Old snuff recipes

@tobaccobob: No Sir! This picture was made after I left the windmills. I don’t know what the result  was of this “exercise” but I doubt it resulted in any special snuff at all.

Jaap Bes.

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@tobaccobob, thanks for sharing the link!

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@volunge here’s the man himself I believe @snuffmiller. https://youtu.be/5qWM0xbpAgI

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@rostanf: Yes, I can recognise myself.

Jaap Bes.

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Here’s a link to snuff recipes thread in Polish snuff forum:

http://www.top25snuff.com/forum/41-produkcja-tabaki/137-przepisy-tabaczne.html

Just one of the recipes, originally posted there by top25snuff.com member Calculator:

"The following recipe is a great instruction for producing Scotch snuff:

16 pounds of potassium carbonate,
5 pounds of ammonium chloride,
4 pounds of salt,
100 pounds of smalls and stalks

Dissolve the first three ingredients in approx. 20 pounds of warm water, then pour onto the stems (finely cut) and smalls. The whole mixture must stand for 10-14 days until it is warm enough. Before it is ground, set it aside to dry. If it is to be scented, the essence of bergamot or lemon or Tonka beans will give it the right aroma."

Rough expression in % (mass fractions of Scotch snuff components):

Tobacco 69 %
Water 14 %
Potash 11 %
Ammonium chloride (salmiak) 3 %
Salt 3 %

I actually gave it a whirl a couple of years ago:

Scotch

From left to right: 1) crumbs of stems and smalls; 2) finished scotch; 3) same scotch, dried-out and milled to fine; 4) scotch brown, i. e., 2) with extra water (total moisture content about 30%).

So, same base with different moisture and grind and gives three different plain snuffs.

Warning: this “extra salty” recipe gives very strong, ammonia-rich snuff with a very invigorating burn. Turned to brown, it takes an extra week to round-up (three weeks, in total).

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The best way is to disolve potassium carbonate and ammonium chloride seperately and not one after another in the same volume of water, cause that gives a lot of foaming!

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@snuffmiller, thank you for the spot-on elaboration!

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Three rappee recipes:

https://snuffhouse.com/discussion/12209/what-is-your-favorite-rappee-snuff
(@rostanf’s post); the function of logwood, used with iron sulphate in the last formula, is to dye the snuff black.

Best Parisian Rappee

Tobacco bill:
50 parts aromatic Domingo leaves
30 parts aromatic East Indian leaves
20 parts flour of thick Havana leaves

For carottes, use 20 parts Havana leaves instead of flour.

Sauce:

Powdered cream of tartar (“wine stone”) - 8 parts (can be substituted with 8 parts potash)

Medoc wine - 6 parts

Water - 25-30 parts

Mix the cream of tartar (or potash) with wine and water and work this sauce into tobacco.

When “fermentation” is over, mix the snuff with finely ground 15 g crystalline sodium carbonate*, using sieve.

* crystalline sodium carbonate - a weaker decahydrate form of sodium carbonate - Na2CO3 * 10H20, or natron - naturally occurring mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate and around 17% sodium bicarbonate along with small quantities of sodium chloride and sodium sulfate); use smaller amount - 12.5 g, if you have sodium carbonate moohydrate - Na2CO3 * H2O, and even smaller amount - 6 g, if you have anhydrous sodium carbonate.

Dunkirk’s Fine St. Omer Rappee calls for 50 parts thick Domingo lamina, 30 parts aromatic Virginia lamina, 20 parts Carolina, mixed with the following sauce: 8-9 g cream of tartar (or potash), 8-9 g Burgundy wine (or any other similar wine), 15 g crystalline sodium carbonate* (see above), 25-30 g water. Mix the cream of tartar (or potash) with wine and water and work this sauce into 100 g tobacco flour. When “fermentation” is over, mix the snuff with finely ground carbonate, using sieve.

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ENFIYE - Turkish nasal snuff

https://i.postimg.cc/QC7FdTWk/ENFIYE-Turkish-Snuff-made-by-TEKEL.jpg

This interesting information about Turkish snuff comes from Facebook Nasal Snuff Takers group wall, originally posted by a group member Yunus.

"Enfiye had been the snuff produced by Tekel, the Turkish tobacco monopoly. Medium-grind and medium-moist, it was strong in nicotine, fragrant and naturally sweet.

Enfiye was discontinued by early 1990s (exact date unknown). Its production in 1991 was around 100 kg.

Enfiye is not a brand name but an Arabic loanword meaning ‘nasal’ (cognate with neffa). In Turkish, it is the most common term to refer to snuff, as well as non-tobacco sternutatory powders.

Tobacco base (demi-gros):

  • 6 parts of sun-cured Hasankeyf rustica;

  • 3 parts of high-nicotine and high-sugar Turkish tobaccos (any of Gurs, Alexandretta, Bahce or Trebizond varieties or any combination thereof);(1) and

  • 1 part of tombac midribs.(2)

Instructions:

  • Weigh the tobacco base and place in a metal basin.

  • Add water (half of the weight) and mix thoroughly.

  • After absorbing the moisture, sift.

  • Repeat with a sieve of fine mesh.

  • Fill in the cask (3) and ferment for 30 days.

  • Empty the cask and check its content in a metal basin. At any olfactory sign of deterioration, sift it entirely.

  • Transfer to drums and further ferment for 10 days.

  • Remove from the drums, weigh and place in a metal basin.

  • Mix in a fresh batch of the tobacco base (10% of the weight).

  • Add sodium bicarbonate (1% of the weight) and mix thoroughly.

  • Alkalinise in drums for 30 days.

  • Remove from the drums, weigh and place in a metal basin.

  • Add powdered cassia, cloves, caraway, sodium chloride and ammonium chloride [unspecified quantities] and mix thoroughly.

  • Arrange in thin lines.

  • Sprinkle bergamot oil and violet oil [unspecified quantities].

  • Cover the basin and leave for good absorption.

  • Mature for 30 days in smaller drums.

  • Distribute to nylon pouches (50 grams each), seal and place in cardboard boxes.

(1) Of the listed, only Gurs (also spelled Xurs or Gurs) is still grown in its namesake valley. Nevertheless, Bahce’s heirloom Celikhan is also extant.

(2) These had been leftovers from Tekel’s plain hookah tobacco (tombeki) production, which was continued until 2000s.

(3) The standard material for casks and drums at Tekel was the Hungarian oak (Quercus frainetto). The large cask at the Cibali factory (Istanbul) had a capacity of 200 kg."

The preface and footnotes are by Yunus.

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@volunge that sounds very very tasty

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@Hloridison, indeed. 

Here’s a formula for Russian Snuff.

Source: http://www.tabakanbau.de/de/poolinfo.php?id=8374 .

Russian Snuff (Russischer Schnupftabak)

Tobacco: 60% Nicotiana rustica, 20% Oriental (sun-cured), 20% Dark air-cured.

Ingredients for 1 kg tobacco flour:

Salt 30 g
Soda 20 g
Peppermint leaves 55 g
Caraway oil 0.7 g
Marjoram oil 0.15 g
Water 280 ml

Formula in %:

Tobacco  72%
Water 20%
Peppermint  4%
Salt 2%
Soda 1.5%
Caraway oil 0.05%
Marjoram oil 0.01%

This snuff probably was similar to Russischer Augentabak (Russian Eye Snuff), made by Bernard. At least flavour-wise; not sure, if Bernard used rustica tobacco for their Russian snuff, but it also had a peppermint flavour. A review of Bernard Russischer Augentabak: http://www.smokeless-forum.de/3/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1907

Image source: https://picclick.de/Alte-Schnupftabak-Dose-Gebr-Bernard-Regensburg-Russischer-392056765287.html

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Queen’s Snuff

“Oil of lavender 2dr., essence of lemon 4dr., essence of bergamot 1 oz. : mix [1dr. with 8 oz of fine Scotch snuff constitutes Queen’s Snuff]”

Source: Henry Beasley - The Druggist’s General Receipt Book (1850), p. 222 (available for reading on Google Books and archive.org).

1 dram is 3.54 g (1/8 ounce).

Mix 2 parts lavender essential oil, 4 parts lemon essential oil, 8 parts bergamot oil. Add one part of such oil blend to 64 parts snuff. All by weight. Thoroughly mix.

Roughly, 1 drop lavender, 2 drops lemon, 4 drops bergamot for 32 g base snuff (any plain snuff of your choice; if you want typical SP texture, use WoS Plain or your own homemade plain SP (for instance, 72.5% 100-150 micron fine tobacco flour (Virginia, Burley, or a blend of both) thoroughly mixed with 5% sodium carbonate (or potassium carbonate) and 2.5% sodium bicarbonate, dissolved in 20% water, left to rest for a week in a closed container, resifted through slightly coarser mesh (anything in the range of 200-300 micron).

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@volunge great mixes there.

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Wilsons’ formula for tobacco-free mentholated snuff: Wo S tobacco free snuff — Postimages

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Bearing in mind that recent discontinuation of a handful of not that really old (counting maybe 50 years of production, or close to that), yet classics - Kensington, Edelprise, Rumney’s Export, Singleton’s Silver - and previous discontinuation of about two times older Civette and Alt Offenbacher Kostlich snuffs (also, Pariser and Feiner Offenbacher Cardinal), and all Sternecker schmalzlers, and Tucky, might get some of us here curious about how did they compare to some other products in terms of build, here’s the good old link to the spreadsheet with a cross sections of theirs.

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Here are some genuine old recipes for industrial production of snuff at a major London House that some readers may find interesting. At the top of each second page are numbers which refer to detailed notes taken by a junior partner who was learning the snuff-making trade. With the exception of Jefferson’s Mixture all these recipes are classed as Rappees, Primary. Why they are classed as primary snuffs could be because they were best-sellers but also because some (particularly Best Common-a black snuff) are used in the many rappee mixtures. Violet Brown and No.39 are the most labour-intensive and time-consuming to make. Adulterations such as Fuller’s Earth and liquoring with copperas would likely be illegal today.

The figures appearing in the right-hand column of each first page is a proportional reduction of the figures appearing in the left-hand column.

[A hundredweight (cwt) is 112 pounds in weight. Hhd referred to in the recipes means Hogshead. Pot liquor = 4 gallons: cisterns 1 inch = 5 gallons. Bin L=11 ft, D=5ft, W=8ft.

Lime, Pearl Ash, Salt Tartar, Common Salt, Copperas and Alum for liquoring tobacco is measured in units of ‘ty’ which refers to Tray. Four gallons is equal to 40 ty. Each Tray is therefore 0.8 pints.]

Recipe for 8L or Violet Brown Scotch mentioned by Henry Dupre Labouchere (Tobacco Whiffs for the Smoking Carriage) as once very popular in Cornwall. S.T in the recipe refers to Salt Tartar. It would be very difficult to make today without first making S.P Scotch and X Scotch according to recipe (the latter includes an adulteration of Fuller’s Earth). But the colour of the resulting snuff from which the name derives sounds interesting. The finished product would be extra-coarse. Four pages of notes accompany this recipe which along with No.39 is the most labour-intensive recipe in the collection. It sold at a wholesale price of 3/8 per pound.

A recipe for P.G Coarse or Single P Fine Dutch: I know that the P stands for Polhill (a snuff manufacturer and miller) from the notes but can only guess that the G stands for Gross. The sole difference between the two is that P is sifted through a 20 sieve (coarse) and P.G through a 17 sieve (extra-coarse). As expected, the tobacco used is Dutch. A late 18th century trade card shows that Edward and Robert Polhill had their manufactory at No.35 Borough, Southwark, but the snuff-making extends back to 1756 when Nathaniel Polhill leased a water mill at Morden. He later became MP for Southwark from 1774 until 1782 when he died. The snuff-making business passed to Edward and Robert that year (1782). It’s not recorded how Taddy & Co came into possession of the recipe but the company would have been on familiar terms with the Polhills as they used their water-wheel for snuff-grinding until 1831 when Taddy & Co took over the lease of the mill.

The recipe for Cuba Rappee, unexpectedly, also uses Dutch leaf and not Cuban leaf. Sold under this name today it probably would not pass muster with the Trade Description Act. It is scented with arrack (like Old Paris) and provides a very nice example of an old rappee recipe. It is one of the very few snuffs that are not scented through the medium of G (a snuff made for that purpose only). The notes refer to bottles of ‘very fine old Arrack, full of flavour’. They also describe the detailed operations in rolling under stones - ‘flake & grain being of great object in this snuff’. Stones used for crushing are described as being 12 inches in width and 3 feet 4 inches in depth. The notes also caution that rum must not be mixed with the arrack.

No.39 S or Geo.Brown Rapee is very labour intensive and like 8L calls for Salt Tartar as well as Common Salt. The four pages of notes for No.39 are (with Violet Brown) the most extensive for any snuff listed. An early newspaper advertisement describes it as No. 39, Genuine – Taddy & co, Minories.

B.C .Rappee or Best Common calls for ‘strip’t’ Virginia leaf’ and includes the use of copperas in the liquoring process. I very much doubt that this would be legal today. Best Common is listed as a Primary Rappee which could be sold as fine, coarse or extra coarse using size 24, 20 and 17 cane sieves respectively. It also appears in many mixtures such as Gillespie’s and Imperial Black. The notes say: Used principally in cellar as portion (underlined) for fancy rappees, and then goes on to describe how a parcel of Best Common is laid down.

The rappee snuffs are all more difficult and time consuming to make than the Scotch snuffs as evident by copious notes.

Finally is the recipe for a mixture which I posted before. Jefferson’s Mixture, which is possibly named after Thomas Jefferson the third president of the new United States of America who served from 1801 until 1809. As with the majority of scented snuffs the scent process is not applied directly but via the medium of G (made solely for that purpose) and uses 100 S.P. as a proportion. The regularity with which the latter occurs in Scotch mixtures suggests the origin of SP 100 as made by Wilsons of Sharrow to this day.





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Here is Jefferson’s Mixture (I could only upload five images)

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Here is the making of No.5 (Queen’s Scotch)

It uses the intermediary of G - used only for scenting. The full process of scenting via G was detailed in another topic as was the making of C.S (the recipe of which cost the manufacturer £2,000) together with the making of S.P.

A note says that this, along with S.S, is the leading Queen’s.

I have the recipe for ‘Tom Buck’ by Sales & Pollard but unfortunately everything in the notebook is coded. Other than HD (High Dry) and Tom Buck and possibly Queen’s (QS) the names are undecipherable as yet. However, the inclusion of Queen’s and Tom Buck show that there was consistency amongst the larger Houses in snuff names and probably comprehensive price maintenance as well.

The Sales & Pollard Tom Buck snuff must probably date from sometime after 1797 when colourful Irishman Tom ‘Buck’ Whaley published his best-selling memoirs.

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@yakshini, one more old German book with many snuff recipes: Handbuch der Tabak- u. Cigarrenfabrikation mit besonderer Berücksichtigung ... - Ladislaus von Wágner - Google Books

Full list of snuff recipes:



At least 7 snuffs were re-created by MdK.

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@yakshini, Limburger Tabak snuff recipe is in 302 p. of aforementioned German book.:

Loth (neu) - 1/30 pfund - 16.6 g, by volume - about a spoonful.
Pfund (neu) - 500 g

Reliable online OCR engine for reading 19-20th century German Fraktur: https://readcoop.eu/model/german-fraktur-19th-20th-century/

Pretty good online translator: https://www.deepl.com

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