Snuff making 101

HEAT

FERMENTATION involves heat. Either generated by the mass of the tobacco itself or by artificial means. At up to 54 celcius or 130 farenheit sufficient moisture is also needed. Acquiring already fermented tobacco is a good option. However the adding of alkalizers does seem to activate the fermentation of tobacco. This certainly will not yield the same results as sweating and slow aging does but it is well worth experimenting with. This is our little secret. While smokers painstakingly sweat their tobacco in kilns and what not, we simply change the ph to “cook” our tobacco. 

BLACKENING; heating your snuff will cause a darkening of the tobacco in a process known as the maillard reaction. Temperatures of 50 to 75 celcius or 122 to 167 farenheit can be used to achieve this. The length of time in these conditions can be up to a whole week. This process will require at least twice the amount of water as tobacco involved. If interested I suggest looking into the many snus recipes available as this is exactly the process used by home snus makers to make their snus. Just vary the times and temperatures to get darker or lighter results. 

TOASTING your snuff will also require heat. Water is not used in toasting procedures. High temperatures at short periods of time will do the trick. I use my crock pot on its high setting. It is possible to toast at blackening temperatures but the length of time involved may not allow supervision so overcooking can be a risk factor. Toasted tobacco may smell bad. Do not be discouraged by this as this unfavorable scent will usually be gone after a week or so. 

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MOLD

Mold can develop only under certain conditions. The high ph environment of snuff is not conducive to mold growth. If you are not adding alkalizers to your snuff then be sure to keep it on the dry side. Adding oils to snuff without salts is a good way to moisten them for more comfortable snuffing. I have used tobacco that has had slight mold growth and I have recouped snuff that had started to develop mold. You may not want to follow in my foot steps and that is understandable as some molds can produce toxic byproducts. What little mold I had I killed and there was no scent evidence to be had. Yes, there are more mold spores in it then I would like but mold spores are everywhere more or less any way. Enabling logic I suppose.

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Good job getting all this in one place. Keep up the good work. Do you want me to move it into the FAQ section? I can delete this and any extraneous comments once there.

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Great resource, very nicely done. Definitely for the FAQ when the Master has concluded:)

Maybe we could leave the comments and questions until it’s copied onto the FAQ?

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Thank you VERY much! This thread has been bookmarked!

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“I bought 50 gr of Celikhan raw tobacco. Celikhan tobacco was used for snuffmaking by turkish government company until 1980’s. Then the production stopped. This tobacco is very expensive $50 for 1 kg. It is moist and ready to smoke. I dried 50gr tobacco in microvawe for 20 minutes at the lowest heat. I ground it very fine like toque snuffs. For HDT i cook it untill some smoke appears. For scenting and maturing i use sodium carbonate and table salt 1/1 ratio (very small amounts) mix it with 2ml water. Add essential oils mixtures as you want. For plain snuff no oils. For scented 1-2 drops(it is like toque) For parfumed 6-7 drops (F&T like) and for exterem parfumed add 13-16 drops ( indian snuff like) if you want oil based use haff amount of paraffin instead of water. Mix them all with tea spoon. It doesn’t become like mud don’t afraid. It tastes salty but if you wait 24hrs at least salt disappears slowly.” copied from a @linguist post

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Ohhhh I wish we had a “like” button.  

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He’s so…masterfully snuffy

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Great thread.  I’m about to plant some different tobaccos bound for grinding.  Really appreciate this info. 

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Fantastic thread! I’ve bookmarked this one and it will be my bible going forward. Thanks @Juxtaposer!

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I might be done here. I suppose there will be a few edits and additions I will do but for the most part I think I’m finished. If anyone thinks I left anything out please let me know. 

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I’m really sketchy on the whole fermentation process. How do you track its progress? How do you know when to stop it? How do you stop it? If these questions are covered already I apologize, but I’ve missed it. Any addl info appreciated. I’ve made snuff by grinding prepared tobacco of course, but never from leaf, and that seems like the “real” way to do it. I want to. But I’m sure I’d hose the process right off by not understanding enough about the fermentation/curing process. Are these even the same thing? Sorry for being so dense.

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Fermentation (the breakdown of the tobacco leaf) is very complicated yes, but it is something that happens automatically and naturally starting from when the plants are harvested. Extensive fermentation is there for you to experiment with but it is not necessary. 
I edited the recipe so now you have nothing to think about.

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That is a great resource! Thank you.

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Fantastic thread, still getting around to digesting it all.

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How was that Guano snuff?

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This has to be the most interesting and useful thread on this site, thanks Jux!

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and I can no longer edit my posts on the mobile version.

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This is an excellent thread !

Bookmarked !!

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This is the most extensive piece of work about making snuff that I have ever come across. As the commercial producers don’t exactly give their secrets away, making your own snuff can be a daunting prospect. This shows it isn’t and it’s perfectly possible to make great snuff at home. 

Hopefully this can be trimmed of comments and put onto the FAQ as one body of text.

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