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Is heating necessary for edibles? Is heating bad?

I'm an old hand at brownie making, and I've made them a number of ways, with cannabutter, canna-oil, or just ground up herb. I favor the simple ground up herb these days (besides being lazy I figure I'm getting some extra fiber and magnesium).

I use dried herb, so from what I understand it is plausible that the decarboxylation is already complete, although clearly there are differing opinions there.

After I make the brownies, I eat what little remains in the mixing bowl with a spoon. I figure I'm getting maybe a tablespoon or so of uncooked brownies, and typically I get very high from that.

BUT ... I find that the resulting brownies just don't get me anywhere near as high as from the uncooked mixture. Sometimes this effect is more dramatic than others, but overall the results clearly skew in one direction.

At any rate, I'm thinking of going to some kind of no-bake edible as a result.

Would like to hear what people know about this (abstracts if you got 'em, I mean, this is chemistry, we shouldn't have to guess). Clearly most people seem to believe that you must heat herb even after it is dry, and I for one am challenging that based on decades of experience.

I'm also saying that something seems to be lost in the heating process, even at 350F.

Personally, I can say that one of the highest times for me was back in the 70s when I was with a friend on a family trip and we really couldn't smoke with the parents close by and so we just ate what we had, about a half gram or so each of raw dried herb. We could hardly stand up after a couple of hours.
 
"I'm also saying that something seems to be lost in the heating process, even at 350F."

I always bake at a lower temperature, say 320F just to be safe. It just takes a little longer.
 

Mr. Bongjangles

Head Brewer
ICMag Donor
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Yep, 350f is too high as I understand it.

Best to cook longer at lower temperature. I try to never go above 300 or 315 personally.

I also wonder if your oven's thermostat is off a bit. Perhaps you should buy one of the small ones that kicks it in the oven so you could have extra tight control over the temperature.

As for decarbing - that process is more effective the fresher the herb is. Just drying doesn't remove the carboxyl group - takes heat or time (or chemical process.)
 

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