Instant Pot Cannabutter: How To Make Marijuana Butter In Your Pressure Cooker

One of the easiest and best ways to cook with cannabis is to mix up your own batch of Instant Pot cannabutter.

Cannabutter is just what it sounds like: butter that contains THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids. And because it’s basically butter, you can use it instead of regular butter in all your favorite recipes.

In this article, the all-things-cannabis experts at Honest Marijuana give you step-by-step instructions for making weed butter in your Instant Pot.

An Introduction To The Instant Pot®

An Instant Pot® is a seven-in-one appliance that takes the place of the following kitchen items:

Pressure cooker
Sauté pan
Steamer
Slow Cooker
Rice Cooker
Warmer
Yogurt maker

To make Instant Pot cannabutter, we’re really only concerned with the pressure cooker, slow cooker/steamer, and warmer features.

So if your Instant Pot can’t make yogurt, don’t worry, the other features will suffice.

A Note About Size

Instant Pots come in three different sizes:

3 quart
6 quart
8 quart

Our recipe uses the 6-quart model, and it’s worth noting that the jars we use will not fit in the 3-quart model.

If the 3-quart is all you have, there’s no need to run out and buy a larger model (those things are expensive, man). Simply half the recipe and use a smaller canning jar.

Instant Pot Cannabutter Isn’t Just Raw Weed And Butter

Unfortunately, cooking with cannabis isn’t as simple as measuring out a tablespoon of your favorite strain into the cookies, marinara sauce, brownies, or waffles.

It takes a bit more processing to reap the cannabutter rewards.

First, raw weed is not psychoactive. Your body can’t process the raw marijuana plant matter in a way that would get the cannabinoids into your bloodstream.

At best, your body would just digest the plant matter as it would any other leafy green. At worst, your body may reject the raw plant matter, leading to vomiting, diarrhea, and other stomach problems.

To activate the psychedelic and pain-fighting properties of cannabis, you first have to decarboxylate your buds. We’ll show you how to do that in the next section.

Second, raw weed tastes bad.

That flavor can seriously affect the taste of anything you put it in. You don’t want to ruin your delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe with the bitter, foul-tasting stuff that was supposed to make your day better.

Thankfully, making cannabutter is super easy. Not quite as easy as just dumping ground bud into the mix, but pretty close.

Here’s a quick and easy recipe for the only butter you’ll ever use again.

Instant Pot Cannabutter Recipe

Supplies

Instant Pot
½ ounce of your favorite herb
1 cup of butter (usually a single stick)
Grinder
1-pint (16 ounce) canning jar
2 canning jar lids (the flat discs)
1 or 2 canning jar rings (the things that screw on over top the lids)
Canning rack or several rings
Water
Oven mitts
Strainer or cheesecloth
Mixing bowls
Pan
Stove or microwave
Half-pint (8 ounce) canning jar for storage
Lid for storage jar

Instructions

Decarb Your Weed

Grind up ½ ounce of your favorite weed.
Place ground weed in the canning jar.
Place a canning lid and ring on the jar and close to finger tight.
Place a canning rack or canning ring in the bottom of Instant Pot to elevate the jar off the bottom.
Pour water into the Instant Pot until it reaches the middle of the jar.
Close the lid of the Instant Pot.
Set to Pressure Cook on high for 40 minutes.
When the cycle is complete, manually release the pressure. (Careful! The steam will be hot.)
Don your oven mitts and remove the jar from the Instant Pot.
Place the hot jar on a towel, cutting board, or other heat-resistant surface to cool.

Cook The Cannabutter

When the canning jar is cool enough to handle with your bare hands, remove the ring and lid.
Melt 1 cup of butter in the microwave or on the stove.
Pour melted butter into the canning jar (don’t fill the jar much more than halfway).
Stir to distribute the cannabis throughout the butter.
Place a new lid on the jar, cover with a canning ring (the same one you used to decarb your weed is fine), and close to finger tight.
Set the canning jar on a rack or ring in the bottom of the Instant Pot.
Pour water into the Instant Pot until it reaches the middle of the jar.
Close the lid of the Instant Pot.
Make sure the Keep Warm setting is on.
Set to Pressure Cook on high for 20 minutes.
When the cycle is done, allow the Instant Pot to release the pressure naturally for 40 minutes while the Keep Warm setting is on.
Don your oven mitts again and remove the jar to cool.
When the jar and ring are cool enough to handle with bare hands, remove the ring and lid.
NOTE: Because the jar and its contents were under pressure, the butter may “spray” a bit when you crack the lid.
Pour the cannabutter through a strainer or cheesecloth into a mixing bowl or directly into the half-pint canning jar (you may need a funnel for that) to remove plant matter.
Feel free to squeeze the cheesecloth or press on the strainer to get all the butter, but you may inadvertently push some of the bad-tasting plant matter through.
Put the lid on the storage jar and place it in the refrigerator to cool.

That’s it! You’ve made your own Instant Pot cannabutter. Now it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

How Much Instant Pot Cannabutter Should You Use?

The ultimate potency of your cannabutter depends on a number of factors, including:

How long it cooked
The temperature at which it cooked
The strength of the strain you used

To find out how much cannabutter to use without going overboard, we recommend starting with ¼ teaspoon on a small piece of bread. See how that amount affects you, and then increase or decrease from there.

For more information on finding the right dose (whether it be for smoking, eating, or something else), check out these helpful articles:

Cooking With Cannabutter

Cooking with cannabutter is a fun and effective — not to mention easy — way to include THC or CBD (or both) in your daily routine without drawing a lot of attention to yourself.

But be warned: the effects of eating marijuana differ drastically from the effects of smoking it.

Onset Time

You’ll still get high or feel less pain. But, with edibles, those effects can take anywhere from 30 to 190 minutes to kick in.

Yes, you read that right, it can take up to three hours for you to get high from a cannabis edible. That’s a long time to wait.

There is an upside to this delay though. When compared to smoking, you won’t need nearly as much weed to achieve the same effects.

Dosage

When you roll a typical joint, you use about 0.5 grams (or 500 milligrams for those who like larger numbers). A good starting point for ingesting cannabis is 0.001 grams (or 1 milligram).

That’s quite a bit less and illustrates just how potent the effects can be when you eat cannabis.

So try not to get impatient and eat more when you don’t feel anything right away. You’ll only set yourself up for a bad ride.

Potency

The experience of eating marijuana-laced food has a tendency to be a lot more intense because your body digests the cannabinoids directly into your bloodstream instead of “filtering” them in your lungs.

That means it’s a lot easier to take too much and experience the paranoia, anxiety, nausea, hangover, and general bad feelings that result.

For best results, start small and slow. And try not to get too high too fast or the experience may turn you off of edibles for good…and that would be a shame.

Want more information about marijuana edibles? Read these informative articles for a wealth of knowledge on the subject:

The Best Cannabutter Is Made With High-Quality Organic Weed

It’s true, you can use any old strain to make Instant Pot cannabutter, but low-quality bud is going to produce a low-quality final product.

And that will affect every other step in the edibles process — from the taste of the pie you bake to the psychoactive and physical effects you experience.

So now that you know how to make cannabutter in your Instant Pot, use the best bud you can get your hands on — the strain doesn’t matter — so that the end result doesn’t leave you disappointed.

Plus, with a high-quality, organic strain like those grown at Honest Marijuana, you’ll need even less cannabutter to experience the same effects. A little will go a long way.

Talk to the budtenders at your local dispensary to find out what strains they recommend. If you live in Colorado, find some Honest Marijuana and discover what the purest marijuana experience on the planet feels like.

You won’t be sorry.

For more information on all things cannabis and to check out our 100-percent all-natural marijuana products, visit HonestMarijuana.com today.