Cooking with CBD, does it fit?

Cannabidiol one of the main ingredients from the cannabis medicinal plant is becoming more and more known. Science is in the process of finding more and more uses for hemp and its many valuable ingredients. Today we will only deal with CBD, its effect and the preparation of the healing substance.

Cannabidiol is not psychotoxic, unlike the also very well-known ingredient THC, which is contained in the female hemp plants. So there is no narcotic and intoxicating effect when taken. CBD has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and neuroprotective effects. So it does our body and nerves a favor and protects us from nerve and cell damage, unlike its brother the THC.

CBD is fat soluble. Its effect is enhanced four to five times in combination with fat. It is important to understand this in order to be able to use cannabidiol sensibly in cooking. The well-known cannabinoid is extracted from the cannabis plant, but it can also be produced artificially. It is most commonly used medicinally to treat mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders. But it has also helped some epilepsy sufferers and Tourette's sufferers. Even in cancer research there have been some cases where CBD has prevented the spread of tumors.

Taking in different ways

The most common way of taking CBD is to take it as an oil drop by drop under the tongue. Although this method seems simple, it is an extra step in everyday life and is therefore often forgotten. It is more practical to include the active ingredient in the daily food intake, i.e. to cook with CBD.

Image: CBD may be frowned upon, but still has good reasons for positive approval from science. 

Due to the fact that CBD is fat-soluble, as already mentioned, it can be mixed very easily with your favorite cooking oil, should you have a ready CBD oil. If you only have the flowers at home, you can also extract the active ingredient quite easily at home. Most of the time, you use a fat that is solid at room temperature, like butter, for this purpose. However, other fats can also be used. Determine in advance the amount of fat you will need to find the right dosage as well. As a rule of thumb, for 20 grams of fat, you should use 1 gram of flowers. But this is just a rough guide and of course depends on how much active ingredient you want in your finished meal. Cannabidiol has a boiling point of 160 degrees Celsius. So to avoid heating the fat too much, a popular way is to use a water bath. To do this, a large pot should be filled with water. This pot is then heated. Before heating, another smaller pot, or a heat-resistant vessel, filled with the fat, is placed in the large pot. The flowers can then simmer in this for about an hour. But be careful with the duration and temperature, otherwise there could be a loss of active ingredient.

After boiling, you can optionally strain the fat so that the flower residues are filtered out. This step is not necessary if you do not have a problem with eating the flower residues.

Now that you have the most important ingredient, it's time to prepare the final dishes. There are virtually no limits to your creativity here. You can actually prepare anything with the oil that you would otherwise cook. It mixes very well with fats, so it is very suitable as a component in salad dressing. However, dishes that do not contain a lot of fat can also be enriched well with CBD. It could only be a little more difficult to mix the oil. The boiling point of 160 degrees Celsius should also be taken into account. So preferably do not heat the oven to over 160 degrees and continue to prepare to-cook foods in a water bath.

Also, the inherent taste of CBD should not be neglected. CBD tastes slightly nutty to bitter and in some cases a little spicy. So the taste should be well compatible with the dish. To dishes that taste nutty anyway, such as baked goods that contain nuts, various sauces, but also to dark bitter chocolate, the own flavor of the plant fits wonderfully.

CBD is an excellent choice as a dietary supplement and ingredient in some recipes. It's healthy and very easy to get ready-made online at a fair price. It's super easy to prepare, and as its popularity grows, it will become more and more common to find ready-made meals and restaurant dishes that contain CBD. If that's not a reason to try it out?