The second attempt
I let the Instant Pot cool down while I tended to domestic chores. At 4 PM I opened her up, placed the bowl into the oil bath, and turned the heat on.
Ten minutes later, at around 190 degrees F, decarb burst forth.
Three minutes later I was up to temperature. This is where I typically keep my oils when I'm decarbing like this.
Ten minutes later things are still going strong, although this was nowhere near as active as the first batch, run on low pressure. It took 80 minutes to completely decarb that batch. This batch cooked for an hour on high pressure. So far this is looking promising.
By 4:20 things had begun to slow down.
I didn't catch the 4:20 until just now. Lol!
Ten minutes later, just 30 minutes from the start and after 20 minutes of decarb, the oil suddenly goes quiet. * sigh of relief*
I've added the liquid sunflower lecithin and set it in the fridge overnight. Tomorrow I'll bake the brownies while I have breakfast.
Sooo....... This means we're only a short span of time from a more complete decarb, but we also know that this will give a fairly good decarb. Since I'm making brownies with this oil I could have used it without total decarboxylation. The oil bath is just my way to check the efficiency as I work through the process to a decarb I'm comfortable with. This is a pot-in-pot success in my book. Cooking on high pressure brought me much closer to the goal.
I'm thinking next time I'll let it go for another 15 minutes. I considered going the entire 90 minutes the pot will allow you to do, but I have a sense it might not need to be that long. Any thoughts?
I'm a fan of incomplete decarb, unless you have a pressing need for a more complete one. It seems to me that diversity in the cannabinoid counts can only be a good thing. This is coming together well. I've already shown myself that I have a simple and stress-free way to make a quick brownie oil, and both the daughter and I dose with brownies. I can throw it together in no time, close it up, turn it on, and walk away without fear. When I take it out I need only add the lecithin, refrigerate overnight and cook the brownies the next morning. It's also much more fuel-efficient than what I was doing.
My life just got easier. I'm very happy.
We blend fresh bud with oil before the decarb in an attempt to retain more of the terpenes, flavonoids and all the other components, like chlorophyll, that get destroyed in heat without the carrier oil to hold them in place. Although your suggested method works more efficiently for decarb, it may sacrifice the very components we're trying to hang onto.