"He is, it goes without saying, a popular, popular man at dinner parties."
October 16, 2011 8:02 AM   Subscribe

 
In wine country, pot-infused wines are the open secrets that present themselves in unmarked bottles at the end of winemaker dinners and very VIP tours

I heard from a guy who used to know someone who had a friend that told him that that cannabis needed to be mixed with fatty food - like chocolate - in order for the body to take it up.
posted by three blind mice at 8:13 AM on October 16, 2011 [3 favorites]


Alcohol is an okay vector for the active compounds in weed. That's why it's a terrible idea to fill a bong with Laphroaig: the smoke will end up less potent!

More on point, marijuana and fine dining are a supernaturally good pairing. Post legalisation, should that ever occur, I anticipate marijuana apertifs becoming hugely popular.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 8:19 AM on October 16, 2011 [3 favorites]


I used to make a nice herb butter that was great as the base for garlic bread. Make a batch of pot butter as usual, then fold in a bunch of oregano, some black pepper, and a little dried red pepper flakes. Spread on toast with some smushed garlic. Yum.

I was always tempted to try something like pot pesto, but that just seemed like it could go horribly, horribly wrong.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 8:24 AM on October 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I imagine it's near impossible to eat a lethal dose of cannabis. Back in 2001, I knew a dude who decided to fly over from Pakistan to London with a bunch of hash in his stomach. He began the process the day before his morning flight by wrapping and swallowing the majority of his 500 gram haul. He woke up the morning of his flight and swallowed the rest before heading to the airport around 9am. All of a sudden, as he entered the Islamabad airport, he began to feel pretty fucked up. Although he realized that some of his pellets had obviously opened inside him, because he was really short on cash, he decided to still take his flight. He managed to make it to his seat before becoming incapacitated. After 7+ hours of on-board shut eye, he was able to make his way off the plane and through immigration. But here's the point: he only shit out 430-or-so grams of the 500 he ingested.
posted by gman at 8:25 AM on October 16, 2011 [10 favorites]


I went to a baseball game some months ago with friends who make marijuana caramel corn. Sitting in the bleachers with a bunch of punks macking on THC popcorn and drinking beer is just about the most delightful way I can think of to spend an evening.

With the legalization of medical marijuana, there has been an explosion in new recipes and the development of new methods of ingestion, this is a growth industry right now and were a large set of circumstances different in my life right now, it would be a pretty exciting time.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:36 AM on October 16, 2011 [2 favorites]


I love getting mildly stoned to listen to music. That is all.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:38 AM on October 16, 2011 [3 favorites]


I heard from a guy who used to know someone who had a friend that told him that that cannabis needed to be mixed with fatty food - like chocolate - in order for the body to take it up.

Well, the trick is that cannabinoids aren't water soluble. They ARE both fat and alcohol soluble. So when you cook with pot, you use oil or butter to extract the active ingredients from the grassy solids (which your body cannot process very well if at all). This is why you always strain your butter or oil before cooking with it -- there's no point in keeping that now useless plant matter in the recipe if all the good stuff has been leeched out into the fat.

You can also use alcohol, as in making pot wine. You can even just take a long, thin bud and stick it into a bottle of vodka and let it sit in the dark top of a closet for a couple of months and you'll find that a good portion of the happy stuff in the plant has been dissolved into the vodka.
posted by hippybear at 8:43 AM on October 16, 2011 [3 favorites]


Where are the recipes!?
posted by ReeMonster at 8:57 AM on October 16, 2011 [3 favorites]


If one wanted too one could could possibly make an herb butter infused with THC and drizzle it on garlic popcorn as an appetizer for the stylish, grown up sort of party.
posted by The Whelk at 9:10 AM on October 16, 2011


Like many things, Sideways would've been improved with the addition of marijuana.
posted by box at 9:29 AM on October 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


What's with all this, "not to be named" James Beard award winning chef bullshit. It is not like these guys are moving serious weight over the border, they're making some fancy ass NYT style marijuana wines. Nearly everyone I know in the service industry smokes, so the fact they couldn't get some wine growers (in California!) on the record is lazy reporting.
posted by geoff. at 9:31 AM on October 16, 2011


What with all the pot shops opening in Denver, cannabis food is just getting silly: THC cotton candy? Please.
posted by kozad at 9:37 AM on October 16, 2011


I'm one of those people for whom eating any pot-laced food rarely works. When I was 17, I put a good sprinkle of the end of a bag onto a bagel with a schmeer, then took a nap, and woke up 2 hours later, LMAO'ing. Since then, though, I have tried eating numerous pot-laced things (cooked the "correct" way), to no effect. It's a bummer, really, cause I'd rather eat it than smoke it.
posted by not_on_display at 9:40 AM on October 16, 2011


A chef who likes marijuana? Why, I never!
posted by Nelson at 9:43 AM on October 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


It is not like these guys are moving serious weight over the border, they're making some fancy ass NYT style marijuana wines.

Forget about the cops, think about the stoners that are going to be trying to buy from them.
posted by empath at 9:44 AM on October 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I imagine it's near impossible to eat a lethal dose of cannabis.

Maybe, but don't kid yourself. The results of eating too much weed can be brutally unfun (intense paranoia, dehydration, puking). Even Hunter Thompson singles it out as the worst single drug related experience he's ever had. The problem is twofold:

1. in entering your bloodstream via your digestive tract, it takes as much two hours for the THC to achieve full effect, so it's very easy to over-imbibe.

2. comparatively weak marijuana can become quite powerful when cooked, then ingested.

Be careful folks.
posted by philip-random at 9:49 AM on October 16, 2011 [2 favorites]


I was surprised to see so much emphasis on stems. In my experience, stems imparted a bitter woodiness that just couldn't be masked. Maybe I was overdoing them. It's not like they're particularly rich in THC, either, so I don't see the use for them.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 9:50 AM on October 16, 2011


Even Hunter Thompson singles it out as the worst single drug related experience he's ever had.

I would put the time i did a gravity bong of incredibly potent weed (i'm not a regular pot smoker and never was) as one of the worst drug experiences I've ever had. Full blown hallucinations, vomiting, paranoia, etc. Just awful.
posted by empath at 10:00 AM on October 16, 2011


Pot cookies are the only way that I enjoy THC these days, but like others have mentioned, you have to be careful and start off with small amounts. On the plus side, it's an incredibly economical way alter one's consciousness. And, at the risk of TMI, THC takes sex to another level.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:13 AM on October 16, 2011 [3 favorites]


Yeah, too-much-pot doesn't even look like fun from the outside. I went over to a co-op for a party one time, and they had let the hard-cord pot head make the pot brownies. Yeah, don't do that. By the time I got there really everyone was either asleep or curled round a toilet. Or both, intermittently. Yuck.
posted by nat at 10:38 AM on October 16, 2011


(marge simpson voice) Sensible doses people!
posted by The Whelk at 10:39 AM on October 16, 2011 [3 favorites]


You know, aliens would think we'd accept a plant that makes us hungry and want to fuck. I mean, it satisfies evolutionary imperatives, don't it?
posted by angrycat at 10:39 AM on October 16, 2011


My first year attending a Rainbow Gathering, I was given this little cookie by none other than Denis Peron. It was about 2.5" around and was a risen cake cookie about 3/4" tall, wrapped in saran wrap.

He told me to only eat half.

So I ate half.

About 90 minutes later I was wandering around and stuck my hand in my pocket and found this half a cookie, and I was kind of a bit peckish so I ate it.

I don't really remember much else from that night other than meeting my magical friend Timm around a drum circle.

So, yes. Sensible doses, people!
posted by hippybear at 10:48 AM on October 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


Artichokes and *butter*...'nuf said.
posted by psylosyren at 10:48 AM on October 16, 2011


No. Smoke the pot. Then eat...well, just about anything.
posted by jonmc at 10:58 AM on October 16, 2011


I'm with you on that jonmc. Much prefer smoking to any other method of ingesting when it comes to pot.
posted by hippybear at 11:11 AM on October 16, 2011


> Yeah, I imagine it's near impossible to eat a lethal dose of cannabis.

Maybe, but don't kid yourself.


If anyone needs any volunteers for test subjects I'm certainly willing to try. You know, for science.

I've yet to achieve this theoretical-to-me "too stoned" state and it's certainly not from a lack of trying. So far the biggest danger has been eating too much ice cream or cookies or something or (literally) passing out face first in a jar of nutella, and a major sugar hangover is something to behold. Argh, pass the antacids.

A long time ago I lived on a pot farm and if you've ever been around any sort of grow, there's lots and lots of trimming or other plant-based byproducts left over. You see some crazy shit like gallon ziplock bags full of kief, or people scraping hash/resin balls off the table where people trimmed.

Or 55 gallon trash bags full of trimmings and leaf. Lots of those. Maybe 10% or less of a cannabis plant by weight and volume makes it to market.

So, we would cook with weed all the time. In the few months I lived there I don't think there was any food prepared that didn't have some cannabis in it. People would prepare dried sweet leaf like oregano, put it in a spice jar and liberally sprinkle it into spaghetti sauce, or garnish toast with it just because they liked the taste, and why the hell not?

There was usually a pound or two of infused butter in the fridge. Or cooking oil. Or whatever you could cook it into and store it. Sure, we made lots of brownies and cookies.

But then there was the day of pancakes. Well... several days of pancakes.

One morning after the bingo hall capable coffee percolator was full of coffee, someone decided to start making pancakes cooked in infused butter. And then served with infused butter, strong coffee and bowls of straight up kief. This is breakfast.

This is all fine and good and normal for the location - except we have a couple of industrial sized boxes of pancake mix and a gallon jug of syrup and enough cannabis to permabake an elephant and... yeah. Things kind of spiraled out of control from there. The munchies set in and between brief periods of work (or not) we kept making pancakes right on through lunch, into dinner and late into the night. I've never eaten so many pancakes in my life, and I can eat a whole lot of pancakes. And yet I kept getting hungrier and hungrier, and I wasn't alone.

And we just kept making pancakes. Eventually someone ran into town to buy more butter, well, a huge industrial sized tub of canola oil based margarine, and more syrup, and we just kept on eating pancakes.

Man. So, so fucking high. I went to bed high and spinning, and I woke up high and spinning. I swear even my pee smelled like weed. My sweat sure smelled like it. You could have probably achieved a head-changing contact high just by giving me a hug or standing too close. You know that approaching headache and head pressure that says "ok, you've ingested too much cannabis"? Apparently it's jut a wall that you can burst right through and come out the other side feeling like a sinus infection just cleared up after 8 hours of massage in a sauna - loose, limber and like you're walking around on well-oiled rollerskates.

An we kept eating more and more pancakes. I have no idea how many I ate. Over a hundred, easy. And I have no idea how much cannabis that actually was. It wasn't uncommon to watch someone put a few ounces to a half a pound of high grade dried trim into a single pound of butter. To put that much into a pound of butter you just keep straining the plant matter out, simmering at low heat and adding fresh trimmings until the butter turns a deep, dark green and amber color something like the shade of NyQuil. You could permanently dye cloth with this stuff.

A single pancake and smear of green butter would probably be enough to couchlock anyone not ready for it for a day or two. We weren't screwing around. Sure, everyone in the house had huge tolerances built up, but this was a whole different kind of intense. It's entirely probable that each of us consumed the equivalent of several pounds of high grade cannabis trim in the space of a few days.

After the pancake mix was finally gone people went into vegetative states for several days, sleeping it off. I and most of the folks in the house stopped smoking entirely and I was still high and feeling extremely relaxed and flexible for a few days after.

But we couldn't even talk about pancakes. I don't think anyone ever made pancakes again for the rest of my stay there.

I think we actually made a rule about pancakes, as in, don't cook them with cannabis. A pan of brownies eventually ends and takes some planning to cook, but pancakes are kind of open-ended since you can just keep making more and more of them.
posted by loquacious at 11:12 AM on October 16, 2011 [288 favorites]


Being that I hang out with both musicians and comics people you'd think I would have had a bad experience or two but I seem to be chemically immune to paranoia and munchies, the worst side effect I ever had was an overwhelming desire to go to sleep and considering I was in bed at the time, that worked out well.

(Okay there was that one time I missed my stop but that's more of an Awful Things Happen In Astoria story)
posted by The Whelk at 12:20 PM on October 16, 2011


Yeah, I imagine it's near impossible to eat a lethal dose of cannabis.

Maybe, but don't kid yourself.


There is no established LD50 for marijuana. Not because they haven't researched it, but because it has so far been impossible to achieve.
posted by hippybear at 12:45 PM on October 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


Eating it is the way to go in my opinion, just watch out for that fine line between just right and too much.
posted by Liquidwolf at 12:54 PM on October 16, 2011


One word: pesto.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:48 PM on October 16, 2011 [2 favorites]


I went to a baseball game some months ago with friends who make marijuana caramel corn. Sitting in the bleachers with a bunch of punks macking on THC popcorn and drinking beer is just about the most delightful way I can think of to spend an evening.

This sounds absolutely fucking fantastic.
posted by Bron-Y-Aur at 2:10 PM on October 16, 2011


Mary offered to care for the eight-year-old daughter of neighbors who were going away for the weekend. On the Saturday morning, she made breakfast, laying a generous helping of bacon and eggs in front of the child. "Mummy always serves hot pancakes for breakfast" said the eight-year-old.

So Mary hurried into the kitchen and quickly prepared a plate of hot pancakes, which she laid in front of the girl. "No, thank you" she said.

"But I thought you said your mother always has hot pancakes for breakfast!" said Mary.

She does, said the child. But I don't eat them
posted by growabrain at 2:32 PM on October 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


ReeMonster: "Where are the recipes!"

What I'd love to see more is an exhaustive inquiry from the obsessives over at Cooks Illustrated. Surely there's an empirically ideal infusion?
posted by mkultra at 4:04 PM on October 16, 2011 [4 favorites]


Previously on MetaFilter: "Is there any chance there would be some Brain Death left?"
posted by revgeorge at 4:30 PM on October 16, 2011


In the 70s the first wife and I cooked pot into various dishes. Spaghetti sauce, brownies, those Pillsbury cinnamon rolls...

Then there was the time we made chocolate pudding with a chunk of ground up hash. We each had a little bowl and then took the subway to a 24 hour Pathmark on 190th street in Manhattan at 3:00 AM.

Halfway through shopping my legs turned to rubber. Apparently this happened to the wife as well. We left a full shopping cart in the middle of the store and staggered out trying to hold each other up. We were laughing hysterically. The security guard wouldn't come near us. The train ride home was like a dream.

I do not recall getting off of the train. But we woke up the next day in the afternoon, naked, wrapped in sweaty sheets. We were starving. But we never finished shopping!
posted by Splunge at 4:41 PM on October 16, 2011


I happen to love cooking with marijuana. my freezer usually had a vaccuum sealed container of individually wrapped brownie squares or cookies. convenient because even after a year of being in there, they were just as potent. and the high from eating hits much harder and much longer. I can smoke and be 'down' like an hour later. one brownie and that smooth plateau lasts hours. I've sprinkled it on pizza before baking and blended into pasta sauce (reductions with butter are amazing).

plus a brownie is very easy and inconspicuous. works really well for public places.

I do have to say though, I enjoy rolling my own and smoking it. I like the action of lighting it up and passing it around.

when can we have sensible drug policy? probably after we have sensible economic policy. which will be never.
posted by ninjew at 5:01 PM on October 16, 2011 [2 favorites]


empath wrote: I would put the time i did a gravity bong of incredibly potent weed (i'm not a regular pot smoker and never was) as one of the worst drug experiences I've ever had. Full blown hallucinations, vomiting, paranoia, etc. Just awful.

WTF was that laced with?
posted by wierdo at 5:25 PM on October 16, 2011


I love edibles, especially now that my lungs won't put up with me smoking anymore. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't the point of the (hilarious) story, but damn do I ever want some special pancakes right now!
posted by Space Kitty at 5:40 PM on October 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


yeah also mj posts always make me want to smoke and dammit I have too much to do tomorrow so i can't tonight grrrr

oh and I meant to ad, I always get a kick out of what happens when you eat mj. sometimes it can take an hour plus, so you're sitting there reading or whatever and thinking "wtf that didn't work". and then "omg why is it 3am and my contacts are glued to my eyeballs and I love this album and hey wouldn't it be cool if I could go to India tomorrow"
posted by ninjew at 6:14 PM on October 16, 2011 [9 favorites]


WTF was that laced with?

Just a combination of me being a lightweight, but also knowing how to take a bong hit like a champ.
posted by empath at 6:17 PM on October 16, 2011


I'm hungry...
posted by brando_calrissian at 6:32 PM on October 16, 2011


Yeah, I gotta tell you guys, there are some people who shouldn't get high. The last time I smoked, it was some of that crazy high class weed people smoke nowadays so I'm pretty sure it wasn't half PCP or something. I could not stand, I mean really could not stand, every time I tried to stand I fell over. I crawled to the bathroom and threw up for what seemed like hours. The entire room was spinning and moving in weird ways. The only time I ever felt closer to death was a time in high school when I decided to make a Jack and coke in a super gulp cup, shouldn't have used a whole bottle I guess. Anyway, after I finally woke up having passed out in the bathroom floor covered in bruises from falling over half a dozen time I decided to stick to safer ways of getting fucked up, such as fourloco and goldschlager.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:57 PM on October 16, 2011


I have heard that firecrackers are a fun thing to try. Cut the herbs into really small pieces, and mix 1/2 tsp of herbs to 2 Tbsp peanut butter. Mix thoroughly. Spread this onto a graham cracker or a (heh) Stoned Wheat Thin, and then top with another cracker. Use a spatula so you don't miss any peanut butter mix. It will be thick, like 1/4 inch of peanut butter. Wrap the crackers tightly in foil and bake at 350 for 25 minutes. There will be no smell when it cooks, except maybe a peanut butter smell.

When they have cooled, I have heard that you can eat one for a nice comfortable medium effect. Always eat them on a reasonably empty stomach for maximum predictability of effect/onset. Also be aware these things are 200 calories each. (Still better bang for your buck/calories than pints at the pub!)
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 10:07 PM on October 16, 2011 [4 favorites]


Firecrackers are amazing as I can attested. A little goes a long way. First time I made them was for a friend and I as we head to see Ween. I don't think I could of asked for anything better.

I am so jealous of pancakes now.
posted by handbanana at 6:29 AM on October 17, 2011


but pancakes are kind of open-ended since you can just keep making more and more of them.

I can't even begin to articulate how much I love this concept (and the rest of the comment in general). I just want to take every other line and make a Metafilter: tagline out of it.

But now I'm craving open-ended pancakes.

Damn it.
posted by quin at 8:35 AM on October 17, 2011 [3 favorites]


MetaFilter: craving open-ended pancakes
posted by hippybear at 6:50 PM on October 17, 2011


« Older Playa Time Lapse Project   |   F*ck You! Pay Me! Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments