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Despite years of prohibition, cannabis has obviously influenced our culture. More than 90 percent of Americans support weed legalization for medical and/or recreational usage, according to Pew Research Center. And as weed becomes more ubiquitous, you can expect to see the plant evolve from a dry, smoking herb to an agricultural Swiss Army knife. Food, beverages, skincare, personal lubricant, you name it—can all be infused with THC, cannabis’s psychoactive compound.
Cooking with cannabis can seem intimidating for weed newbies, but it’s actually one of the most personalized ways to start consuming the plant. Instead of buying edibles from the dispensary and worrying about how many milligrams of THC will be “too much,” a cannabis home cook has full control over how much weed goes into their edibles. Plus, the act of infusing edibles with active THC doesn’t require any skills you didn’t already learn in high school chemistry class. The only tools required are your usual baking and cooking supplies, a bag of weed, and a recipe. We can’t tell you what weed to buy (yet), but we can recommend the best cookbooks for cannabis-infused edibles. Stock up on these weed-themed cookbooks before 4/20 next week and plan your feast!
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Weed-infused butter, or cannabutter, is one of the essential building blocks of cannabis cooking. Master its art, and you have mastered half of all edible recipes. The active compounds in weed, such as THC and CBD, are fat soluble, which means they only release in fatty solutions. This is why eating just dried flower is, besides being gross, not going to get you high. The Art of Weed Butter explains the simple chemistry and mechanics of infusing weed into dairy butter, coconut oil, and a range of other butter substitutes that can be saved in your refrigerator until you’re ready to turn your green gold into brownies, cookies, mac and cheese, and more.
Let’s say you’re not just a beginner to cannabis cooking—you’re new to cannabis, period. Then Edibles for Beginners is for you. Besides the basics of infusing, the cookbook introduces and explains more than 20 popular strains, the health benefits of the plant, and how to measure your dosage to avoid over-imbibing. The low-dose, deliciously accessible recipes are perfect for people just starting out with both cooking and cannabis.
With so many edibles dependent on butter as the key infused ingredient, it’s hard to find vegan recipes. Enter The Vegan Cannabis Cookbook, with a variety of different recipes totally free of animal products like eggs and butter. Using only plant-based ingredients, the recipes include Almond and Banana Cannabis Vegan Ice Cream, No Bake Cannabis Brownie Bites, and Coconut and Cannabis Lemon Tart.
High Times is cannabis culture. The counterculture magazine, founded in 1974, is one of the longest-running publications about weed and the people who love it. In its almost 50 years of writing about weed, they’ve collected a few edibles recipes. This cookbook is special because it includes a ton of savory entree edibles, like nachos and spring rolls, plus THC twists on classic desserts.
From the hit Viceland TV series Bong Appetit comes this awesome cookbook chock full of recipes and advice for foodies who want to take their edibles game to the level of fine dining. Of course, the book includes a brownie recipe, but those with a higher caliber palette might enjoy trying the weed chimichurri or the cannabutter basted chicken.
With more than a hundred recipes collected from cannabis chefs across the country, it’s hard to find more variety in edibles cuisine than with The Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook. From sweet to savory, the cookbook covers infusing dishes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, plus cocktail hour. Plus, the “buyer’s guide” includes tips for which strains to buy for which recipes or desired effects.
If you know anyone working in the cannabis industry right now, you might have heard the chatter about weed-infused beverages. They are the weed world’s next big thing, and the alcohol industry’s worst nightmare. Cannabis Drinks teaches you how to seamlessly blend your pot infusions with coffee, tea, juice, smoothies, and more liquids for easy sipping. The cocktails section will teach you how to adapt beloved cocktail recipes like margaritas and Aperol spritz for an alcohol-free high happy hour, with no fear of a hangover tomorrow.
MORE FROM SCOUTED:
- Stoner-Friendly Cannabis Essentials to Burn Through Your 4/20 This Year
- We Spoke to Experts to Give a Breakdown of Delta-8, the New Hemp-Derived Cannabis Product Taking Over
- The Best 420-Friendly Gifts For Your Stoner Friends
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