Ask Cheri

Marijuana Marinades: When To Use Them and When Not To 

By Cheri Sicard
November 20, 2019

Dear Cheri, 

After all these years it is so nice to be able to have access and open talk regarding this precious plant.  So thank you for what you are doing, particularly regarding dosing and recipes.

My question for you today is regarding beef marinade. I'd love to make this for Christmas gifts, but using an alcohol tincture is out of the question for me. What would the repercussions to quality be if I substituted my own glycerine based tincture? 

OK, we really have two questions here.  Let's go! LOL.

When and When Not to Use Marijuana Marinades

Inexpensive meat injector from the dollar store.

First I generally do not recommend making medicated marinades.  It's a waste of weed, unless you just happen to have bunches laying around that's going to waste. (Don't laugh, that happens for some people, especially some home growers who don't go through their entire harvests).

I say it is a waste because while some marinade is absorbed in the meat, most gets thrown away.  This is because once the meat gets cooked, the marinade the raw meat was soaking in is not something you want to eat for food safety reasons.

The one exception is in instances where you can use an injector needle and actually inject the marinade into the meat, as I do in this marijuana deep-fried turkey tutorial.

This technique can also work for beef and other meats.

Also, while the above tutorial is for fried turkey, I have used it with great success for roast turkey as well.  This has the added bonus of lightly medicated dippings to use to make gravy.

If you can't inject your marinade into the meat, my suggestion is to medicate a different dish in which you actually add the cannabis into the food itself.

Marijuana Deep Fried Turkey

How to Best Add Cannabis to Marijuana Marinades

As to the second part of your question, glycerin would not be my choice.  Not only would it add a lot of sweet flavor, but it also would not be that effective.

The problem with glycerin tinctures is that glycerin can only absorb about 1/3 of the amount of cannabinoids that oil or butter can.  Likewise, glycerin tinctures are never that potent.  As marinades are already a less potent form of medicating foods, doing so with glycerin would usually result in ultra-low dosed edibles.

That said, to make marijuana marinades I would use medicated oil, as I do in the turkey tutorial.  With different flavor profiles these could work for beef or other meats as well (in fact, some of the turkey marinade recipes could also be used for beef.

That said, the bottom line is, I do not advise making marinades for soaking meats in at all.  But injectable marinades can work quite well.

Marijuana Infused Marinades

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About the author

Cheri Sicard is the author of Mary Jane: The Complete Marijuana Handbook for Women, and The Easy Cannabis Cookbook.  Her online courses at Cannademy.com have educated 1000s of students about marijuana, cannabis cooking for home cooks, and making infused topicals.

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