Making cannabutter is one of the oldest, simplest ways to turn flower into something you eat instead of smoke — and it's a genuinely satisfying kitchen project, closer to making a slow-simmered stock than anything complicated. If you can melt butter and strain a pot, you can make it. This guide walks through the whole thing at a first-timer's pace: what's actually happening, the two steps that matter, a beginner-friendly ratio, and how to be sensible about a homemade batch you can't lab-test. It pairs naturally with an eighth of flower off the Float On menu and an easy afternoon at home.

What is cannabutter, and why butter?

Cannabutter is ordinary butter that's been gently infused with cannabis, so it carries the plant's active compounds through into whatever you cook. Butter works because those compounds are fat-soluble — they dissolve into fat far better than into water — which is why butter, or a neutral oil, is the classic base. Once you have a jar of it, you can use it anywhere a recipe calls for butter: brownies, cookies, rice-crispy treats, a batch of chocolate, even toast. The butter is the workhorse; the recipe is just the delivery.

What you'll need

Nothing exotic — most of it is already in a Vermont kitchen:

• Flower — an eighth (3.5g) is a sensible first batch. See our guide to cannabis weights if grams and eighths are new to you.
• Unsalted butter — 1 cup (2 sticks / 8 oz) to pair with that eighth.
• Water — a cup or two, added to the pot so the butter doesn't scorch.
• A baking sheet and parchment, an oven-safe dish or saucepan, a fine strainer or cheesecloth, a jar for storage, and an oven thermometer if you have one — home ovens run hot or cold, and temperature is the whole game here.

Step 1: Why you have to decarb first

This is the step beginners skip, and it's the one that matters most. Raw flower doesn't do much if you eat it — its compounds are in an acidic, inactive form (THCA rather than THC). Gentle heat converts them, a process called decarboxylation, or "decarb." When you smoke or vape, the lighter or the device does this instantly. For edibles, you have to do it deliberately in the oven before the butter ever comes out, or your cannabutter will be weak no matter how long you simmer it.

1. Heat the oven to about 240°F (115°C). Low and slow is the point — hotter and you start burning off what you're trying to keep.
2. Break the flower up by hand or with a grinder into a coarse crumble — not a fine powder, which makes straining miserable later.
3. Spread it in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
4. Bake 30–40 minutes, giving the tray a gentle stir halfway. It'll turn from bright green to a toasty light-brown and smell strongly — that's normal.
5. Let it cool. It's now decarbed and ready to infuse.

Step 2: How to infuse the butter

With the flower decarbed, the infusion is a slow, low simmer — you're steeping, not frying.

1. In a saucepan, melt 1 cup of butter with 1 cup of water. The water buffers the heat and helps keep the butter from scorching; it cooks off or gets separated out at the end.
2. Once the butter is melted, stir in your decarbed flower.
3. Keep the heat very low — a bare simmer, never a rolling boil. You're aiming for gentle bubbles around the edges, roughly 160–200°F. Boiling degrades the good stuff and can scorch the butter.
4. Simmer 2–3 hours, stirring occasionally. Add a splash of water if the level drops too far. The mixture will darken and thicken slightly.
5. Strain the warm butter through a fine strainer or a double layer of cheesecloth into a jar. Let it drip; resist wringing the cloth hard, which pushes bitter plant matter through.
6. If you used water, chill the jar. The butter sets solid on top and the water sinks below — lift off the butter disc and pour the water away.

How strong will it be — and how do I stay sensible?

Here's the honest answer: you can't know the exact strength of homemade cannabutter. Home cooking has no way to measure how much active compound ended up in the butter — that takes lab equipment. The strength depends on the flower you started with, how well it decarbed, and how much cooked off. So the right mindset isn't a precise number; it's caution.

• Start with a beginner ratio. One cup of butter to an eighth (3.5g) is a gentle first batch. It's easier to make a mild batch and have more than to salvage one that came out strong.
• Test small. Before you bake a whole tray, cook one small item — or spread a thin bit of the butter on a cracker — and see how a modest amount treats you.
• Give it time. Eaten cannabis is slow. It can take one to two hours to be felt, because it's digested rather than inhaled. Wait a full two hours before having any more — the most common first-timer mistake is deciding "nothing's happening" and eating more too soon.
• Label everything. A tray of infused brownies looks exactly like a tray of ordinary ones. Mark the jar and anything you bake, clearly.

A simple treat to use it in

Once the butter's made, cooking with it is the easy part: swap your measured cannabutter in for the regular butter a recipe calls for. A no-bake rice-crispy-style treat is about the friendliest first project, because it's quick and easy to portion into small, even pieces:

1. Gently melt a small, measured amount of cannabutter (often cut with plain butter to keep the strength mild) in a pan on low heat.
2. Stir in marshmallows until smooth, then fold in crisped-rice cereal.
3. Press into a lined pan, let it set, and cut into small, even squares so each piece is a consistent portion.

Brownies and cookies work the same way — just keep the oven at or below a normal baking temperature (around 350°F is fine for the finished mixing; the compounds are already activated from the decarb step). Even portioning is the whole trick with edibles: consistent squares mean you always know roughly what a single piece is, even when you don't know the exact strength.

How should I store cannabutter?

Treat it like any dairy butter, with a label:

• Fridge: keeps well in a sealed jar for 2–3 weeks.
• Freezer: for longer storage, freeze it — portioned in an ice-cube tray it keeps for months and thaws by the tablespoon.
• Away from light and heat, and — this matters more than usual — out of reach of children and pets, in a spot they can't get to. Labeled, sealed, and separate from the everyday butter.

What does Vermont law mean for cooking at home?

A few Vermont-specific things worth knowing before you start:

• Buy it legal. Start with lab-tested flower from a licensed Vermont retailer like Float On, not the gray market — it's the one part of a homemade edible that actually was tested. Our guide to licensed vs. gray-market cannabis covers why that matters.
• You have plenty of headroom. Vermont lets an adult 21+ buy up to two ounces of flower at once — far more than a home batch needs. An eighth makes a generous amount of butter.
• Keep it private. Consumption in Vermont is for private spaces only — there's no public consumption, so your infused treats stay home, not on Church Street or in a park.
• It's 21+, start to finish. Making, sharing, and storing it are all adult-only, and it can't legally cross the state line.

Ready to start a batch?

Cannabutter rewards patience over precision: decarb low, simmer low, strain gently, portion small, and wait. If you're picking flower for your first batch, the budtenders can point you toward an approachable option — our first-visit walkthrough covers the rest of how a stop at the shop works. Browse the live menu or come see us in downtown Burlington to grab an eighth and get cooking.