Cannabutter

Cannabutter Recipe: How to Make CBD, CBG, or THC Infused Butter at Home

By Mellow Moose | Updated 08/23/2026

Quick Answer

Cannabutter is butter infused with cannabinoids dissolved directly into the melted fat. Using 5g of CBD or CBG isolate (or 1g of a THC source — see the THC section) and 1 lb of unsalted butter, you'll produce ~4,850mg of total cannabinoids per pound of butter — roughly 152mg per tablespoon. Total active time is 20 minutes, plus cooling. No decarboxylation needed when using CBD or CBG isolate, and almost zero cooking odor.

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Why This Cannabutter Recipe Beats Traditional Methods

Most cannabutter recipes online tell you to simmer cannabis flower in butter for 2–4 hours. That approach has three big problems:

• It takes forever. 2–4 hours of active stovetop attention for a single batch.
• It smells strong. Your entire house will smell like cannabis for the rest of the day, and your butter will too.
• It's inconsistent. Cannabinoid extraction from flower depends on temperature, time, plant material quality, and a dozen other variables. Two batches made the same way can have wildly different potency.

This recipe sidesteps all three issues by using isolate or extract directly. The cannabinoid is already extracted, already activated (in the case of CBD/CBG isolate), and already pure. You're not extracting anything from plant material — you're just dissolving a pre-measured amount of cannabinoid into melted butter. Total time: under an hour. Smell: minimal. Potency: precise to the milligram.

The other reason: cost. Commercial cannabutter at this potency would run $80–150+ per pound. This batch uses a quarter of a 20g jar of CBD isolate (~$15 worth) plus a pound of good butter — call it $20–25 all-in for the same milligrams.

Recipe Overview

• Yield: 1 lb infused butter (32 tablespoons)
• Active time: 20 minutes
• Cool time: 20 minutes
• Difficulty: Beginner

Equipment

• Small pot (1–2 quart)
• Whisk or wooden spoon
• Small silicone spatula (for scraping isolate from the jar)
• Storage container with lid
• Kitchen scale that reads to 0.1g

Ingredients

• 5g CBD Isolate OR 5g CBG Isolate — or, for the THC version, 1g of a THC source: THCa isolate (decarbed first), THC distillate, or another dabbable extract (see the THC section below — potency and prep differ by source)
• 1 lb unsalted butter (high-quality butter gives the cleanest result)

Instructions

1. Melt the butter. In a small pot over low heat, melt the butter slowly until fully liquid. Do not let it boil or brown — high heat damages cannabinoids and changes the flavor. The butter should look clear and golden, not foaming or simmering.
2. Add isolate or extract. Sprinkle in your CBD isolate, CBG isolate, or already-active THC source while stirring continuously. Use a small silicone spatula to scrape every bit from the jar — even small residual amounts represent meaningful potency loss.
3. Stir until dissolved. Continue stirring on low heat for 8–10 minutes, until the cannabinoid is fully dissolved into the butter. The butter should look completely uniform with no visible particles or graininess.
4. Cool and transfer. Remove from heat. Let the butter cool slightly (5 minutes), then pour into your storage container.
5. Solidify. Allow the butter to set at room temperature, or transfer to the refrigerator to firm up faster. Once solid, it's ready to use in any butter-based recipe.

Why This Recipe Works (And Why Most Online Cannabutter Recipes Don't)

Most cannabutter recipes assume you're starting with flower or trim. They walk you through grinding, decarbing in the oven, simmering in butter for hours, then straining out plant material. By the time you're done, you've lost 15–30% of your potency to heat degradation, your kitchen smells like a grow operation, and you have no real idea how potent the final product actually is.

Using isolate or extract directly eliminates every problem in that chain:

• No decarb step (for CBD/CBG). Our isolates arrive already in their active form — ready to use. (THCa is the exception; see the THC section.)
• No long simmer. You're dissolving a pure cannabinoid into fat, not extracting it from plant material. 8–10 minutes of low-heat stirring is enough.
• No straining. No plant material means no leftover green sludge to filter out.
• No smell. Pure isolate is virtually odorless. The strongest scent in this recipe is the butter itself.
• Precise potency. You know exactly how much cannabinoid is in your butter because you started with a measured weight of ≥97% pure, third-party-tested material (COAs here).

The low heat matters too. Cannabinoids degrade at sustained temperatures above 320°F (THC starts converting to CBN; CBD and CBG slowly break down). Keeping the butter below a simmer ensures you preserve full potency from raw ingredient to finished product.

Dosage Math

CBD or CBG version: 5g isolate at ≥97% purity ≈ ~4,850mg cannabinoids per pound of butter

• ~152mg per tablespoon
• ~51mg per teaspoon

THC version: 1g of decarbed THCa isolate or ~85% distillate ≈ ~850mg per pound of butter

• ~26.5mg THC per tablespoon
• ~8.8mg THC per teaspoon

Remember the butter gets divided again by your recipe: a batch of 24 cookies using 8 tablespoons of THC cannabutter lands around ~9mg THC per cookie — a full-strength edible. Run your recipe's per-serving numbers in our Edible Dosage Calculator before you bake, and use the dosage calculator to find your personal starting range.

Edibles take 45–120 minutes to onset and effects last 4–8 hours — wait a full 2 hours before having more, and always start with a smaller serving than you think you need, especially with THC versions.

The THC Version — Pick Your Source

Any concentrated THC source works. What changes is the potency and whether you need to decarboxylate first — only active THC works in an edible, and some sources arrive active while others don't:

• THCa isolate (~97%+ purity) — needs decarb, highest yield. Hemp-derived THCa isolate is the inactive precursor to THC. Spread 1g in a small oven-safe glass dish and bake at 240°F for 30–40 minutes — it melts and bubbles, and it's done when the bubbling stops. Let it cool, then stir it into the melted butter like the other isolates. THCa converts to active THC at ~87.7% of its weight: 1g → ~850mg active THC.
• THC distillate (~85–90% THC) — already activated, no decarb. Distillate was decarbed during processing, so it stirs straight into the warm butter. 1g at ~85% → ~850mg — conveniently identical math.
• Other dabbable extracts — shatter, wax, badder, rosin (~75–80% total cannabinoids) — usually still need decarb. Unless labeled "decarbed" or "activated," these are mostly THCa and need the same 240°F treatment. After decarb, 1g at ~78% → ~680mg (~21mg per tablespoon). They work, but expect more cannabis flavor carryover in the finished butter than isolate or distillate.

Want it stronger? 2g of THCa isolate or distillate doubles the batch to ~1,700mg (~53mg per tablespoon) — at that strength, half a teaspoon is a full serving for most people, so label accordingly. Whatever the source and amount, verify your numbers in the Edible Dosage Calculator (THCa mode applies the decarb conversion automatically).

THC butter safety: finished cannabutter looks exactly like regular butter. Label the container clearly and store it away from anyone under 21 and from pets — the fridge is where mistakes happen. Never drive after consuming.

How to Use Cannabutter

• Baking: Substitute 1:1 for regular butter in cookies, brownies, cakes, and most baked goods. Cannabinoids are surprisingly heat-stable in baking once bound to butter — minimal degradation at standard baking temperatures (350–400°F for typical bake times).
• Sauces and spreads: Toss with hot pasta, melt over vegetables, spread on toast, or use in any savory dish that calls for butter.
• Cooking: Sauté at medium heat or below. Avoid high-heat applications (above 400°F sustained) where prolonged exposure can degrade cannabinoid content.
• Direct dose: A pat of butter on toast at your preferred dosage is the simplest application of all.

Common Failure Modes

• Grainy or chunky butter. The isolate didn't fully dissolve. Either the butter wasn't fully melted before you added the isolate, or the heat was too low to fully incorporate it. Solution: gently warm the butter back to liquid state on low heat and stir longer until smooth.
• Browned or off-flavored butter. Heat was too high during melting. Cannabinoids start degrading above 320°F, and butter starts browning around 250°F. Solution: melt butter on the lowest heat your stove allows. If butter has browned, the batch is still usable but flavor is altered.
• Inconsistent potency between recipes. Stirring wasn't thorough enough during the dissolving step. The fix: stir continuously and longer (10+ minutes) to ensure full uniform incorporation throughout the butter.
• Butter smells "weedy". Shouldn't happen with isolate (which is virtually odorless). If you used a flower-derived extract instead, that's the source of the scent.
• Material left in the jar. Use a small silicone spatula to fully scrape the isolate out. At 5g of premium isolate, even small residual amounts represent meaningful potency loss.

How to Customize

• Smaller batches: Halve everything — 2.5g isolate + ½ lb butter produces a half-batch with the same per-tablespoon potency.
• Higher potency: Double the isolate. 10g per lb of butter produces ~303mg per tablespoon — a strong dose by any measure.
• CBD + CBG blend: Use 2.5g of each instead of 5g of one. Produces a balanced 1:1 cannabutter ideal for everyday baking.
• Salted vs unsalted: Unsalted gives you more control in recipes. Use salted if you prefer to taste it directly on toast.

FAQs

What is cannabutter? Cannabutter is butter infused with cannabinoids — most commonly CBD, CBG, or THC. It's used as a base ingredient in edibles, baked goods, and any recipe that calls for butter. Once made, it can be stored and used like regular butter for as long as the butter itself remains fresh.

Do I need to decarboxylate before making cannabutter? Not for CBD or CBG — our isolates are produced in their already-active form. For THC it depends on the source: THCa isolate and most dabbable extracts (shatter, wax, badder, rosin) must be decarbed first (240°F, 30–40 minutes); distillate is already activated and skips the step. Raw flower always needs decarbing. When in doubt, check whether the label says "decarbed" or "activated" — if it doesn't, decarb it.

Why is this faster than traditional cannabutter recipes? Traditional recipes extract cannabinoids from flower, which takes 2–4 hours of simmering. Using isolate or extract, the cannabinoid is already extracted and pure — you just need to dissolve it into the butter. That takes 10 minutes instead of 2 hours.

Does this method produce cooking smell? Almost none. Pure isolate is virtually odorless, so the only smell in this recipe is butter itself. This makes it dramatically more discreet than flower-based recipes.

How long does cannabutter stay good? Refrigerated in an airtight container, cannabutter keeps for 3–4 weeks (the same shelf life as regular butter). Frozen, it stays good for 6+ months without significant potency loss.

Can I use cannabutter in any recipe that calls for butter? Yes — including baking applications. Cannabinoids bound to butter are reasonably heat-stable through standard baking temperatures (350–400°F for typical bake times). Avoid sustained high-heat applications like deep frying or anything held above 400°F for extended periods. Just remember the dose divides by servings — check your recipe's per-serving math in the Edible Dosage Calculator.

Is cannabutter legal? Hemp-derived CBD and CBG cannabutter made from federally compliant isolate (≤0.3% Delta-9 THC by dry weight) is legal federally under the 2018 Farm Bill and in most states, though specific cannabinoid restrictions vary by state. Our isolates — including our THCa isolate — are federally compliant hemp-derived products. THC extract from cannabis (not hemp) follows your state's cannabis laws. Check your state's rules before making or sharing any THC version.

What's the difference between cannabutter and ghee or coconut oil infusions? The base fat is different but the principle is identical. Cannabutter has the most familiar flavor and works in the widest variety of recipes. Ghee has a higher smoke point (good for high-heat cooking). Coconut oil is shelf-stable longer and works for vegan applications. All three can be made using this same isolate-based method — our cooking oil recipe covers the oil route.

Related Recipes & Products

• CBD Isolate (20g, USDA Organic) — one jar makes four batches
• CBG Isolate (20g, USDA Organic) — for daytime/focus-oriented cannabutter
• Cannabis Gummies — ~400 precisely dosed gummies from the same isolates
• Cannasugar Recipe — sugar-based infusion alternative
• Cannabis Infused Honey — same concept, different sweetener
• Cannabis Cooking Oil — the higher-smoke-point, vegan-friendly route