Aroma and flavor
What to cook with each terpene
Terpenes are what your flower smells like, and most of what it will taste like. Every other site stops at the aroma. The part that matters in a kitchen is which ones survive the heat you are about to apply — because the bright citrus one is mostly gone by the time a cake comes out of the oven, and the peppery one is still there whether you wanted it or not.
Grouped below by how they hold up, toughest first.
Cooks through
The heaviest aromatics in cannabis, and the ones that behave like ordinary kitchen spices — black pepper and cloves carry the same compounds and neither is ruined by an oven. What you smell in the jar is close to what you taste in the finished thing, which cuts both ways: it is why the grassiness people complain about is usually this half of the profile.
Caryophyllene
1,616 strainsPeppery and woody, with a dry warmth.
Cook it with black pepper, clove, cinnamon, basil.
Cooks through
Humulene
747 strainsHoppy and dry, faintly bitter.
Cook it with hops, beer, sage, coriander.
Cooks through
Nerolidol
180 strainsWoody and floral, apple bark and citrus.
Cook it with ginger, jasmine, lemongrass, tea.
Cooks through
Farnesene
162 strainsGreen apple skin, faintly woody.
Cook it with apple, hops, pear, cider.
Cooks through
Bisabolol
103 strainsChamomile and honey, softly sweet.
Cook it with chamomile, honey, apple, vanilla.
Cooks through
Valencene
80 strainsSweet orange and fresh grapefruit.
Cook it with orange, grapefruit, tangerine, citrus.
Cooks through
Guaiol
47 strainsPine and rose over damp wood.
Cook it with rosemary, pine nut, cypress, honey.
Cooks through
Survives infusion
Infusion is kind to these — every method on this site tops out at 200 °F, below where they go. Decarb is harder on them and a 375 °F bake harder still. They hold up best in something cooked gently or not at all: a no-bake, a sauce finished off the heat, a chilled dessert.
Linalool
946 strainsFloral and soft, lavender with a citrus edge.
Cook it with lavender, coriander, honey, blueberry.
Survives infusion
Terpineol
345 strainsLilac and pine, soft and sweet.
Cook it with cardamom, marjoram, honey, apple.
Survives infusion
Borneol
235 strainsCamphor and damp earth, faintly minty.
Cook it with rosemary, mint, ginger, star anise.
Survives infusion
Fenchol
122 strainsBasil and lime, a little camphor.
Cook it with basil, lime, fennel, tomato.
Survives infusion
Geraniol
34 strainsRose and peach, sweet and clean.
Cook it with peach, lychee, raspberry, honey.
Survives infusion
Menthol
24 strainsCold mint, clean and sharp.
Cook it with mint, chocolate, pea, lamb.
Survives infusion
Isopulegol
18 strainsMint with a woody, herbal edge.
Cook it with mint, lemongrass, lime, basil.
Survives infusion
Goes early
These are the lightest compounds in the plant and they leave first. Decarbing costs you most of them before the fat is even involved — the coolest step on the schedule is 200 °F, and that is already well past where they start moving. If this is the aroma you want, it has to come back into the dish from somewhere else: fresh zest, fresh herbs, a spirit, stirred in off the heat.
Myrcene
1,667 strainsEarthy and musky, with ripe fruit underneath.
Cook it with mango, peach, apricot, hops.
Goes early
Limonene
1,243 strainsCitrus peel, sharp and bright.
Cook it with lemon, lime, orange, citrus.
Goes early
Pinene
998 strainsPine forest, sharp and resinous.
Cook it with rosemary, pine nut, basil, dill.
Goes early
Terpinolene
519 strainsFresh and complex; apple, citrus and pine at once.
Cook it with apple, pear, nutmeg, cumin.
Goes early
Eucalyptol
385 strainsCool and camphorous, eucalyptus and mint.
Cook it with mint, bay, cardamom, rosemary.
Goes early
Carene
215 strainsSweet pine and cypress, with a lemon edge.
Cook it with rosemary, lemon, bell pepper, pine nut.
Goes early
Camphene
183 strainsDamp fir and camphor.
Cook it with nutmeg, ginger, fir, juniper.
Goes early
Phellandrene
123 strainsMint and black pepper over citrus.
Cook it with dill, mint, pepper, lime.
Goes early
Ocimene
97 strainsSweet herbs and green wood, a little citrus.
Cook it with mint, parsley, basil, mango.
Goes early
Cymene
51 strainsDry citrus and thyme.
Cook it with thyme, oregano, cumin, coriander.
Goes early
Sabinene
1 strainsBlack pepper, pine and warm spice.
Cook it with black pepper, nutmeg, juniper, carrot.
Goes early
Where the strain counts come from
The figures above are live from StrainTrackr, which records the terpenes a breeder names on their own product page. They are the breeder’s claim about their cultivar, not a lab result, and roughly one listed strain in eight has any published at all — a strain with none does not mean the plant has none, it means nobody wrote them down.
One thing this page is not
Nothing here is a claim about effects. Terpenes are aroma compounds, the pairings are culinary, and the reason to care about them in a kitchen is that they decide whether your edible tastes like the flower you chose or like grass. That is a flavor question, and it is the only one this page answers. There are 25 of them above.