I asked an earlier question whether drying and curing was necessary if you plan on simply extracting the cannabinoids using coconut oil in a slow cooker. The couple of responses I received suggest that it isn’t necessary, but that curing “brings out flavinoids and terpenes as well as increases potency over time.” So, I have decided to go through the curing process.
However, I’m now wondering about the necessity of trimming. Since you can/should use the fan and sugar leaves for extraction (even though they have fewer cannabinoids), isn’t trimming a waste of time? Couldn’t I just dry the plant as usual, trim everything off the stem, cure as normal, grind to a medium consistency, decarboxylate, and then use the material in a slow cooker to create my extract?
(As an aside, is it necessary to decarboxylate? Wouldn’t the heat in the slow cooker do this?)
There’s going to be differences in potency and quality of extract from grade A buds to trim. I’m not familiar with extraction methods in slow cooker though. It may not make much of a difference in there. Also not sure about the decarb for same reason. I thought that due to length of time most do it that temps are ran too low to decarb. If you ran high enough temp to decarb for several hours I would think there would be some degradation of cannabinoids. Again, best bet to wait for someone that does it to post.
You sure can do that! There is a difference in potency from stems to leaves to buds, but that doesn’t really matter if you’re going to process the whole thing together. Personally, I trim the plant when wet and let the trimmed leaves dry in a box. I process the buds and trim separately, but that’s because I have dosing formulas I like to follow, and seperating the grades makes it easier to do so.
Decarbing is necessary if you want THC and CBD, rather than just THCA and CBDA. I’d decarb first, then process. I don’t follow the slow cooker method, myself, because that long cook time is unnecessary.
I will decarb, then, because I do want the THC and CBD (I guess ). Your comment about the “pressure cooker” (I do realize this was a typo – happens to all of us) is interesting. I have read both points of view:
the longer the better (one person said they did 24 hours!); and
you gain nothing after a very short time.
I was thinking about taking the longer route since I didn’t see this doing any harm. I may reconsider this in light of your comments. Does longer hurt anything?
@kelco9 Yes, it was a typo, because I actually do follow the pressure cooker method, not the slow cooker method.
Longer is just a waste of time and doesn’t really yield more potent budder. Plus, you add water to the oil. Blech. It’s just not the cleanest, most effective way of extracting. There have been tests done showing this. I try not to knock it, because so many people use that method, but it’s really not the best.
My head is beginning to spin a little. Frankly, I don’t plan on cooking with this stuff, and I highly doubt my mom is either. So, making budder is probably a direction that I’m not going to go in for now. I would just like an oil/tincture that I/my wife/my mom/dad can take from a dropper to use medicinally for sleep/pain relief/ depression/anxiety (and for me, fun). I was going to just use a slow cooker, but I’m also curious about the Magic Butter Machine. Someone in my town has one for sale on Craigslist right now (even though he/she is is asking about $20 more than what I can get one for new on Amazon.)
Thanks for the direction and information, though! Maybe one day…
Yeah it’s two jars of the card one of them actually has coconut oil in it and I’m getting ready to give it a water bath at 118° for 10 days with a sous vide cooker
). Your comment about the “pressure cooker” (I do realize this was a typo – happens to all of us) is interesting. I have read both points of view:
