The Basics Of CBD Cooking Products
When you’re cooking with CBD, there are some basic products that you can gather to make the experience better. First of all, should you use your fancy tincture for cooking? Well, that’s up to you, really. There are all kinds of products on the market now, like CBD-infused olive oils and the like. When purchasing any type of CBD product, make sure they’re up to scratch on best practices. You want an oil free from pesticides, herbicides, and other harmful chemicals that you don’t want in your food or your body.
Can you use a CBD tincture for cooking with?
Sure. It all depends on how you’re preparing the food. Cooking with CBD oil is all about getting creative and using the oil in a way that will elevate the taste of the food, especially if it’s a flavorful tincture. For example, you can drizzle it on a salad or even blend it into a smoothie.
We’ll get into some of the rules of cooking with CBD oil, but first, let’s talk about the potential difference between CBD oil and hemp oil.
The Difference Between CBD Oil & Hemp Oil
You may be wondering if there’s a difference between CBD oil and hemp oil. And it depends on what the ingredients are. Due to a lack of regulation surrounding how CBD and hemp products are labeled, a tincture could be labeled hemp oil and contain no CBD at all. In fact, it could actually be hemp seed oil which comes from the seeds of the hemp plant yet doesn’t contain many of the powerhouse cannabinoids found in the buds, leaves, and stem of the plant.
While CBD oil and hemp seed oil aren’t the same things, both can be used in cooking, with the latter being the most popular cooking choice as it is high in other vitamins and nutrients. To learn more in-depth about the differences between CBD and hemp oil, check out this article.
Baking With CBD Oil
Baking with CBD oil is a fun way to make your own edibles. You can control the ingredients and the CBD serving size and say goodbye to all the high-fructose corn syrups and other ingredients you don’t want. When baking with edibles, you’ll likely experience CBD at a slower rate because your body will process the CBD oil through the digestive system.
When baking with CBD oil, you’ll want to be mindful of a few things.
The temperature. If it gets too hot hot hot, you’ll potentially burn off all the good stuff. A safe temperature tends to be around 320 and 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Any higher, and you could destroy the active compounds in the CBD.
The serving size. One of the tricky parts about making CBD edibles, in general, is the unpredictability of the serving size. For example, if you make a tray of brownies and hope to have around 20 pieces with 5 mg each, you’d use 100 mg of CBD in the batter. But if you mix it all in and then spread the batter in a pan, you might have more oil in one section of the pan than the other. So you’ll want to make sure everything is mixed well or that you add the CBD oil to each serving.
Storage. CBD oil is susceptible to light and heat. The process of making CBD oil itself is very technical, so it’s essential to store your baked goods in an airtight container in a cool, dry place to help preserve freshness and the quality and efficacy of the CBD oil.
What You Need To Know About Cooking With CBD Oil
We’ve touched a couple of the essentials of baking with CBD, and those ideals carry over into cooking with CBD and hemp oil, too. Temperature is the biggest consideration for using CBD oil for any type of baking or cooking. If you boil it or drop CBD oil into a hot pan, it’s likely to damage the active compounds in the CBD or dampen its effectiveness.
When cooking with CBD oil, it might be worthwhile only to add the oil to a product once it has been removed from the heat source or is lower heat in the case of baking. However, it’s uncertain what the heat will do to the efficacy of a product, so some experimentation is likely in order.
If you need some inspiration for how to use CBD oil in your food, we’ve got some ideas for you.
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Add CBD oil to a cocktail for a fun twist on your evening drink.
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Top off your favorite salad with this beneficial oil and preserve its compounds.
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Measure out some CBD tincture to add into a smoothie for an added boost.
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Drizzle over a steak or other meats that might pair well with the plant oil.
When trying out new ways to consume CBD oil, the key is to be consistent and patient. With food, your CBD is going through the gut have to process the food and the CBD before releasing it into the body, so it may not be as fast-acting as anticipated. As with most edibles and CBD experiences, start small or as directed by your health care provider. You’ll want to consume mindfully, even if you aren’t feeling anything for a while, otherwise, you may take more than your comfortable with. So head on over to your kitchen and have some fun playing with new ways to consume CBD oil!