When it comes to cannabis cooking, most people likely think of using cannabis flower. Typically, you grind it up and "decarb" it in the oven. From there you can add it to food directly or make cannabutter.
But the same can be done with wax concentrates. You may have some extra laying around, not being dabbed. Before it gets old and loses potency, you can repurpose your wax.
With activated concentrates, you can make some powerful pot brownies or weed cookies.
But you may have questions about decarboxylation.
What is decarbing? We'll explain the process below.
Does your dab wax necessarily need decarbing? Usually, but not necessarily.
How do you decarb dab concentrates? It’s not hard, as we’ll show below.
And, before we go, you’ll see how you can save on concentrates for dabbing or decarbing.
Raw weed and wax concentrates need to be activated. When smoking or dabbing, that is done with high heat. Either fire is put to ground leaf or a dab nail is heated for wax.
The purpose behind this is to chemically change the THCA in cannabis to THC. THCA is the chemical in pot plants. THC is the molecule that reacts with your body’s endocannabinoid system.
THC is what gets you high.
Eating raw weed or wax won’t really do anything for you. But when you heat that marijuana material, then it becomes psychoactive. Then you get the buzz and the benefits.
This works for all the cannabinoids in hemp or marijuana. CBD also has to be activated to be effective. Terpenes in plant material boost the effects of cannabis. They also benefit from heating.
All the best benefits from cannabis come from a chemical reaction that begins with heat.
Now, all this doesn’t mean that every weed product needs decarbing. Usually, it does, but some marijuana and hemp consumables come already decarbed. Some of them are manufactured that way.
Edibles are obviously made for eating and thus must be made with decarbed cannabis. Tinctures and isolates are also pre-activated for immediate use. Topicals also have usable cannabinoids as part of their ingredients.
Obviously, not everything can be used in making ganja goodies. But some products come decarbed for immediate oral or topical use.
Which ones are already active? Let’s see.
FECO, RSO, distillate, and CO2 oil all are already decarbed. That’s because they are cooked on high heat during their creation.
What are they?
FECO is full extract cannabis oil. It is similar to RSO. However, it uses grain alcohol or ethanol for extractions. Whereas RSO uses isopropyl rubbing alcohol.
Just like RSO, it is generally sold in syringes for dispensing sublingually. That means you put it in your mouth, under your tongue. Being activated, it absorbs through your mouth lining directly into your bloodstream.
RSO is more widely known. RSO is Rick Simpson Oil. This cannabis concentrate was devised by an engineer who used it to treat his own cancer. It too comes in a syringe for direct oral use.
Distillate is a liquid concentrate that is pure cannabinoid. There are both THC and CBD distillates.
Similarly, CO2 oil is a pure cannabinoid concentrate. It uses carbon dioxide in the extraction process.
Each of these can be taken orally. And they can all be added to foods directly and be effective.
Now, what about the waxes that do need to be thoroughly heated before using by mouth or in consumables?
If the above waxes are the ones that can be used immediately in cooking or by eating, what waxes need decarbing? In short, all the other concentrates.
Which ones are they?
Shatter, wax, and budder all need to be activated before use. So do crumble, hash, rosin, and live resin.
Why? Because they are all made without much heating.
Shatter is a hard, glassy wax. It is made by soaking plants in butane and allowing the solvent to evaporate. Low heat sometimes is used to speed up evaporation. Regular wax is softer because of mixing in air during processing.
Budder gets whipped longer than wax but is made similarly.
Crumble is dryer than budder.
Rosin and hash are solvent-less concentrates. Both are made primarily by using pressure.
And live resin is unique in that it is made from raw versus processed plant material.
All of the above may use some heating in processing, but not enough for decarboxylation.
So, how are they decarbed for eating or cooking?
There are two ways to activate weed waxes for edible use. One uses an ordinary cookie sheet. The other way is to employ a water bath.
For the cookie sheet method, preheat your oven to 250 degrees F. Use a non-stick pan so you can easily remove your decarbed material.
The water bath method is just as easy.
Keep in mind when cooking with concentrates that they may have a strong plant taste and smell. You’ll want to try them with different foods to see how they may change the flavor.
Sweeter foods can somewhat disguise the weed flavor. That is why hash brownies and weed cookies are so popular.
Now you just need some wax concentrates to decarb. If you don’t have any lying around then you’ll have to buy some.
We know where you can find some deals.
For dabbing or decarbing, try some of these concentrate coupons:
https://deals.cannapages.com/coupon/49-4g-89-8g-premium-wax-shatter
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