How to Make Cannabutter: The Recipe and the Dosing Limits
Make cannabutter with a sourced cooking method, then separate potential THC from measured potency. Learn dosing limits, straining, and storage.
To make cannabutter, heat the flower, infuse it into butter, then strain and refrigerate it—but a home recipe cannot tell you the finished THC dose. Cooking and measuring THC are separate jobs. A careful recipe record is useful. It does not replace a THC test.
This guide keeps the kitchen steps useful and the numbers honest. Cannabutter can become an ingredient in cookies, brownies or savory food. It should never become an unmarked replacement for the household butter.
What do you need before making cannabutter?
Gather a suitable gram scale, tray, slow cooker, thermometer and spoon. You also need cheesecloth with support, heat-safe food containers and mitts. Prepare labels before heating anything.
Our cannabis quantities guide explains weighing without confusing grams of flower with milligrams of THC. Keep the product’s batch details. Our guide to matching a COA to its package shows which material a report describes.
Write down the flower weight and its labeled total THC, including the unit. Health Canada’s guide shows the label math: multiply mg/g by product weight. The result describes the starting package. It does not test your finished butter. Label guide.
Why heat the flower before infusion?
Decarboxylation converts acidic cannabinoids such as THCA into their neutral forms, including THC. This is a change in the molecule. It does not prove that every kitchen tray produces the same result.
Wang and colleagues studied extracts in a vacuum oven, not a home butter recipe. Their results do not tell you how much THC your butter will contain. Wang et al., 2016.
Record your method; color and smell are not potency measurements.
How do you make the butter step by step?
This cooking example comes from Canlis’s cannabis-baking class. It uses 7 g flower and 1 lb unsalted butter. These quantities are not a beginner dose or a measured yield. Original class recipe, pages 11–12.
- Heat the flower. Spread roughly broken flower on a foil-lined tray. The recipe uses 250°F for 30 minutes, stirring about every 10 minutes, then 30 minutes of cooling.
- Infuse. Melt the butter in a suitably sized slow cooker, add the flower, and cook for three hours while keeping the measured mixture at 175–200°F. Stir every 20–30 minutes.
- Strain. Support cheesecloth with a mesh strainer and carefully pour into a heat-safe food container. Handle hot equipment with mitts.
- Cool and identify. Refrigerate promptly as described below. Record the recovered butter weight and label the batch before using it in food.
Follow your appliance’s operating and fill instructions. Adjust controls to the actual reading; “low” is not a universal temperature. Choose another documented method if those instructions conflict. This example uses no added water.
For an infusion machine, use its own procedure. For example, LĒVO calls for a dry Activate cycle before adding butter. The time depends on its model. Those settings apply to that machine. They do not supply slow-cooker instructions or prove how much THC was recovered. LĒVO guidance.
How can you estimate THC without inventing a dose?
Seven grams labeled 20% total THC represents 1,400 mg of potential THC in the starting flower—not 1,400 mg measured in the butter. Twenty percent is 200 mg/g; 7 g × 200 mg/g = 1,400 mg.
Keep the calculation in three layers:
| Layer | What you know | What remains unknown |
|---|---|---|
| Starting inventory | Flower weight × labeled total THC | How closely the label represents that material |
| Finished batch | Recovered butter weight | THC converted, retained and transferred into that butter |
| Portion | Butter weight used in a recipe | Actual THC concentration and distribution in the food |
Do not simply subtract 20% or assume 70–80% extraction. Neither number tests your process. Likewise, 0.877 in an acid-to-neutral cannabinoid calculation is not an 87.7% butter-extraction yield. California’s regulator uses that factor to calculate total cannabinoids from acid and neutral forms. A label that already reports total THC has included this calculation. Do not apply the factor again. DCC calculation definitions.
7 g × 200 mg/g = 1,400 mg potential THC before processing. This arithmetic does not measure the butter or assign a serving dose.
A lab can test a sample that represents the finished batch. If it reports mg/g, multiply that number by the butter weight used. For example, a hypothetical 2 mg/g result × 10 g butter equals 20 mg added. Divide that among ten portions for a 2 mg average only if THC is spread evenly. These numbers illustrate the math. They are not a test result for this recipe.
Mix carefully and portion by weight. This does not prove THC is spread evenly. California requires uniform THC concentration in manufactured edibles with multiple servings. Home stirring does not prove that standard was met. Keep untested portions out of an ordinary snack container. Our guide to handling an uncomfortable high explains why food or coffee cannot reliably make you sober. DCC edible-product standards.
How should you store and use the finished butter?
Use shallow, covered food containers and refrigerate promptly at 40°F or below. USDA says to refrigerate cooked leftovers within two hours, or one hour above 90°F. Use refrigerated leftovers within three to four days. We apply that general food guidance here with caution. It does not prove a shelf life for cannabutter. Freeze portions you will not use promptly. Do not promise how long the THC content will stay the same. USDA food-safety guidance.
Mark “Contains cannabis — potency untested” on the container. Add the date, batch ID and dairy allergen. Keep your calculations in a separate record. Do not print an estimated dose as a tested fact. Store cannabis in a locked container away from children and pets, separate from ordinary food. CDC poisoning guidance.
For a first edible experience, choose a regulated product with a stated small unit dose. Untested home butter adds another unknown. Health Canada advises new consumers to choose 2.5 mg THC or less. Full effects can take up to four hours. Taking more during that delay increases the risk of adverse effects. That advice cannot identify a safe teaspoon of unknown butter. Consumer guidance.
Read our duration guide for timing limits. Arrange sober transport beforehand; our cannabis and driving guide explains why feeling normal or meeting a countdown cannot clear you.
FAQ
Is dark green cannabutter stronger?
Color does not supply a THC measurement. Retain the recipe record and seek appropriate finished-product testing rather than dosing by appearance.
Can I test potency by tasting a little?
How you feel is not a THC test. Effects can be delayed, so repeated taste tests cannot reliably measure a batch. Do not take another portion because the first seems slow.
Does straining remove THC or make the butter safe?
Straining removes visible solids. It does not measure recovered cannabinoids or prove that contaminants were removed. It does not certify food safety. A smoother texture is not a test result.
What if a child eats the butter or an infused cookie?
In the US, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 promptly; do not wait for symptoms. For serious symptoms, seek emergency help. Keep the package and batch record available. FDA edible-ingestion warning.
Key takeaways
- Document ingredients, temperatures and recovered weight.
- Starting potential THC is not finished-butter potency.
- Keep estimated numbers separate from tested results.
- Label, refrigerate and lock away the butter and finished food.
