Cannabis advice: Infused Thanksgiving cooking tips

Twice a month, American comedian, musician, writer, actor, activist, juggler, and publisher Ngaio Bealum—host of the Netflix show Cooking on High and trivia app Daily Bonfire—answers Leafly reader’s questions about that cannabis life. This week, Danksgiving cooking tips!

Question: Marijuana cooking tips

Dear, Ngaio,

Hey, so since I’m NOT going home for Thanksgiving, I’ve decided to make a cannabis-infused holiday meal for my housemates.

I’m a good cook, but I’ve never really made edibles before.

You got any advice?

—Fran Berry-Sauce

Answer:

Dear, Fran,

First of all, I would like to applaud you and your housemates for being conscientious during this pandemic. Well played.

To business: cooking with cannabis is easy. THC is fat-soluble, so any recipe that uses fat (like cake or gravy or whipped cream or buttered carrots) can be infused with cannabis. Cannabis butters and oils are easy to make.

The thing is: if you infuse every dish with cannabis, and people go back for seconds and thirds (as people tend to do on Thanksgiving), you run the risk of getting everyone too high to move and they won’t be able to help you with the dishes after the meal.

You can handle this a few ways:

1) Make a low-strength butter. If your cannabis is 20% THC and you use 10 grams to make butter, your butter will contain a bit less than 2 grams, or 200 milligrams of THC. Who says no one uses algebra? YAY STONER MATH!

1a) Conversely, skip the math and buy expertly infused THC cooking oils in your legal state (like Heavenly sweet cannabutter in Los Angeles.)

2) Either way, use it sparingly, so folks only get, like, one or two milligrams of THC per serving.

3) Or maybe only infuse a few dishes—perhaps the sauces, the gravy, and maybe the sweet potatoes—so people can make their own decisions about how high they want to get.

4) Try to have some coffee (it counteracts the THC) and some sort of CBD-heavy tincture or flowers on hand as well. CBD blocks THC on brain receptors and is really useful for fighting the effects of accidental overindulgence.

—Bon Appetit,

Ngaio

P.S. Oh yeah, on an artistic note: Don’t just think of cannabis as a drug. If you are somewhat of a fancy-in-your-chef-pants sort of cook, remember that weed is an herb and terpenes can add accents and flavor profiles to your dishes. It’s similar to rosemary.

Maybe grind up a little Lemon Haze and add it to your vinaigrette, or sprinkle a little Trainwreck on the rosemary roasted potatoes after you take them out of the oven.

Use your imagination and some common sense, and your meal will be delicious and memorable.

Question: What’s Danksgiving?

Dear, Ngaio,

Um, when is “Danksgiving”?

—Cal Ender

Answer:

Hey, Cal,

I’m glad you asked. Danksgiving is the newest stoner holiday.

Okay, maybe it isn’t a holiday yet, but we are trying to make it happen. November 30th is the day. Why?

Because 11/30 is what you get when you add 4/20 and 7/10. DOOBS AND DABS FOR EVERYONE!

I hope Father Spliffmas brings me a new rig this year.

Happy Danksgiving!

—Ngaio

Leafly readers respond:

Regarding Nov. 11th’s ‘How do I clean a bong?’

“My recommendation is to use Everclear instead, since it’s grain-based and therefore edible. Otherwise, I agree with this being the easiest way to get it clean.”

—Gothiczar

Send questions, comments, and concerns to askngaio@leafly.com, or comment below!