Peppery and woody, with a dry warmth.
The one terpene that is unmistakably a spice, and the same compound that gives black pepper its bite. It survives an oven, so it is the profile to reach for when the dish is baked or braised — chocolate, chili and anything peppery read as intentional rather than as an accident of the flower.
In the kitchen
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.
Pure caryophyllene boils at 268 °C / 514 °F. That figure is the isolated compound at atmospheric pressure, not a threshold in a pan. Dissolved in fat it leaves gradually and the butter holds some of it the whole way — which is why the band above is the number to plan around and this one is only a bearing.
The same compound is in black pepper, cloves, cinnamon and basil — which is the short version of why these pairings work. You are not matching a flavor to the cannabis, you are adding more of something the flower already tastes of.
A long-simmered tomato sauce with the oil stirred in at the very end. Freeze it in portions and it doses pasta, eggs or pizza for a month.
Contains canned whole tomatoes, chili flakes, dried oregano, garlic cloves, handful basil leaves, salt and black pepper
Written for
5 mgper serving
8 servings · 55 min
Canned tomatoes cooked down with onion and garlic, blended smooth, then finished with cream and a slug of olive oil once the pot is off the burner. Ladling measured bowls is what keeps the servings honest.
Contains basil leaves, canned whole peeled tomatoes, garlic cloves, salt and black pepper, tomato paste
Written for
5 mgper bowl
6 bowls · 55 min
Eggs poached in a spiced tomato sauce. The infused oil is stirred in off the heat at the end rather than used to build the sofrito, which is the difference between keeping your dose and simmering it away.
Contains canned crushed tomatoes, garlic cloves, ground cumin, red bell pepper, salt and black pepper
Written for
5 mgper serving
4 servings · 40 min
Made in a food processor, no heat at all. Keeps a week in the fridge and doses pasta, eggs or bread by the spoonful.
Contains basil leaves, garlic clove, salt and black pepper
Written for
2.5 mgper serving
8 servings · 10 min
A ten-minute emulsified butter sauce built in the pan with pasta water. Dinner that happens to be dosed, rather than a dessert pretending to be dinner.
Contains chili flakes, garlic cloves, salt and black pepper
Written for
5 mgper plate
4 plates · 17 min
A hot, savory dip for a table where nobody wants dessert. The infused oil is folded in before it goes to the oven and the bake is short and gentle.
Contains garlic cloves, salt, black pepper and chili flakes
Written for
2.5 mgper serving
8 servings · 37 min
From StrainTrackr. Each of these breeders named caryophyllene on their own product page — a claim about their cultivar, not a lab result. Most strains have no terpenes published at all, so this is a sample of what is documented rather than a ranking of what is strongest.
The other 24
