January 28, 2012

How To Bake Your Vaporizer Remains

January 28, 2012
vaporized cannabis
vaporized cannabis
image via: marijuana.com

If you have a vaporizer, you are probably a health-conscious stoner who wants the best, cleanest smoking experience possible. What many people may not know, however, is not only are you being health-conscious, you are also being thrifty and environmentally conscious.

This is because vaporizers are incredibly efficient at extracting THC from your prized plants. It simply doesn’t create waste by burning off more of the plant than you need. Using a pipe or bong is the equivalent of using a blowtorch to bake some dough. While I love the raw power of a huge bong rip, I prefer getting just as high (or higher) from a third (or less) of the amount of ganja.

But this article isn’t about the smoking efficiency of vaporizers; it’s about their post-smoking efficiency. You know the vaped poo that is left over from vaping a bowl? The brownish, kind of tobacco-like in appearance grains? Yeah, you can bake those vaped remains to a very powerful effect. Yet another way to make your green lifestyle even greener.

How Does It Work?

By now, your head may be spinning as to how this is even possible. Well, as you may already know, THC has a boiling point of 392 degrees Fahrenheit. The flame of a bic lighter goes about as high as the 3000s, which is why most weed is unusable after smoking with a flame. However, with a vaporizer, you are using a high-precision temperature, usually right around the boiling point of THC. While much of the THC turns to vapor, not all of it does (due to positioning, THC placement on the bud, etc). Rather than throw out these potentially potent THC molecules, why not cook with them instead?

How to Prepare Your Vaped Weed for Baking

For those of you who have baked with weed before, this step should be a piece of cake (or special brownie). If you are unfamiliar with culinary ganja, don’t fret. It really is not that difficult, and remember that you are using vaped weed that you probably would have thrown away otherwise. If anything, this is a great bridge to get you into the wonderful world of pot baking.

For this post, I will describe how to integrate your vaped bud into oil. It is also possible to cook your weed into butter, but I find it a bit more challenging because it is easier to burn your butter than oil when integrating. I personally prefer using canola oil because it’s easy to find and has a higher smoking point than olive oil. I’ve also heard coconut oil is a godsend for baking, but you might not be able to find it at your grocery store.

Okay, so have your baking mix (brownie, cake, cookie, or any recipe that works with cooking oil), cooking supplies, something to strain with, and your vaporized herb. How much vaped pot your should use kind of depends on how well you vaporize your weed. If the herb is still somewhat green, you may only need to use around 20 grams. If your vaped bud is mostly brown, I would play it safe and wait until you have 40 or 60 grams.

Empty your bud into a bowl and grind it up into fine pieces using a smaller bowl in a mortar and pestle style. Typically, you will want to proportion about equal parts weed and oil; I just pour the finely-ground weed into a measuring cup and match that amount with canola oil. Pour the oil into a pan on low heat; it should be low enough that it will feel hot but won’t burn your finger if you touch the oil.

Once the oil is warm, slowly add in the vaped bud; you can also add in some stems for the hell of it (not sure how effective they are, but why not?). Sway the pan from side to side to even out the mixture of oil and bud and make sure that the herb is immersed in oil. Ever so slightly turn op the heat; you will see small bubbles forming occasionally and may hear some faint sizzling over the pan. You may see a very light steam lift from the oil, but make sure it isn’t smoking or bubbling too rapidly. Keep stirring every couple minutes. Do this for about an hour.

Take the mixture off heat and let cool for about 20 minutes. Pour the mixture through a strainer and into a bowl. There are a variety of different straining methods from using two meshed stainless steel strainers (one straining into the other which strains into the bowl) or you can even use a cheesecloth if you’re super fancy, as this is probably the cleanest way to filter the oil from the bud. Really, though, you could cook the weed into the baking item if you so desire (the only thing it will compromise is the taste); I’ve also heard of people using a garlic press to get some extra oil from the plant.

Keep in mind that the oil will look much darker now, but don’t worry, it’s a good thing. At this point you just follow the directions of the recipe of whatever you’re baking. Odds are you probably have too much oil than the recipe calls for, so you have two options: keep some oil in the fridge for a second batch or (more preferably in my opinion) add some dry baking ingredients (like flour) to the mix till it thickens. Keep in mind that baking recipes usually have to pretty exact so improvisations might not lead to the most consistent bake.

Lastly, bake around 300 to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Any more and you risk burning and wasting your precious vaped goodness. If a recipe calls for a higher temperature, just bake it longer until a toothpick comes out clean in the center. After the baked good is out of the oven, let it cool, and dig in. Remember that it takes longer to experience any effects of baked goods due to your metabolic rate, so I would eat one piece (or half) and wait an hour before deciding that you need more. Also, keep in mind that your high will last much longer (up to eight hours) than what you would experience from smoking. Other than that, chow down and enjoy!

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Katheryn Rivas, who writes for online universities blog. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: [email protected].

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