Welcome to Psychedelicatessen, a weekly column exploring the world of cannabis cuisine, including recipes from the great chefs and ganjapreneurs who fuel our appetite for adventure.
Badfish Extracts meteoric rise to the top of the concentrates game started in early 2014, when the novelty of marijuana-laden beef jerky captured the imagination of the Twitterverse. Sparked by a photo of Reef Jerky posted on Instagram by SC Labs, the “Look! There’s pot jerky now!” news bounced around the blogosphere for days, getting the fledgling company off to an exciting start. “It’s been a wild journey,” says founder Kurt Kaufeldt, a Santa Cruz native, “everyday I wake up and I love what I’m doing.”
A former college football player who suffered from herniated discs, Kaufeldt had the choice between a lifetime of pain, an expensive 30-hour back surgery, or medical marijuana. He chose the herb, and hasn’t looked back. Before starting Badfish Extracts, Kurt cultivated cannabis and managed a few local hydro stores, where he met partner Kibo Smith, a talented horticulturalist growing to pay off his student loans from UCSC. After a research excursion to Colorado to examine the newly legal weed market, the pair decided to return to Cali and develop a company with its eye towards impending legalization in this state as well. “We refined our product in secret,” Kurt explains, “We spent a lot of time nailing 100% activated oil before we finally achieved the results we wanted.”
Badfish lived up to the hype with a 3rd Place win in the Edibles category at the U.S. Cannabis Cup in Denver this past 4/20. “When we won, we knew everything was about to change,” Kurt exclaims, “there’s a certain amount of personal fulfillment.” Now you can find Badfish Reef Jerky in over 140 dispensaries throughout California.
Many edibles companies are discovering that they need to be extraction labs first, finding ways to produce consistent cannabis concentrates to use as ingredients for their brownies, cookies or jerkys. Badfish is currently developing jerky products with THC dosages in the 25, 50, 75 and 100mg range so there’s a wide variety for patients. “Extracts make it consistent down to the milligram,” Kurt shares, “100 milligrams is what sells our product — It’s like one dab that lasts for four hours!”
The BHO Barbeque sauce recipe contributed by Badfish makes it easy to determine your desired dosage, since the consistent, liquid nature of sauce makes it easy to measure. With some simple math, you can create easy-to-dose sauce at home, provided you know the THC percentage of your starting material as determined by lab testing. For instance, if you use 1 gram of BHO containing 60% THC, your finished 3.5 cups of sauce will contain 600 mg of THC total, or about 10.7mg per tablespoon. Since most people will want to use 2 to 4 tablespoons, that’s an appropriate dosage per serving size.
Make sure to have extra non-medicated BBQ sauce on hand for cooking applications (further heat applied to the medicated sauce will begin converting THC to CBN), and add the BHO Barbeque Sauce as a topping to your finished dish.
“A slow cooked rack of pork ribs slathered in Badfish Extracts BBQ sauce is hard to beat in the summertime!” Kurt says, while I used the BHO Barbeque Sauce on some baked tofu, which was spicy, sweet and deliciously decadent.
Meet Badfish Extract’s Kurt Canfeldt at “The Art of Edibles” panel, 3:30pm on June 29 at the Santa Rosa Medical Cannabis Cup.
Badfish Extracts BHO Barbeque Sauce
Yield 3.5 cups of sauce
Stones 56, at 10.7mg of THC per tablespoon
Ingredients:
-0.5 Tablespoon butter
-0.5 tbsp coconut oil
-1 gram of BHO with 60% THC
-2 cups ketchup
-1 cup dark brown sugar
-¼ Cup molasses
-¼ Cup apple cider vinegar
-½ Cup organic apple juice
-2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
-¼ cup Dijon mustard
-2 tablespoons paprika
-2 tablespoons black pepper
-1 tablespoons Cayenne pepper
-2 tablespoons garlic salt
-3 Tablespoons Liquid Smoke
-1/8 cup cold water mixed with 1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional for a thicker sauce)
Preparation:
First, melt your butter and coconut oil in a small saucepan. Add your BHO and stir until dissolved, about 5 minutes, then set aside.
Combine the ketchup, brown sugar, molasses, apple cider vinegar, apple juice, Worcestershire, mustard, in a medium size sauce pot and stir. Add the paprika, pepper, salt and liquid smoke and stir.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the cornstarch mixture along with the BHO infusion and simmer another 5 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until desired thickness is reached.
Use your sauce to create a delicious meal!
