Pinene

Pine forest, sharp and resinous.

The lightest of the common terpenes and the first to leave. It belongs in savory work where resinous herbs are already expected — rosemary potatoes, a pine-nut pesto, anything with gin in it. Add the herbs late; the flower will not be carrying much of this by then.

In the kitchen

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.

Pure pinene boils at 155 °C / 311 °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.

Cook it with

rosemary pine nut basil dill sage juniper gin parsley potato lamb focaccia

The same compound is in rosemary, pine nuts, basil and dill — 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.

Recipes that suit it

All recipes →

SauceLowNo cookNo smell

Basil pesto

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, pine nuts or walnuts

Written for

2.5 mgper serving

8 servings · 10 min

SauceLowNo cookNo smell

Buttermilk ranch dressing

Mayonnaise, buttermilk and soft herbs whisked into a pourable dressing. Because it is spooned onto an individual plate, each person decides their own serving, which is the most forgiving arrangement there is.

Contains flat-leaf parsley, fresh dill

Written for

2.5 mgper tablespoon

24 tablespoons · 10 min

BreakfastStandard

Biscuits and sausage gravy

Buttermilk biscuits under a peppery milk gravy built on sausage drippings. The gravy thickens on the stove with plain fat, and the infused butter is stirred in at the end off the heat.

Contains bulk breakfast sausage

Written for

5 mgper plate

6 plates · 50 min

SideLow

Brown butter mashed potatoes

A side dish carrying a modest dose, for a table where not everyone wants dessert. The butter goes in off the heat.

Contains floury potatoes

Written for

2.5 mgper serving

6 servings · 35 min

DessertStandardNo smell

Carrot cake cupcakes

Cupcakes solve the portioning problem a layer cake creates, and putting the infusion in the cream cheese frosting solves the heat problem — frosting is never cooked, so nothing is lost on the way.

Contains ground ginger

Written for

5 mgper cupcake

12 cupcakes · 55 min

AppetizerLowNo cookNo smell

Classic hummus

Canned chickpeas, tahini and ice water blended pale and light. Nothing is heated at any stage, which makes it one of the gentlest carriers on this site, and a scoop is easy to measure.

Contains paprika and chopped parsley

Written for

2.5 mgper serving

16 servings · 20 min

Flower that carries it

From StrainTrackr. Each of these breeders named pinene 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.