Cannabis-Infused Olive Oil

Cannabis-infused olive oil is a clean, vegan base you can substitute one-for-one for plain oil (or butter) in almost any recipe. Doing both the decarboxylation and the infusion in sealed mason jars via the Instant Pot’s sous vide setting solves the two usual headaches: holding a steady low temperature, and keeping the strong cannabis smell out of the house. Take care with dosing — start low, and blend with plain oil to dial in a comfortable strength. YMMV.

Made with butter instead of oil, this is the classic “cannabutter.” Swap equal weights and the method is identical.

Source

Adapted from Leafly — oven method reworked for sealed-jar sous vide.

Special Equipment

• Instant Pot / multicooker with a Sous Vide setting (8-qt used here)
• Pint mason jar(s) with lids
• Hand or herb grinder
• Trivet (keeps the jar off the pot floor)
• Cheesecloth or fine-mesh strainer

Ingredients

• 7–10g (¼–⅓ oz) cannabis flower, ground — see the dosing note
• 240ml (1 cup, ~220g) olive oil

Instructions

1. Decarboxylate — sealed jar, sous vide

Decarb is what activates the THC; skip or shortcut it and the oil comes out weak.

1. Grind the flower to a coarse, even consistency — not a powder.
2. Jar it dry: add the ground flower to a pint mason jar, no liquid. Seat the lid finger-tight only (it must be able to vent — never crank it down in a heat bath).
3. Set up the bath: place the jar on the trivet, fill the pot with water to the jar’s shoulder, and brace or weight the jar so it can’t float or tip.
4. Run it hot: set Sous Vide to its maximum (≈195–203°F / 90–95°C, model-dependent) for 90 minutes. If your ceiling is at the low end (~195°F), give it closer to 2 hours for a complete decarb.
5. Cool, then vent: lift the jar out and let it cool a few minutes before opening — and crack it under a running vent hood or outdoors. That brief opening is the only real smell release in the whole process.

Honest caveat — potency vs. smell. The Instant Pot’s sous-vide ceiling (~195–203°F) sits below the oven’s 245°F decarb temperature, so this method activates the flower at the cool end of the useful range — you trade a little activation efficiency for near-zero household smell. That’s a fine deal when you calibrate dose by blending anyway. If you want maximum potency confidence, decarb the sealed jar with Pressure Cook (High) for ~40 minutes instead: it reaches a hotter, more reliable temperature while staying just as contained (sealed jar, sealed pot). Rotate or shake the jar partway, since a pressurized jar heats less evenly than a dry oven roast.

2. Infuse — sous vide

1. Add the oil: pour the 240ml olive oil into the jar with the decarbed flower. The oil should fully submerge it — that’s what gives an even extraction. Re-seat the lid finger-tight.
2. Bath again: jar on the trivet, water filled to the oil line.
3. Infuse low: Sous Vide at 185°F (85°C) for 4 hours. No water goes inside the jar — unlike butter, oil isn’t separated from water afterward, so there’s nothing to chill-and-lift.

3. Strain and store

1. Let the jar cool until warm but still pourable.
2. Strain through cheesecloth into a clean jar. Don’t wring the cloth hard — squeezing forces fine plant matter and chlorophyll through, which adds a grassy, bitter taste. Let it drip.
3. Cap and refrigerate.

Side Quest: Pressure-Cook infusion (faster)

Once the flower is decarbed (Step 1), you can trade the 4-hour sous-vide infusion for a quick pressure cook — handy when you don’t want to wait:

1. Decarbed flower + 240ml olive oil in the jar, lid finger-tight, on the trivet, water around it to the oil line.
2. Pressure Cook (High) for 30 minutes, then a full natural release (~20 min).
3. Strain as above.

About an hour start to finish instead of four, at the cost of a slightly less gentle infusion. Just as low-smell — it’s still a sealed jar inside a sealed pot.

No Instant Pot? Oven method (original)

• Decarb: 245°F for ~30 min, stirring every 10. Sealing the flower in a mason jar in the oven (same temp, ~45–60 min) cuts the smell dramatically versus open on a sheet — open the cooled jar under a vent.
• Infuse: combine oil and decarbed flower in an oven-safe dish and hold at ~175–200°F for 2–3 hours, stirring occasionally, then strain. The hard part is holding that temperature steady — which is exactly why the sous-vide method exists.

Notes

• Dosing — read this. Potency is driven mostly by the flower’s THC%, not the gram range. As a rough sanity check, ~10g at ~20% THC yields very roughly 1,200–1,600 mg THC per cup of oil, on the order of 25–35 mg per teaspoon — strong. The “serves 16” figure is a measuring unit (1 tbsp), not a dose. Calibrate by blending infused oil with plain oil, and start small.
• Olive oil character: light/refined olive oil tastes neutral; extra-virgin carries olive flavor into the finished dish. Either works.
• Cooking with it later: olive oil’s lowish smoke point doesn’t matter during the 185°F infusion, but keep heat moderate when you cook with the finished oil — high heat degrades cannabinoids.
• Butter version: substitute 225g (1 cup) butter for the oil and follow the same steps; that’s traditional cannabutter. With butter, add a splash of water to the infusion jar and chill the strained result so the butter sets on top, lifting cleanly off the water.

Storage

Refrigerate in an airtight jar for up to 2 months, or freeze for longer. Keep it away from light and heat, which slowly degrade potency. Bring to room temperature before measuring — chilled olive oil thickens.