You're standing in your kitchen with a handful of expensive flower and a bottle of MCT oil, wondering if you're about to burn twenty dollars a gram into a bitter, useless sludge. It’s a valid fear. Most people treat this like a science experiment gone wrong. They overthink it. Or worse, they underthink it and skip the decarboxylation—which basically turns your "medicated" oil into expensive salad dressing that does absolutely nothing.
Learning how to infuse weed into oil isn't actually about being a chemist. It’s about patience and heat management. If you rush it, you kill the terpenes. If you’re too cold, the cannabinoids stay trapped in the plant matter like they’re in a safe. You need to find that sweet spot where the lipids in the oil grab onto the THC and CBD molecules.
The Decarb Secret Nobody Likes to Wait For
Before you even touch the oil, you have to talk about decarboxylation. It’s a long word for a simple process: heat removes a carboxyl group from the cannabinoid acids. Raw weed has THCA. THCA won't get you high. It won't help your sleep. You need to turn it into THC.
Grind your flower. Not to a powder—don't do that. If it's a powder, it’ll slip through your cheesecloth and make your oil taste like a lawnmower bag. Aim for a "cracked pepper" consistency. Spread it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Pop it in the oven at 240°F (115°C) for about 30 to 45 minutes. Your house is going to smell. There’s no way around that. If you're trying to be stealthy, maybe use a Mason jar inside the oven to trap the scent, but even then, the "funk" eventually escapes.
Picking Your Carrier Oil: Why Fat Matters
Not all oils are created equal when you're figuring out how to infuse weed into oil for maximum potency. You want saturated fats. Saturated fats are the best "hooks" for cannabinoids.
Coconut oil is the gold standard. Specifically, refined coconut oil if you don't want everything to taste like a tropical vacation. MCT oil is even better because it stays liquid at room temperature and absorbs into your system incredibly fast. Olive oil works too, especially for topical use or drizzling over pasta, but it has a lower saturation point. Butter? Sure, but it has milk solids that can burn or go rancid. If you use butter, clarify it first. Honestly, just stick with coconut or MCT for your first few tries. It’s more forgiving.
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The Ratio Game
How strong do you want this to be? A standard "beginner" ratio is one cup of oil to 7-10 grams of flower.
If you have high-tolerance friends, you might go up to an ounce per cup, but that’s getting into "one drop and you're seeing through time" territory. For most people, a quarter-ounce (7g) per cup of oil hits that sweet spot where you can actually cook a meal with it without overdoing it.
The Double Boiler Method (The "Safe" Way)
You don't want to put your oil directly on an open flame. That’s how you get a kitchen fire or scorched cannabinoids. Use a double boiler. If you don't have one, just put a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water.
- Fill the bottom pot with water.
- Put your oil and your decarbed weed in the top section.
- Keep the temperature between 160°F and 200°F.
- Stir it every now and then.
Let it sit. Two hours is the minimum. Three hours is better. Some people go for six, but honestly, after four hours, you’re mostly just pulling out extra chlorophyll, which makes the oil taste increasingly "green" and bitter without adding much potency.
The Slow Cooker Hack
If you have a Crock-Pot, use it. It’s the easiest way to manage how to infuse weed into oil without babysitting a stove. Put your oil and decarbed bud in a Mason jar, seal the lid finger-tight (don't crank it or it might explode from pressure), and set the jar in a water bath inside the slow cooker. Set it to "Low."
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This method is great because it keeps the temperature stable. Most slow cookers on "Low" hover right around 190°F. It’s almost impossible to mess up. Just make sure the water level in the Crock-Pot stays above the oil level in the jar.
The Messy Part: Straining
Once your time is up, let the oil cool down slightly. Don't let it solidify if you're using coconut oil, but don't handle it while it's boiling hot either. You’ll need a fine-mesh strainer and some cheesecloth.
Pro tip: Do not squeeze the cheesecloth too hard.
I know it’s tempting. You see that dark green oil trapped in the plant matter and you want every drop. But when you squeeze it aggressively, you’re forcing bitter waxes and excess chlorophyll into your finished product. Let gravity do the work. If you must squeeze, do it gently.
Store the finished oil in a dark glass jar in the fridge. Light and heat are the enemies of potency. In the fridge, it’ll last for months. In the freezer, it’ll last a year.
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What Most People Get Wrong
People often forget that the quality of the "trim" or flower dictates the final vibe. If you use old, brownish weed that’s been sitting in a drawer for a year, your oil will likely have a high concentration of CBN. This isn't necessarily bad, but it’ll make you extremely sleepy. If you want an uplifting, daytime oil, use fresh, high-quality flower with a terpene profile that matches what you’re looking for.
Another mistake? Forgetting the lecithin. Adding a teaspoon of liquid sunflower lecithin during the infusion process acts as an emulsifier. It helps the oil and cannabinoids bind together better and can actually increase the "bioavailability" of the THC, meaning it might hit you faster and harder. It's not strictly necessary, but it's a pro move.
Real World Application
Once you've mastered the infusion, don't just bake brownies. Think bigger. You can put a teaspoon of the oil into your morning coffee (look up "Bulletproof" style). You can use it as a base for a salve for sore muscles. You can even put it into empty gelatin capsules if you hate the taste of weed but want the benefits.
Just remember: start low and go slow. Edibles take anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours to kick in. Every batch you make will have a slightly different potency because no two plants are the same.
Actionable Next Steps
- Check your oven temp: Most ovens are off by 10-20 degrees. Use an external oven thermometer to ensure you aren't vaporizing your THC during the decarb phase.
- Buy cheesecloth today: You can't use paper towels; they’ll rip and soak up all your expensive oil.
- Source your fat: Grab a jar of organic, refined coconut oil. It has the best shelf life and the highest fat content for the infusion.
- Label your jar: Write the date and the estimated dosage on the jar immediately. There is nothing worse than finding a "mystery oil" in the back of the fridge six months from now.