grind or chop ??

[uncle louie]

When making butter should you grind your trim ( crushing trichrome heads and exposing them to more air causing evaporation --bad--) or chop trim to allow butter more exposure to trichs ???

 

[Bulldog11]

You can do either. You will get better butter if you don't grind or chop at all. However, you get the most out of grinding, chopping is somewhere in between. I find if you give a good long simmer it doesn't really matter.

 

[BadKittySmiles]

This is what I do. Bullet Blender. I use a larger blender for preparing bud for hash.

It really frees up those glands (for butter, if you plan to, decarb first). For hash, freeze your bud or trim first, and it works even better:

 

[Barn Owl]

In don't agree about not grinding. I have had the best results breaking up buds in a coffee grinder before heating it all in oil. I think you can miss some of you don't break it uo enough.

I say use a coffee grinder. Works everytime.

 

[!!!]

Ideally bud/trim should have the consistency of flour but I find using a blender/food processor a hassle so I wait until the trim is crisp dry and then use a mortar/pestle.

 

[Gray Wolf]

Not necessary to break up the material, though we usually dry material until frangible and run it through a sieve for uniformity.

If I am striving for maximum quality, I leave the material whole, and I never, ever, run it through a grinder that produces a bunch of fines, regardless of what I plan to do with it.

As has been noted, the product is on the outside of the plant material, which is easily accessed without reducing it.

 

[Barn Owl]

Not necessary to break up the material, though we usually dry material until frangible and run it through a sieve for uniformity.

If I am striving for maximum quality, I leave the material whole, and I never, ever, run it through a grinder that produces a bunch of fines, regardless of what I plan to do with it.

As has been noted, the product is on the outside of the plant material, which is easily accessed without reducing it.

Running through a coffee grinder before you cook in oil won't damage the potency one bit. Trust me, I've been doing it for over a decade. It will make the cooking in oil or butter process go a lot easier.

THC glands can be found inside and outside the buds.

 

[brer]

Hey Gray Wolf
I dried my stuff then used a hand blender in the stock pot

I also used coconut oil .

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=4058879#post4058879

 

[Gray Wolf]

Running through a coffee grinder before you cook in oil won't damage the potency one bit. Trust me, I've been doing it for over a decade. It will make the cooking in oil or butter process go a lot easier.

THC glands can be found inside and outside the buds.

While it is true that the trichomes are also on the leaves and stems, not just outside the buds, not in any case are they actually inside the plant.

Define potency! If we define it as the amount of active ingredients per unit of volume, then picking up non active fines in the mixture lowers the potency per unit volume by its added non active bulk.

Usually damn little, so I am nit picking, and the real reason I don't use a grinder, is that it adds green color and flavor, not that it significantly lowers potency.

If I am striving for maximum potency and pristine appearance, I don't reduce the material at all for the first wash, and then reduce it for subsequent washes.

If someone passes me a pipe with oil in it extracted after grinding, I smoke it gleefully, because not as tasty as it potentially could be is usually still damn tasty.

Know what I mean bro? Hee, hee, hee...........

 

[Gray Wolf]

Hey Gray Wolf
I dried my stuff then used a hand blender in the stock pot

I also used coconut oil .

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=4058879#post4058879

Ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Coconut oil is my menstruum oil of choice, after cannabis oil itself! Hee, hee, hee, snicker, snark, snort!!!!!!!!!!1

 

[brer]

Ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Coconut oil is my menstruum oil of choice, after cannabis oil itself! Hee, hee, hee, snicker, snark, snort!!!!!!!!!!1

I'm going to skip the blend/grind/chop next run after reading this thread .

Ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!! !!!!!!!1

Mmmm coconut .

 

[Cannalicious]

Ok, I don't understand this no trichomes in the plant comment. Trichomes are a part of the plant. If I took this bud:
and cut off the outside, there is another layer of cells and trichomes under that. And then the next layer also has cells that have trichomes. And the next. Again and again until you decide not to smoke the stem. It's a fractal.

Noone would smoke the outside and toss the rest of the bud and say there is nothing underneath. Yes, there are no trichomes in the cells, but they are part of the cells; you don't have one without the other for trichome producers. Logic dictates that the more surface area you produce, the more trichomes you expose to the lipids.

I use a food processor. I put about a cup or two of water in the processor and my buds; this helps get the buds in a uniform consitency, smaller than if blended dry, and easier to pour into the pot with out the static clinging your bud to a dry processor.

I use cheese cloth.

 

[Haps]

Like many things it depends on your goal. Folks like GW who share their work with med patients should indeed aspire to the highest standards, and adopt them as practice. As I do with the flowers that I share. But there are many ways to do that, working on a batch now.

I use a dedicated blender, that has attained the nature of a curing jar, used for years with herb only, never washed, it adds to the mix it;s own magic. My mix is just for my milk, so getting all the goodies is my only goal. And not getting too stoned to spill it all.
H

 

[Barn Owl]

Define potency! If we define it as the amount of active ingredients per unit of volume, then picking up non active fines in the mixture lowers the potency per unit volume by its added non active bulk.

Usually damn little, so I am nit picking, and the real reason I don't use a grinder, is that it adds green color and flavor, not that it significantly lowers potency.

...........

I think that not grinding or breaking up cab actually reduce the overall potency just because some of the goodies can be missed, but I agree it is probably not too much.

I think once the oil or butter is strained, the bulk issue is not very big, but I see your point..