# Marijuana in Food - Why Is It Always Brownies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 30, 2008, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724 "2008-06-30T02:19:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Danalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Danalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danalan)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/21 "2008-06-30T07:42:53Z")
[Here is a story](http://rockhoppersdailygrind.blogspot.com/2007/08/someone-told-me-marijuana-was-herb.html) from Mrs. danalan – she cooked up some ‘special’ chicken one night. I’ve probably related this story here somewhere, but searching for ‘marijuana’ on the board is futile. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/22 "2008-06-30T09:06:47Z")
Although those with more-refined palates might insist on using THC-infused butter, it is certainly possible to use ground-up leaves and buds in the batter and achieve results that most brownie consumers would find satisfactory. In fact, most potheads of my acquaintance would have scoffed at putting in the effort involved in extracting the active ingredient from the plant when the intent was to create a drug delivery system, not a Betty Crocker award-winning confection. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/23 "2008-06-30T10:03:40Z")
Here in Banda Aceh, they use marijuana as a traditional seasoning in a lot of local dishes. It is so common that if you tell staff to go get you coffee, you have to make clear you want it sans weed. I don’t know if it gets you high the way they use it, but it is common in soups and curries as well. ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/24 "2008-06-30T13:55:47Z")
[QUOTE=SmartAleq] The major advantage is that brownies don’t show the special ingredients and are therefore pretty unobtrusive to have and consume–as opposed to say special Rice Krispy treats, which are one of the tastiest and simplest to make pot foods but are pretty unmistakeably “not quite right,” and don’t pass the cursory visual inspection what with being bright green and all. [/QUOTE] This is what I was coming in to say. Brownies for the sake of a fudgy baked confection, for sure, but the color makes them stealth-special-snacks, unlike my personal favorite: special banana bread, which is definitely greenish in appearance. Brownies are about the only baked good you can make that isn’t bud-butter-green. By the way, your cookies sound fabulous. I spend a lot of time with terminally ill medical marijuana patients. I won’t ask for your jealously guarded recipe, but I might start playing around to find one of my own. It sounds like it would be a godsend for some. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/25 "2008-06-30T14:03:33Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] I read once that brownies are used because they are baked at a heat high enough to break down the marijuana’s very tough cell walls and release the THC. [/QUOTE] Brownies are baked at the same temperature as cakes and cookies. If high heat were optimal, we’d have pot pizza since it cooks at a much higher temperature than most baked goods. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/26 "2008-06-30T14:11:00Z")
I’ve seen it in yogurt. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/27 "2008-06-30T14:18:31Z")
The first season DVD of \*Weeds \*has a ton of “special” recipes. 😉 Brownies \*do \*seem to be the most common in literature and IRL. Hey, they’re quick, easy, effective and chocolate! What’s not to love? ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/28 "2008-06-30T14:43:20Z")
[QUOTE=elfkin477] Brownies are baked at the same temperature as cakes and cookies. If high heat were optimal, we’d have pot pizza since it cooks at a much higher temperature than most baked goods. [/QUOTE] Good God: _Pizza Pot Pie_. Genius! ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/29 "2008-06-30T14:49:08Z")
Ganja Butter. The only way to go - use it in anything that calls for butter. I won’t get into how to make it, but suffice it to say it’s quite simple. My personal favorite is a recipe my ex made quite a bit - Cranberry White Chocolate Macadamia cookies. 1 jar of butter makes about 120 cookies, and 3 cookies will do ya just fine! ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/30 "2008-06-30T14:52:27Z")
Can I have a **[cannabis coffee](http://www.drugs-plaza.com/recipescannabisandcoffee.htm)** with my brownies, please? ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/31 "2008-06-30T15:27:06Z")
[QUOTE=ivan astikov] Can I have a **[cannabis coffee](http://www.drugs-plaza.com/recipescannabisandcoffee.htm)** with my brownies, please? [/QUOTE] AFAIK, like all water-based cannabis recipes, it’s nice if you like the taste, but any mind altering affects are purely placebo based. Which, you know, is not a BAD thing, but it’s not a cannabis thing. If you soaked some hashish in heavy cream for a while and then put \*that \*in your coffee, OTOH… ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/32 "2008-06-30T15:28:52Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] I’ve seen it in yogurt. [/QUOTE] I’ve [drunk it in yogurt](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=2499902#post2499902). Bad, bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/33 "2008-06-30T15:40:11Z")
Why not just _smoke_ it, old boy?[/Olivier] ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/34 "2008-06-30T16:23:24Z")
[QUOTE=Scumpup] Why not just _smoke_ it, old boy?[/Olivier] [/QUOTE] 1. Lung irritation 2. Taste 3. High Opal! 4. Tar/cancerous chemicals in the smoke 5. No papers/pipe/bong handy 6. Different effects from unburned cannabis (anecdotal reports - eating it gives more of a “body high”.) 7. Personal preference 8. No smell for the landlady 9. Easy to hide your stash from the cops if it’s in the fridge in food form 10. Profit! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/35 "2008-06-30T16:45:56Z")
[QUOTE=Hirka T’Bawa] So, you can make anything that requires butter in it. So that pretty much excludes Lasagna (but wouldn’t that be great.. pot lasagna.. yummy!). [/QUOTE] There’s plenty of fat in lasagna. What if you put in the pot with the butter in the bechamel sauce (if you’re doing a bechamel-based lasagna) or in with the olive oil and onions in your bolognese base? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/36 "2008-06-30T16:54:36Z")
[QUOTE=SmartAleq] I have a jealously guarded secret recipe handed down from my mom for “special” granola cookies. I make them sometimes for medicinal users who have a hard time keeping food down. They taste fabulous, have enough fiber and fruit in them to overcome opiate related constipation [/quote] How is that relevant? Marijuana is not an opiate. Is it intended to treat something that occurs in tandem with heavy opiate use? ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/37 "2008-06-30T16:57:21Z")
[QUOTE=Meltdown] Watching a recent episode of Swingtown (in which they pulled out that old cliche, the pot brownie) got me thinking – why is it always brownies? Why not chocolate chip cookies? Or lasagna? Is there something special about brownies that complements (or masks) the taste of marijuana, or is it just lazy writing? [/QUOTE] In the late 1970s, most of the people who cooked with pot (whom I knew anyway) made brownies. I’m not sure why, especially since some of us at the time were hip to the tradition of cannabis confectionary such as _majouns_ and Moroccan butter cookies – perhaps it had something to do with the general idea of hedonistic indulgence being exemplified by gooey chocolate brownies, or maybe it was because they figured brownies were the easiest kind of baked goods to make.I think the reason it’s always brownies that are referred to in the movies, on TV etc is because it became sort of folk knowledge back then that “you can put marijuana in brownies”, even to people who knew diddly squat about the stuff otherwise and so it became a kind of cultural shorthand. I think it is a bit lazy myself; it would behoove the writers to research their subject a bit more. The scope of green cuisine widened radically sometime in the mid to late 1990s as far as I know, with the appearance of [medicinal] cannabis buyers’ clubs. At the medical cannabis outlets here, a wide variety of herbally-enhanced sweet things have been made available from the start. The main reason the emphasis is still on baked goods _could_ be as simple as those being things which use a lot of butter or shortening to make – once you have greenbutter, y’see, you can do about anything with it that you could with the regular kind, or with lard or Crisco, for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/38 "2008-06-30T17:22:05Z")
[QUOTE=Cosmic Relief] How is that relevant? Marijuana is not an opiate. Is it intended to treat something that occurs in tandem with heavy opiate use? [/QUOTE] I thought about pouncing on that as well, but I concluded that a lot of people with anorexia due to wasting diseases like cancer are probably on prescribed opiates, and certainly a high fiber diet is often recommended for such patients to help alleviate opiate induced constipation. Getting “the munchies” from the THC is a good thing when you have no appetite and you’re sick, and getting fiber while you’re at it is a bonus. ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/39 "2008-06-30T18:12:55Z")
[QUOTE=Cosmic Relief] How is that relevant? Marijuana is not an opiate. Is it intended to treat something that occurs in tandem with heavy opiate use? [/QUOTE] Most of the people I’ve known who were being treated for cancer were getting large doses of morphine for the pain. One of the things medical cannabis is prescribed for is the nausea and anorexia associated with treatments for cancer. So in that case, I’d expect opiates and marijuana to go hand in hand. ---
**Author:** ![bufftabby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bufftabby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bufftabby)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724/40 "2008-06-30T18:22:33Z")
[QUOTE=TWDuke] Although those with more-refined palates might insist on using THC-infused butter, it is certainly possible to use ground-up leaves and buds in the batter and achieve results that most brownie consumers would find satisfactory. In fact, most potheads of my acquaintance would have scoffed at putting in the effort involved in extracting the active ingredient from the plant when the intent was to create a drug delivery system, not a Betty Crocker award-winning confection. [/QUOTE] I think there’s a huge taste difference between the two methods, and I think that extracting the THC into the butter yields a much better flavor. When I’ve had the kind that just have the plant matter dumped in there, they’re nearly inedible. When using clarified butter, the flavor mixes with the chocolate in a super-delicious fashion, that I find to be _definitely_ worth the extra trouble. Most potheads of _my_ acquaintance would scoff at _not_ putting in the effort. YPHMMV. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marijuana-in-food-why-is-it-always-brownies/454724.md?page=3)