold a consistent 160-180°F temperature. You can use an Instant Pot or even the stovoe to create a water bath 🙂
Emily Kyle
Hello Rayne. Yes, you are more than welcome to do it that way if you prefer, just skip the water bath. Or any sized mason jar will do so 🙂
Marissa
So I followed the instructions but I didn’t get any separate layers after I refrigerated it. I know the butter layer was supposed to be on top with some liquid under but I had one solid layer. Is that bad?
Emily Kyle
Hey Marissa! That is okay 🙂 It doesn't mean you did anything wrong. How did everything turn out for you?
Michelle
Hi, what would happen if I used salted butter instead of unsalted? It’s all I have at home to keep me from going to the store
Emily Kyle
Hey Michelle, go right ahead and use salted, that is totally OK 🙂 Salted vs. unsalted is just a personal preference.