Bhodi_22
Member
This is extracted from one of the very first medical papers about the East Indian "wonder drug derived from hemp", written by an Irish doctor called William Brooke O'Shaughnessy, an 1830 University of Edinburgh graduate who went to India a few years later working for the East India Company...the first paragraph describes the making of their version of pot butter, or ganja ghee. Bhang and Sidhee likely refers to whole dried and crushed plants and ghee is clarified butter...not too hard to make out of normal butter...Skip to the third paragraph for the actual Majoon making...I've yet to make it myself and would love to hear from anyone who tries it...I imagine dividing the amounts by 4 or 8 would be pretty simple...I wonder how different it would turn out if we didn't start with ghee? and just used yer preferred canna butter instead. I found the middle paragraph quite interesting so left it in too!
now from O'Shaughnessy's paper "On the Preparation of the Indian Hemp, or Gunjah (Cannabis Indica): The Effects on the Animal System in Health, and Their Utility in the Treatment of Tetanus and Other Convulsive Diseases". Quite the mouthful !!
"The Majoon, or Hemp confection, is a compound of sugar, butter, flour, milk and sidhee or bang. The process has been repeatedly performed before me by Ameer, the proprietor of a celebrated place of resort for Hemp devotees in Calcutta, and who is considered the best artist in his profession. Four ounces of sidhee, and an equal quantity of ghee are placed in an earthen or well-tinned vessel, a pint of water added, and the whole warmed over a charcoal fire. The mixture is constantly stirred until the water all boils away, which is known by the crackling noise of the melted butter on the sides of the vessel. The mixture is then removed from the fire, squeezed through cloth while hot -- by which an oleaginous solution of the active principles and colouring matter of the Hemp is obtained -- and the leaves, twigs, &c. remaining on the cloth are thrown away.
The green oily solution soon concretes into a buttery mass, and is then well washed by the hand with soft water, so long as the water becomes coloured. The colouring matter and an extractive substance are thus removed, and a very pale green mass, of the consistence of simple ointment, remains. The washings are thrown away: Ameer says that these are intoxicating, and produce constriction of the throat, great pain, and very disagreeable and dangerous symptoms.
The operator then takes 2 lbs. of sugar, and adding a little water, places it in a pipkin over the fire. When the sugar dissolves and froths, two ounces of milk are added: a thick scum rises and is removed: more milk and a little water are added from time to time, and the boiling continued about and hour, the solution being carefully stirred until it becomes and adhesive clear syrup, ready to solidify on a cold surface: four ounces of tyre (new milk dried before the sun) in fine powder, are now stirred in, and lastly the prepared butter of Hemp is introduced, brisk stirring being continued for a few minutes. A few drops of attur of roses are then quickly sprinkled in, and the mixture poured from the pipkin on a flat cold dish or slab. The mass concretes immediately into a thin cake, which is divided into small lozenge-shaped pieces. A seer thus prepared sells for four rupees: one drachm by weight will intoxicate a beginner" three drachms one experienced in its use: the taste is sweet, and the odour very agreeable."
I bet!! I hope a few of you enjoyed reading that as much as I did...yes I'm a geek and a connoisseur!!
now from O'Shaughnessy's paper "On the Preparation of the Indian Hemp, or Gunjah (Cannabis Indica): The Effects on the Animal System in Health, and Their Utility in the Treatment of Tetanus and Other Convulsive Diseases". Quite the mouthful !!
"The Majoon, or Hemp confection, is a compound of sugar, butter, flour, milk and sidhee or bang. The process has been repeatedly performed before me by Ameer, the proprietor of a celebrated place of resort for Hemp devotees in Calcutta, and who is considered the best artist in his profession. Four ounces of sidhee, and an equal quantity of ghee are placed in an earthen or well-tinned vessel, a pint of water added, and the whole warmed over a charcoal fire. The mixture is constantly stirred until the water all boils away, which is known by the crackling noise of the melted butter on the sides of the vessel. The mixture is then removed from the fire, squeezed through cloth while hot -- by which an oleaginous solution of the active principles and colouring matter of the Hemp is obtained -- and the leaves, twigs, &c. remaining on the cloth are thrown away.
The green oily solution soon concretes into a buttery mass, and is then well washed by the hand with soft water, so long as the water becomes coloured. The colouring matter and an extractive substance are thus removed, and a very pale green mass, of the consistence of simple ointment, remains. The washings are thrown away: Ameer says that these are intoxicating, and produce constriction of the throat, great pain, and very disagreeable and dangerous symptoms.
The operator then takes 2 lbs. of sugar, and adding a little water, places it in a pipkin over the fire. When the sugar dissolves and froths, two ounces of milk are added: a thick scum rises and is removed: more milk and a little water are added from time to time, and the boiling continued about and hour, the solution being carefully stirred until it becomes and adhesive clear syrup, ready to solidify on a cold surface: four ounces of tyre (new milk dried before the sun) in fine powder, are now stirred in, and lastly the prepared butter of Hemp is introduced, brisk stirring being continued for a few minutes. A few drops of attur of roses are then quickly sprinkled in, and the mixture poured from the pipkin on a flat cold dish or slab. The mass concretes immediately into a thin cake, which is divided into small lozenge-shaped pieces. A seer thus prepared sells for four rupees: one drachm by weight will intoxicate a beginner" three drachms one experienced in its use: the taste is sweet, and the odour very agreeable."
I bet!! I hope a few of you enjoyed reading that as much as I did...yes I'm a geek and a connoisseur!!
I'd be curious to read more of O'Shuaghnessy writing's. I came across this in Martin Booths History Book "Cannabis" which I've finally picked up again and wanted to highly recommend if your at all into cannabis history. Its pretty dense so no wonder I've been reading it in installments. 
