Boil the perfect hempseed

The most important aspect of hempseed preparation is the hemp itself, buy the freshest, cleanest hemp that you can. You're looking for clean and shiny, and test a sample if you can before investing in a bulk sack. To produce small qualities very quick and easily, half fill a thermos flask with the hempseed and then fill with boiling water. Put the stopper in and leave to stand for an hour. Now here's how to produce the 'ultimate hempseed' on a slightly bigger scale...

Step 1

Rinse the hempseed off before placing in a large bucket with a re-sealable lid.

Step 2

Pre-soak the hemp for 24hrs in water at an approximate ratio of 4:1 water to hemp.

Step 3

You now have three cooking options: (1) a large saucepan, (2) a pressure cooker or (3) for larger quantities, a burco boiler.

Step 4

Empty the bucket contents into the desired cooking vessel and bring to the boil. Continue boiling at the highest temperature for a good ten minutes or so; you might see early splitting at this point.

Step 5

Bring the cooking vessel to simmer, adding additional water if necessary to keep the volume constant.

Step 6

Simmer for around thirty minutes or until the seeds are splitting.

Step 7

Once the hemp is split remove from the heat and allow to cool. You can at this point add extra hemp oil or alternatively salt.

Step 8

Many anglers swear to adding bicarbonate of soda to the cooking process at a rate of approximately one teaspoon per pound dry hempseed. This will blacken the husk, but can also darken the white pith.

Step 9

One method I rate very highly is adding cider vinegar, it's a tad expensive in burco boiler terms but the other two methods are fine. This really aids splitting and is very attractive to carp!

Step 10

Preparing in volume means the hempseed can be easily frozen.

Step 11

Why not try liquidising cooked hemp? It really is quite stodgy and can be thrown in by hand or baiting spoon for close work, or add water to make it into an excellent spodding feed.