Arepas are the daily bread of Venezuela and Colombia — griddled corn cakes made from precooked masarepa, crisp outside, soft and steamy inside, split and stuffed with everything from shredded beef to black beans to plain butter. They're breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight snack, and the technique is beautifully simple: hydrate the masa, shape, griddle, split, fill.
The griddle runs hot and the cheese sauce gets built over heat, so neither one carries the dose. The arepas griddle clean, the queso melts clean, and the infusion goes in last: dosed oil whisked into the cheese sauce after it's off the heat and cooled to warm. Split the arepa, ladle the measured sauce, close it up. Clean cake, dosed filling, honest number.
🔥 The Infusion: Dosed Cheese Sauce
- Decarb: 2g ground flower, sealed mason jar, 240°F (115°C) for 40 minutes. Cool before opening.
- Method: Combine decarbed flower with 1/2 cup (120ml) avocado oil in a double boiler at 160–170°F (71–77°C) for 2 hours. Strain through cheesecloth.
- Dosing math: 2g at 20% THC = 400mg THCA × 0.877 = ~351mg × 0.8 ≈ ~280mg per 120ml → ~2.3mg per ml.
- Yield: ~110ml. Storage: Airtight jar, cool dark pantry up to 2 months; refrigerate to stretch it to 4.
🍲 The Arepas
Serves 6 (2 arepas each)
- 2 cups masarepa (precooked cornmeal), 2 1/2 cups warm water, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp oil
- Butter or oil for the griddle
- Dosed cheese sauce (measured — this is the dose): 2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp flour, 1 1/2 cups warm milk, 2 cups shredded cheese (queso blanco or mild cheddar), 30ml dosed avocado oil whisked in off the heat once the sauce has cooled to warm
- Optional fillings: shredded chicken, black beans, avocado slices
Method:
- Mix masarepa, warm water, salt, and oil into a soft dough. Rest 10 minutes, then shape into 6 thick discs.
- Griddle in a buttered pan over medium heat, 5–6 minutes per side, until golden with a crisp crust. They should sound hollow when tapped.
- Build the cheese sauce clean: melt butter, whisk in flour, add warm milk, simmer until thick, then melt in the cheese off the heat.
- Let the sauce cool until warm to the touch — not steaming — then whisk in the dosed avocado oil until fully incorporated.
- Dose: Split each arepa and ladle over the dosed cheese sauce — 2 tbsp of sauce per arepa, 4 tbsp per serving ≈ 69mg → ~12mg per serving.
📐 Dosing Math
- Dosed avocado oil ≈ 2.3mg/ml → 30ml ≈ 69mg total → ~12mg per serving
- Arepas, cheese, milk, optional fillings: all clean. Only the off-heat cheese sauce is dosed.
🧬 Terpene Pairing
- Primary: Myrcene (sweet corn, the masarepa itself)
- How to use it: Myrcene is the earthy-sweet hum underneath the corn cake, and it's also one of the most common terpenes in the infusion itself. Lean into it: use real butter on the griddle and don't skimp on the salt — myrcene's roundness turns flat and muddy without enough seasoning to frame it.
🌱 Strain Suggestions
- Blue Dream (hybrid, ~19% THC) — myrcene, pinene. Berry-sweet and mellow, a natural fit for corn and cheese.
- Granddaddy Purple (indica, ~21% THC) — myrcene, beta-caryophyllene. Grape-earth depth for a comfort-food plate.
- Northern Lights (indica, ~19% THC) — myrcene, beta-caryophyllene. Heavy and sweet, matches the griddled warmth.
📏 Dosage
- Per serving: ~12mg THC
- Onset: 60–120 minutes — cornmeal and cheese make a dense, slow meal
- First-timer rule: One arepa with its measured sauce first. Arepas are deceptively filling — the steamy interior expands in ways your stomach will explain to you later.
For adults 21+ only. Consume responsibly and in accordance with local laws.
🫓 Chef Smoke's Arepa Rule: "Griddle the cake clean, sauce it dosed — the split is where the number lives, so measure the ladle, not the pour."
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Published by Compact Underground • Educational content only. Always follow local laws and consume responsibly.