Cooking with CBD is easier than you might think, whether you’re craving sweet treats or savory snacks. Cannabidiol, or CBD, oil has become increasingly popular for its potential therapeutic effects, ranging from stress and anxiety, to inflammation, and even skincare. While CBD is available in a variety of forms such as pills, capsules, and edibles; tinctures allow for a more customizable CBD dosage and the ability to easily add CBD to your favorite dishes.
How to get Started
The first thing to be aware of is that CBD is hydrophobic, which means that it does not mix well with water. In other terms, CBD needs to be infused into a fat or oil-based ingredient, like butter, lard, or coconut oil, before it can be used in your cooking. In some recipes, alcoholic spirits (vodka, rum, whiskey) can replace the fat component. It is best to avoid wine and beer, which won’t act as great carriers for CBD, because they are water-based.
Temperature Matters
CBD can be a bit of a fickle ingredient when it comes to temperatures. Warming the oil slightly can increase its effectiveness, but much higher temperatures can actually kill off some of the active components. Please keep in mind that CBD will begin to evaporate at temperatures higher than 320 degrees Fahrenheit.
Also, it is best to not place your CBD oil on direct heat. Heating the oil at too high temperatures can result in the loss of terpenes, which are compounds that work in conjunction with CBD to increase its overall effects. Heating CBD too high also tends to bring out more of its bitterness.
Start Small
When it comes to cooking with CBD, less is more. When first starting to cook with CBD, it’s easy to add too much to a recipe, which usually leads to bad flavors, wasted oil, and too much of the compound’s effects. We find it is best to start with smaller batches, and once you are more comfortable cooking with CBD, increasing your batch sizes.
Store Your CBD Oil Properly
When you’re not using your CBD oil, make sure you keep it in a cool, dark place such as a medicine cabinet or kitchen cupboard. Cannabinoids are naturally sensitive to heat and light, so when left out this leads to an overall degradation in potency and quality. Degraded CBD oil will not be as effective and may impart more bitter, unpleasant flavors into your recipes.
Filtered, decarboxylated, and other more refined forms of CBD oils tend to work well with all cooking applications. Less refined oils may leave an unpleasant aftertaste, especially if you are working with more herb-heavy recipes. With that said, less refined or lower quality oils can still be useful in recipes featuring strong flavors, like chocolate or spices. Unfiltered CBD oils also tend to contain more vitamins and helpful amino acids than their filtered counterparts.
Stir, Stir, Stir!!
From guacamole recipes to chocolate chip cookies and soups, make sure you stir in the CBD oil as much as possible. Once your content with how much you’ve mixed, it doesn’t hurt to mix again! A good rule of thumb is it’s best to mix more than you may think. This ensures that the CBD is evenly distributed throughout the batch so that each and every bite offers equal potency.
Cooking with CBD is Better than Drizzling Foods with CBD
It’s always recommended that you mix CBD oil into your ingredients for optimal flavors, but if you are in a rush, you can drizzle the oil directly onto your food. Typically, this won’t taste as good, but you still get the desired effects.
Above all, have fun! As you get more familiar with using CBD oil in your cooking, you can adjust recipes and create custom dishes of your own that taste great and offer the wonderful benefits of CBD.
Check out our previous blog CBD and Medications by clicking here.
