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Thought KC BBQ couldn’t get any better? A DIY cannabis infusion may make you reconsider!
Summer 2021’s weather has not been quite what we are used to in Missouri. Sure, we’ve had plenty of the same kind of heat one would expect for July and August. But we’ve also had lots of unusually cool days and nights, with the standard mugginess giving way to smoke blown in from nearby wildfires.
However, while the air quality may be keeping you inside, the barbeque might be a reason to head out, even if it’s just to throw those ribs on the grill or into the smoker then duck back inside for a cold brew (or hot chocolate depending on the day). And if you’ve got a Missouri medical marijuana card, you have the opportunity to take your BBQ to a whole new level.
We know you probably already have your own recipe for barbecue that was handed down from your grandmammy or even further back. So, in this post we are going to focus on how to infuse cannabis that you’ve grown yourself—or products that you can purchase at Missouri dispensaries—into your barbecue sauce to heal your body through the magic of cannabis, and to heal your soul through the delight of your tastebuds.
Infusing Barbecue Sauce With Cannabis Products Found at Missouri Dispensaries
You can use almost any product found at a Missouri dispensary to infuse your barbecue sauce with cannabis, and there are pros and cons to each. Gummies and beverages can be a fun, sweet addition to your sauce if you are a true KC style barbecue enthusiast. Tinctures are a nice way to add cannabinoids to your sauce without much flavor at all. Or you can make cannabutter or cannaoil from your selected strain of buds, for a curated barbecue sauce with precise results.
Using THC Gummies and Beverages to Make Barbecue Sauce
Using THC infused gummies and beverages is one of the easiest ways to give your sauce that special cannabis kick, as long as you are going for that sticky-sweet Kansas City style sauce.
Adding Gummies to Your Recipe:
Use whichever gummies inspire you most, but our favorite gummies for BBQ include Fireball, Cowboy Cannabis Cherry or Sugar-Free Huckleberry, and Honeybee Mango Chili.
Determine your desired potency. For example, if you’re making four servings of barbecue sauce, and you want each serving to have about 10mg of THC, then you’ll want to use 4, 10mg gummies, or 40mgs of THC.
Add a very small amount of liquid to a small saucepan or skillet. This can be the barbecue sauce you’ve already prepared, water, vinegar, or any other liquid—just enough to keep your gummies from sticking or burning.
Set the burner to low, and stir frequently as your gummies dissolve.
Once they are fully dissolved, they are ready to add to your sauce!
Adding THC Beverages to Your Recipe:
We like Keef Classic Bubba Kush Root Beer, Classic Cola, and Classic Grape (for that hint of Swedish meatball flavor).
Choose your flavor and desired potency. Some beverages come with a dosing cap, making it easier to measure. If you are unsure of the amount you want to use, follow these steps:
Divide the total milligrams of THC by the number of ounces in your beverage. For example, if your 30-ounce beverage has 100mg of THC, then each ounce has about 3.33mg of THC.
Figure out how many servings you want to make, and how strong you want your sauce to be.
Add the appropriate amount of the THC-infused beverage. Going back to the example above (100mg of THC in a 30-ounce bottle): If you want your sauce to have about 10mg of THC per serving, and you are making four servings, you’ll need to use about 12 ounces.
Simply replace some of the liquid in your sauce with the beverage of your choice.
Using Tinctures in Your Barbecue Sauce
Tinctures are probably the easiest way to get a kick on THC into your barbecue sauce, but they are not always the easiest to find. Fortunately, you can look at dispensary inventories online before you make a trip out, to confirm whether your dispensary has them.
Determine the number of servings you want your sauce to be, and the amount of THC you want per serving.
Squeeze out the appropriate amount of tincture into your sauce!
Using Homegrown or Dispensary-Purchased Buds to Make Your Barbecue Sauce
You can use a couple of different methods to make your barbecue sauce with dry herb. No matter what, dosing is going to be somewhat imprecise, since the amount of THC that ends up in the finished product will be affected by your methods, what you are infusing the buds into, the temperatures you use for extraction, and the amount of time your buds are exposed to heat.
Using fresh buds to make your barbecue sauce takes some extra time and a few extra steps, but you can use your favorite strains for a curated experience. Want a more relaxing BBQ? Go for Lavender Jones. Looking for more upbeat results? Try Magic Pineapple!
If you’re making your edible sauce with homegrown marijuana, it’s a little more complicated. But nothing quite compares to the joy of eating the barbecue sauce you infused with marijuana you grew at home!
Steps for Using Homegrown Cannabis for Your Barbecue Sauce:
These steps will ensure an effective extraction of THC from freshly-picked marijuana buds. If you are using dispensary-purchased buds, you can skip the first step where you cure your buds. Your processor has already taken care of that for you.
Cure your buds. This could take up to anywhere from four weeks to six months, depending on your strain and desired results.
Decarboxylate your buds to activate the THC. This is a reasonably simple process that doesn’t take nearly as long as the curing process.
Decide which kind of extract you would like to use for your sauce. You can make a tincture, cannabutter, or cannaoil pretty easily, by following the instructions found in our Beginner’s Guide to Making Your Own Cannabis Extracts.
Add your extract to your sauce and enjoy!
A Word About Grill Heat and THC Degradation
THC evaporates at about 290 degrees. It starts to evaporate at temperatures even lower than that. So if you want your sauce to retain its potency, then you’ll need to watch the temperatures you’re cooking at.
There are a couple of ways you can get your ribs just right for that summer kind of mellow you’re looking for without sacrificing any THC or flavor.
Make sure you are infusing your sauce at lower temperatures. If your sauce recipe requires boiling, add your tincture, dissolved gummies, beverage, or cannabutter after that part of the process.
If you are a fan of cooking your meat in the sauce, then try cooking low and slow. Even better, smoke your meats with the sauce on.
Smokers generally operate between 225 and 250 degrees.
You could also put your grill on very low and cook with the lid closed.
While summertime isn’t ideal for turning your oven on, you could also cook your ribs in a roasting pan with the oven set at 250.
Just be sure that no matter what method you use, your meat needs to reach an internal temperature of at least 145 degrees in order to be safe to eat.
Be Careful if You’re Not Experienced With Edibles
Picture this: You’ve worked hard to make the absolute perfect sauce. You used Grandma Cheryl’s recipe, and you measured out the precise THC dose per serving you want. Now it’s time to nosh. And you do. As a matter of fact, those ribs you made were so good, you got through a whole rack without stopping. Then, you realize you had a whole four servings of sauce. The THC-infused sauce. The sauce that was supposed to be potent enough at one serving.
Two hours later, you’re not sure if you should call a friend to giggle over your mistake, or an ambulance to come and save you from your high.
The first thing to remember is that no one has ever died from a marijuana overdose. According to some sources, you would have to smoke 1,500 pounds of marijuana in 15 minutes in order to die from smoking marijuana.
Then, follow the steps in our post on how to sober up if you get too high.
We always suggest trying the base product (in this case, the gummies, beverage, tincture, buds or cannabutter) that you intend to use in your DIY edibles (in this case, the barbecue sauce) before you actually use it in your recipe. That way you know if you are using the right dose, or if you maybe need to scale it back to 7mg of THC per serving, rather than 10mg of THC per serving.
Get a Missouri Marijuana Card to Get Your Cannabis Barbecue On Before Summer is Over!
In order to legally and reliably perfect your cannabis barbecue game, you’re going to need a Missouri marijuana card first. Once you have a card, you can visit any dispensary in Missouri and purchase the perfect medical marijuana products for your next recipe.
You can also add on a cultivation ID, then legally grow your own marijuana plants. Though you’re going to want to look at St. Patty’s day recipes if you plan to wait until your first harvest to start cooking with cannabis.
Give us a call at (877) 303-3117, or click here to schedule a virtual appointment with a Missouri marijuana doctor today!
Doctors Who Care. Relief You Can Trust.
At Missouri Marijuana Card, our mission is helping everyone achieve wellness safely and conveniently through increased access to medical marijuana. Our focus on education, inclusion, and acceptance will reduce stigma for our patients by providing equal access to timely information and compassionate care.
Call us at (877) 303-3117, or simply book a medical marijuana evaluation to start getting relief you can trust today!
Check out Missouri Marijuana Card’s Blog to keep up to date on the latest medical marijuana news, tips, and information. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to join the medical marijuana conversation in Missouri.
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