Hello everyone. First time in this category, but I’ve done a few grow journals over the years.
I’ve made a couple batches of butter which have gone over very well.
I use 40g decarbed cannabis, 1 cup water, 4.5 sticks Kerrygold un-salted butter and sunflower lecithin.
After the cook, I chill everything that makes it through the straining process. It separated nicely like this …
I separate the butter, re-melt and make my blocks …
Now the main question: What can I do with the left over butter sludge?
I did a test melt, and it liquifies and re-hardens so there are fats there, which means THC can be bound in there. I don’t see any of the water I used so it was either taken in or evaporated.
Should I re-liquify that all down and “rinse and repeat”? I’d hate too throw that out, seems like it could be put into something that could be edible. Like a lard?
Not sure what you mean by butter sludge.
It’s most likely water as it’s denser that the rest of the cannabutter. While it’s possible for there to be some THC (basically anything beyond the oil’s carrying capacity), it will mainly be wastewater with various leftover lipids, waxes, and other waste. I wouldn’t bother trying to salvage that. You may want to also scrape the bottom of your butter to further remove any sediment. Doing so will improve the overall taste.
Next time use Ghee or take the time to make your own clarified butter and you won’t have that issue. Ghee doesn’t have the water content of fresh butter.
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Interesting. I thought about ghee, but I moved it to my ‘experimental down the road’ list. My next plan was to try coconut oil because I want to make chocolates next before all hallows eve. 
I have weeks to plan that one.
I did scrape the paste off the butter before being re-melted into those molds. But it only came out to 8oz liquid when I used about 18 oz. That’s what set my radar. There was too much loss, which is why I saved it while I read around.
@Brobdab and you were right, if you look closely at the paste picture, you can see the little butter globules that had fallen to the bottom. When I saw those, I took the “what have I got to lose approach” and I remelted it down earlier this morning before reading. I put it on the “keep warm” burner and just let it liquify and did not stir. I could see the separation in the pyrex. I let it cool and got a second puck. I didn’t stir at all, I just let gravity do its thing. I didn’t scrape the top, but looking back after it cooled, I should have.
Four hours later…
I scraped that goop off with a spatula and I’m not disappointed. I think I found 3.5 of my missing 4.5 sticks lol. I expected about 1.5 sticks lost in transit. I have not measured this puck yet. I ran out of time due to processing.
Don’t hate that last picture, I threw it in the freezer on wax paper. I also let that butter go more ‘au naturale’. LOL. I didn’t scrape the brown off the top as you can see in the stove top photo. I wanted to see what it would look like once cooled. One more melt for the butter molds, I’ll scoop that right off and it should be right as rain.
Melt, clean, remold, chill, photos, wrap, freeze lol. Coming up!
