Every Recipe Says 7 Grams. Here’s How Much Weed You ACTUALLY Need.

Okay. Let's have this conversation.

You've read the cannabutter recipe. Probably fifteen of them. They all say the same thing: one cup of butter, 7 to 10 grams of flower, simmer for three hours, strain through cheesecloth.

Here's the problem with that.

Nobody tells you what comes out the other end. You get a cup of butter with no idea how strong it is, bake a batch of cookies, eat one, and then spend the next six hours on the floor of your living room having a very serious conversation with your ceiling fan.

That's not a recipe problem. That's a math problem. And it takes about ninety seconds to fix.

TL;DR: For most people making most things, one gram is enough. Sometimes less. Keep reading and I'll show you why.

First: the only number on the package that matters

Canadian labels are actually good for this, which is rare and I will take it.

Flip your package over. You're looking for Total THC, written in mg/g — milligrams per gram.

• 200 mg/g = 20% THC
• 150 mg/g = 15% THC
• 280 mg/g = 28% THC, and also please be careful

That's it. That's the number. Ignore the strain name, ignore the indica/sativa thing, ignore the guy on the forum. Total THC in mg/g is the only input your math needs.

SIDE DISH: How to Read a Cannabis Package: Ottawa Public Health has the clearest breakdown of every panel on that label.

The math (I promise it's one line)

Grams × mg/g × 0.5 = the milligrams you'll actually end up with.

Let's talk about that 0.5, because it's the part every other article leaves out.

You do not get all the THC out of the plant. Two things eat into it:

1. Decarbing. Heating your flower converts THCA into THC. Even done well, you're getting maybe 90% of it.
2. Infusing. The cannabinoids have to migrate out of the plant and bind to your fat. At home, in a saucepan, without lab equipment? You're getting roughly half.

Stack those together and you land around 40–50% of what the label promised. So we plan for 50% and we're pleasantly surprised or mildly disappointed, but never hospitalized.

So here's what that looks like in real numbers

Say you bought flower at 200 mg/g (20%) and you're infusing one cup of butter or oil — which is 16 tablespoons, and which is also what a standard 24-cookie recipe calls for.

Look at that bottom row.

Twenty-nine milligrams per cookie. For reference, a legal edible in this country maxes out at 10 mg per package. The internet's standard cannabutter recipe produces cookies that are each roughly three legal edibles.

And now look at the 1 gram row. Four milligrams a cookie. A comfortable dose. You can eat one and still load the dishwasher.

One gram. Twenty-four cookies. That's the whole point of this article.

SIDE DISH: A Beginner's THC Dosage Guide: Safe & Effective Tips: If you don't know what your comfortable number is yet, start here before you turn on the oven.

The test dose. Do not skip the test dose.

This is the single most useful thing in this post and it takes two hours of doing absolutely nothing.

Before you bake anything:

1. Make your butter or oil.
2. Take a quarter teaspoon and spread it on a cracker.
3. Eat it. Write down the time.
4. Wait two hours. Not one. Two.
5. Note how you feel.

A quarter teaspoon is 1/64th of a cup. Using our 1-gram example, that's roughly 1.5 mg — small enough to be safe, big enough to tell you something.

Now you know what your batch is, before you've committed it to 24 cookies you can't un-bake. If it's stronger than you wanted, cut it with plain butter. You can dilute a batch. You cannot un-eat a cookie.

3 things I check before buying flower for infusion

Because what you want for infusing is genuinely not what you want for smoking, and the shop floor is where most people overspend.

✅ Total THC in mg/g, not the strain name

You want it high, because you'll be buying less of it. 1 gram at 250 mg/g does the work of 1.7 grams at 150 mg/g. Higher potency is cheaper per milligram almost every time.

✅ Cost per gram, not cost per bag

You're about to boil this into butter for three hours. There is no bag appeal in butter.

✅ Format — and this is where you save actual money

Shake, trim, and small buds are the correct purchase for infusion. They're the same plant. They're broken up, which infusion wants anyway. They cost a fraction of top-shelf flower. Nobody has ever tasted a brownie and said "hmm, the trichomes seem a little degraded."

The only reason to infuse premium flower is if you're chasing a specific terpene profile in the finished dish. Which is a real thing! It's just not what most people are doing on a Sunday afternoon.

When you should absolutely not do this

I'd rather tell you this than have you waste forty dollars.

Making your own edibles makes sense if:

• You want more than a handful of doses
• You want a specific dose that isn't 10 mg
• You want it in real food — pasta, curry, actual cookies
• You enjoy the process (legitimate reason, no notes)

Just buy the gummies if:

• You want two or three doses. The math is brutal here. A gram of flower plus butter plus an afternoon versus a pack of gummies with a lab-verified number on the label? Buy the gummies.
• You need to know your dose exactly. Homemade potency is an estimate. A good estimate! Still an estimate. Commercial edibles are tested.
• You live with people who might find them. Unlabelled cookies in a shared fridge is how bad days start.

Fast answers to the things that go wrong

"I doubled the flower and it wasn't twice as strong."

Correct, and this surprises everyone. There's a saturation point, a cup of butter can only hold so much. Past roughly 7–10 grams per cup, you're mostly just making your butter taste like a lawn. Want stronger? Use more butter with a higher ratio, not infinite flower in the same cup.

"I felt nothing."

Usually one of three things: you didn't decarb, you boiled it (a hard boil degrades THC, keep it at a bare simmer), or you baked it above 350°F. Sometimes it's the fourth thing: you have a low absorption rate, and edibles just don't do much for you. That's real and it's genetic.

"It's way too strong."

Melt it, add plain butter, remix. Cutting a batch 1:3 with regular butter takes ~24 mg cookies down to ~6 mg. This is the best thing about making it yourself.

"How long does it keep?"

Fridge for a couple of weeks, freezer for months. Light and air are what kill potency, not time on its own.

What to buy, based on what you're actually making

A batch of cookies or brownies (24 portions, gentle): 1 gram of high-THC shake → 1 cup butter → ~4 mg per cookie

Butter you'll use across a few weeks of cooking: 2 grams → 1 cup butter → ~12 mg per tablespoon, then dose by the teaspoon

Infused olive oil for savory cooking: 1 gram → 1 cup oil → ~6 mg per tablespoon, and add it off the heat at the end

Very low daily doses: 0.5 gram → 1 cup coconut oil → ~3 mg per tablespoon

SIDE DISH: Exploring Microdosing Weed Edibles for Health Benefits — the low end deserves its own conversation.

The one-line version

Grams × mg/g × 0.5 = your milligrams. Divide by portions. Test a quarter teaspoon and wait two hours before you commit.

That's the whole thing. Everything else is just cooking.

FAQs

How much weed do I need for one batch of brownies? About 1 gram of 20% flower infused into 1 cup of butter gives roughly 4 mg per brownie in a 24-portion batch. Use 2 grams if you want closer to 8 mg.

Why do recipes say 7 grams if 1 gram works? Most of those recipes predate legal labeling, when you had no idea what potency you were holding and erred on the high side. With Total THC on the package, you can just do the math instead.

Do I really only get half the THC? Roughly, at home. Decarbing loses some, and home infusion typically pulls 40 - 60% of what's left. Planning for 50% keeps you on the safe side.

Can I use shake instead of flower for edibles? Yes, shake and small buds are the better buy for infusion. Once it's in butter, the difference in appearance and aroma is irrelevant.

Is it legal to make edibles at home in Ontario? Yes, for personal use if you're 19+. You can't sell what you make.