Got Cannamilk?

It occurred to me while writing another recipe (that called for cannamilk) for our Great Recipes While High series that we don’t have a recipe for cannamilk! In professional kitchens we have what we refer to as “mother” sauces. A mother sauce is a sauce (like marinara, demi-glace, béchamel, etc.) that you use as a base ingredient in many other dishes.

Cannamilk could be considered a “mother sauce” in the world of edible cannabis as it really can be substituted into any recipe that calls for milk (medicated cereal milkshake, anyone?), making it versatile like cannabutter or cannaoil.

Here’s What You Need:

7 cups of whole milk (not low-fat)

3 cups of heavy whipping cream (there is also just “whipping cream”– opt for the heavy)

¼ oz. – ½ oz. of cannabis (this amount will vary based on the potency of your bud and if you’re using flowers or leaves etc. Cannamilk tends to fall on the strong side, so it may behoove you to start with less and increase your next batch if you need more.)

Medium sauce pan

Stainless steel mixing bowl (this bowl should be big enough to contain all the ingredients while still leaving a little room to stir without spilling. It also needs to be able to sit stably on top of the sauce pan.)

Whisk or mixing spoon

Cheese cloth or terry cloth (coffee filters will work in a pinch)

How to Make Cannamilk:

Cooking: put several inches of water in your sauce pan (not so much that it would touch the bottom of the steel bowl) and bring to a slight boil.

While your water is heating up, combine the milk, cream, and cannabis in the steel bowl and stir/whisk the ingredients together well.

The water should be close to a boil by now, reduce it to a simmer and place your steel bowl on top of the sauce pan. In the cooking world, we call this a bain marie. Effectively, you are using the water in the sauce pan as a heat buffer. The steam will rise and touch the bottom of the steel bowl and your cannamilk will heat evenly and be able to reach the nice high temperature needed to properly decarboxylate without the risk of scalding or curdling your dairy products. Some cannamilk recipes out there just have you heating the cannamilk directly in the pan. This is technically a viable approach, but requires much more babysitting. You have to stir it non-stop or it will burn on the bottom, or worse, start to curdle. Accidentally heat-curdled dairy doesn’t really go down well, even with cannabis infused.

Once all your ingredients are in the bowl and it’s resting comfortably atop the sauce pan, hang close by for a bit and give your cannamilk a stir here and there. Check the water a few times, too, sometimes the bowl will act like a lid containing heat and you may inadvertently return to a full boil even without increasing the heat of the stove. What you’re looking for here is slightly simmering water. You want it to be hot enough to put off a good steady steam, but not reach a boil. [HIGHER HEAT DOES NOT LEAD TO MORE POTENT CANNAMILK, JUST RUINED MILK AND WASTED WEED!].

After you’re pretty certain that your cannamilk is properly heating, just let it cook! At a minimum, allow at least 30 minutes of steeping time. On the maximum end, I would say no longer than about 3 hours. At some point, there is no more THC that will come out of the cannabis and you’re just cooking plant matter beyond its useful range.

If enough time has passed, remove the bowl from the bain marie and strain the mixture through the cheese cloth (or whatever you have) to filter out the plant matter.

Cool it in the fridge and use to your heart’s desire!

Again, cannamilk tends to be on the rather strong side, so start small!

A note on using whole milk/cream: THC needs to bind with fat. Using a lower fat milk will result in wasted bud, you can cook it just like the recipe says, but without high fat content, you will not get the full bang your bud can deliver. This is why I add heavy whipping cream to the mix, it gives a nice boost of fat for the THC to completely bond. You can also use just heavy whipping cream, but I like to mix it with whole milk as heavy whipping cream is more viscous and can lead to complications in other dishes that require a little bit more aqueous cannamilk.

Cool note: I have seen cannamilk made and then frozen in a standard ice cube tray. This is a great way to both titrate your dosage amount and prevent food spoilage. While your bud might not “go bad,” dairy products most certainly will!