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Terpenes

Terpinolene

Fresh and complex; apple, citrus and pine at once.

The hardest of these to pin down, because it reads as several things at once. Apple is the reliable anchor — cider, a crisp, anything with nutmeg near it. Fragile enough that a long bake will flatten it to nothing.

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 terpinolene boils at 186 °C / 367 °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

The same compound is in apple, nutmeg, cumin and lilac — 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 →
DrinkStandardNo smell

Masala chai

Spices simmered in water, milk added after, infused fat whisked in off the heat. Nothing in it ever boils once the dose is in.

Contains green cardamom pods, loose black tea

Written for

5 mgper mug

2 mugs · 17 min

DrinkStandardNo smell

Mulled apple cider

Spiced cider warmed on the stove, with the infusion whisked in off the heat. A pot that serves a group, portioned into mugs rather than ladled freely.

Contains apple cider

Written for

5 mgper mug

6 mugs · 30 min

DessertStandard

Apple crisp

Oat streusel over apples firm enough to hold their shape — Granny Smith or Braeburn, not a soft eating apple that collapses into sauce. Baked in ramekins, which takes the guesswork out of serving it.

Contains firm tart apples

Written for

5 mgper ramekin

8 ramekins · 60 min

AppetizerLowNo cookNo smell

Avocado lime guacamole

Guacamole loosened with infused olive oil instead of being mashed dry. No heat, no smell, ready in ten minutes.

Contains lime

Written for

2.5 mgper serving

6 servings · 10 min

DessertStrong

Caramel apples

A dipping caramel cooked to 245 °F and then allowed to fall to about 200 °F before the butter goes in — which happens to be the same temperature at which caramel coats an apple instead of sliding off it.

Contains tart apples

Written for

10 mgper apple

8 apples · 50 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 ground cumin

Written for

2.5 mgper serving

16 servings · 20 min

Flower that carries it

From StrainTrackr. Each of these breeders named terpinolene 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