Sunday is a food trip kind of day. Comfort food like mac and cheese, peanut butter and jelly comes to mind. But what about asparagus and cannabis oil with a citrusy terpene profile? With the recent cannabis legalization, pairing them with food seems to be the new fad.
A new breed of the chef, cannabis chefs, is thriving and experimenting with how to infuse dishes with weed. They are now trying to complement various taste with the intoxicating experience of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) like traditional chefs might pair foods with particular wines. Cannabis in food is not new, but we have never really delved into the exact science of how exacting chefs involved in their preparation has to be.
When you inhale cannabis vapor from a distilled oil, or you smoke pure flower, THC travels along an unobstructed avenue from the lungs right into the bloodstream. From there, the THC molecules head into the brain and interact with the endocannabinoid system, fitting nicely into the CB1 receptor to produce psychoactive effects.
The amount of THC that gets to one's liver varies on whether cannabis was ingested or inhaled. When cannabis is ingested, THC makes a beeline from your stomach to your liver, where your body metabolizes it into something called 11-hydroxy-THC."The liver's main job is to form things soluble, in order that they are often excreted and exit the body," says Jeff Raber, CEO of the Werc Shop, a cannabis lab."If they stayed in our body and built up, wow, it would be bad."
The downside of the liver metabolizing THC is that 11-hydroxy-THC is five times as potent as its precursor. Which is why edibles can hit you so hard, and why cannabis chefs are very methodical about their work.
In the cannabis plant, THC naturally comes in the form of tetrahydrocannabinol acid (THCA), a non-psychoactive component. This non-psychoactive component, when heated, thru a process called decarboxylation, transforms into THC. A cannabis chef would have to figure out how long to heat the cannabis plant and at what temperature."It most likely took an honest month of doing totally different times and temperatures and causation those to a research laboratory," says Michael Magallanes, one of the top cannabis chefs in America.The lab, in turn, gave him THC readings. "Now I have a really consistent way of doing it."
Magallanes infuses cannabis into various kinds of cooking oils, such as coconut or olive.He will then add these oils to things like purees or alternative foods that do not involve high-heat cookery.
Because he's employed with oil as critical infusing mind-altering drug into a meal's main ingredient-Magallanes are often terribly precise together with his doses and tailor them to match guests' preferences."Then it's simply a matter of obtaining the proper plate to the proper person," says Magallanes."I haven't had any complications with that so far."
The high is only part of the experience.Different cannabis varieties categorical totally different compositions of terpenes, the volatile compounds that make weed smell and taste like weed.That means one selection may style like citrus, which Magallanes could add to asparagus with some lemon, complemented with the sourness of hawthorn berry.Another strain may encounter as a lot of mealy, and go well with chicken and mushrooms.
"For me, it's concerning making an attempt to push the boundaries within the preparation world," says Magallanes."I'm making an attempt to supply quality ingredients to place into my food identical manner i might with any ingredient like asparagus.It's just really unexplored."
Just like a tasting menu at a fine edifice may associate with wine pairings, heightening the experience both with additional flavors and drunkenness, so too might cannabis chefs use weedto augment a meal."It's a cerebral expertise that really enhances the flavour and smell and appearance of the food," says Magallanes.
