Ingredients
- 1.76 Oz(50g) Dunhill Royal Yacht pipe-tobacco
- 1/8 teaspoon Sodium Carbonate (washing soda)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground Kosher Salt
- 2 Teaspoons distilled/bottled water
- boveda pack or salt slurry for final humidification
- (Optional) scent/flavoring
Supplies
- Mortar and pestle(Fine snuff) OR Coffee Grinder(coarse snuff)
- At least 1 mason jar (preferably a small wide-mouth one)
- loose-leaf Tea strainer OR Pantyhose + widemouth jar
- measuring cups - 1/4 cup - 1/8 teaspoon - 1 teaspoon
- Shot Glass or small bowl
- Some plastic tubs
- .1g resolution scale
Yield
1/4 cup strong snuff + 1/4 cup mild snuff OR 1/2 cup medium-strength snuff
Notes before starting
- You don't necessarily need to do anything except grind and sieve the snuff. However, without the sauce, it will taste fairly bland and not be very strong.
- You don't need to use the royal yacht tobacco, however i prefer it because it already has a mild scent, it is strong, and does not contain propylene glycol
- If you have pets or children - do this outside when there is no wind I garuntee you will make a (potentially dangerous) mess.
Step 1: Turning tobacco ribbons into flourDryingThe tobacco needs to be dried - this can be done many different ways, including: microwaving for short periods of time (5 seconds), letting it sit in a low-humidity environment, Letiing it sit in the sun, or enclosing it with a lot of silica gel.
I used a combination of microwaving to remove the bulk of the moisture, and then put it in a tub with 100g of fresh silica gel beads to suck out the last bit of moisture.
The tobacco should easily crumble to bits and dust between your fingers. If you have any doubt that its not dry enough, it probably isnt
Its also a good idea to feel around in the tobacco and take out any large twiggy bits.
GrindingI used a mortar and pestle because i prefer a finer snuff. This method takes much more time and patience. I spent 1.5 hours grinding out 1/4 cup of tobacco flour. NOTE: Because of the time you spend grinding with mortar and pestle, some of the dust will end up in your nose. I was buzzing the whole time and I blew my nose afterwards and there was quite a bit of tobacco in my snot(and i had not snuffed all day proir). So if you are a lightweight, wear a mask or you may become nauseus.
A Coffee grinder can be used and will save a lot of time, however the snuff will be more coarse. Some prefer coarse snuff, i do not. Its up to you to decide which way you go about this
SievingAfter the snuff is ground up, use a loose-leaf tea strainer to sieve out the finest particles into a tub. Pantyhose stretched over a wide mouthed jar or cup would also work. If you want to get fancy, you can use a 100-200 micron mesh
You will be left with some larger bits that did not make it through the sieve. You can save this to re-grind and make a mild snuff, or add it to your stronger snuff to weaken it a bit. I'm only interested in the strong snuff so i just throw these bits away
After the whole 50 gram tin of tobacco is ground and sieved, you should have 1/4 cup of fine tobacco flour and 1/4 cup of larger tobacco bits to either re-use or throw away
*note - I actually have slightly over 1/4 cup here, i had to compact it down.
Step 2: Making the sauceThe Sodium CarbonateSodium Carb can be obtained by heating Sodium Bicarbonate to 200-250F for an hour or so. If you start with 10 grams of Sodium Bicarbonate, you will end up with 7 grams of Sodium Carbonate if done correctly. If you have 8 or 9 grams still, just put it back under the heat for another hour till you have 7 grams
Alternatively, you could buy it from a Pool Store or the laundry dept of your grocery store as "washing soda"
The Kosher SaltKosher salt can be had at any grocery store. Mortons and Diamond Crystal are both good brands.
Don't use sea salt. its not the same thing.
Grind up your kosher salt so you will get a more even measurement
The WaterUse distilled or bottled water. Both can be had at any grocery store
Mix em upPut 2 teaspoons (10Ml) of water in a shot glass or some other small cup. Put in your 1/8th teaspoon of Sodium Carbonate and 1/4 teaspoon of ground kosher salt. Mix em up with something that fits in the glass. If your water is cold, let it come to room temperature
At first, you might think theres not enough water to dissolve all this. Don't worry, there is. just keep stirring. It took me about 5 minutes.
The result should be a slightly cloudy water with no sediment
Step 3: Mixing the flour and sauceAdd the sauce to your flour a little bit at a time - I mixed in 2.5 ml - mixed for a few secs - added more - mixed some more- etc. Till all of the sauce is in with the flour. The flour will start to darken
Now , keep mixing. Mix that fucker good, untill it stops being so clumpy and is a uniform dark brown color. I mixed for about 15 minutes.
When your done, compact it a little bit (or don't, doesnt really matter) Wipe the tobacco off of the rim, so that the jar seals well, and put on the lids.
Step 4: waitAnd wait. And wait. Wait for a week. Don't open the jar back up. If you're more patient than me, you could wait longer and get a better result(more flavor), up to a couple months. Whats happening here is fermentation that was triggered by the Sodium Carbonate. You could also apply some heat which would speed up fermentation and give you a better result faster, So if you live in the south, throw your jar into a hot car for a week or so. Ideally fermenting temperatures are 120-130
Step 5: ToastingOpen up your jar, and replace the "sealing lid" with a piece of tinfoil. Then put the jar in an oven at 200F for about 2 hours. Could go more or less here and expariment with different batches. Up to you.
After 2 hours, take the jar out and remove the lid and foil. Throw it back in for another 30 mins or so to dry out
What you have left should be dry, hard, and clumpy with a sandy texture and dark color
Step 6 Re-griding and re-sievingBecause what you now have is clumpy and sandy, you need to do some more grinding and sieving!(yay...) It should go much faster this time though.
The clumpy parts of the tobacco will probably be a lighter color than the powder after its ground, this is normal. Just shake them together untill you get a uniform color
Step 7: Re-hydratingIf you want a bone-dry snuff, this step can be skipped and you are done!
Now we're going to rehydrate the tobacco for optimal snuffing. I'm using a 72% RH boveda pack. These can be found at virtually any shop that sells premium cigars It should cost a dollar, give or take a few cents. If they don't have 72%, go for 75% or 69%, or whatever is closest.
This can also be done with a salt slurry, By mixing some of that kosher salt in a bottle cap with a few drops of water. You don't want the salt to be dry OR dissolved, use just enough water so that its a thick gritty slurry. This slurry will basically mimic a 75% boveda.
If you are scenting your snuff, citrus peels can also be used as rehumidification devices
Set whatever you chose on top of your powdered tobacco and seal the lid for 24-48 hours. This will only add a tiny bit of moisture, it should be nothing like after we added the sauce and will still be dry to the touch
Step 8: try your snuff!Give your snuff a try. Nice, am i right? If you followed my recipe it should have a toasty, nutty flavor that will mellow out a bit after a few weeks
Note* In the last few pictures you may notice that there isnt much snuff there. Thats only because i saved some to ferment for a couple extra months