I have acquired some chewing tobacco that is quite local, and I am going to make it into snuff. First things first. I need to dry the tobacco. I plan on putting it in the oven on a low temp, but I don’t know how low. I know I have read it on here before, but I cannot seem to find it. Can anyone link me to a topic where this is discussed? Much appreciated! ~Ken
Pipe tobacco they say 100 to 150 F for 1to 1.5 hrs. Chewing tobacco I don’t remember seeing anything about making snuff from. If it is wet I would say it will take longer, I have a small toaster oven and take it out onto the back porch and bake whatever tobacco I’m trying to dry out enough to make snuff with. And It don’t smell up the house and I get to smoke my pipe to.
@gimpy: That actually sounds like quite a good idea. I, too, have a small toaster oven that I could use for that purpose. The tobacco isn’t really wet…at all, actually. I will have to give that a shot. Thanks alot. ~Ken
Chew is covered with sticky sweet molasses. I don’t think it’d work. But if you insist, I think I’d just air dry in on a pan, and then mortar and pestle it.
Honestly, this isn’t like any other chew I have seen. It’s quite dry. It’s so local and small run, it’s actually sold in zip lock bags with a piece of paper in them tell you the flavor. ~Ken
Alright. So I dried it out, ground it up, and I am left with a medium brown, heavily tobacco scented snuff. I put the lot of it into an airtight jar, and then began experimenting with flavours. So far, I have a 10g tin of the snuff in a tupperware container with an italian chicken cutlet and a shot glass of water. Another with a shot glass of orange juice. I am going to periodically check on the one with the chicken, and reheat it as necessary to help spread the flavour. This…should be interesting. ~Ken
Ken, if that is a real piece of chicken I would be worried about salmonella or other food borne pathogens.
It…is a cooked piece of chicken. I shouldn’t think this would matter. If I have a glass of water next to my dinner of chicken, I do not worry that my water will be infected. Also, just started a sake flavoured one. ~Ken
Not to mention that it’s a precooked piece of chicken – reheated via microwave for your taste / olfactory enjoyment. Shouldn’t matter at all. I can’t imagine that Perdue would sell pre-cooked chicken that has salmonella.
KFC?
Ha. No. The Perdue italian chicken cutlets. They smell mad good. The regular ones kinda taste like chick fil a. Mmm. ~Ken
I squarely blame Roderick for encouraging this type of behavior. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Is this the scrap chewing tobacco? Amish type that Demuth sells? I heard that was more akin to plug than loose leaf or anything else.
With the lowest setting your oven has you can keep going back to it and testing. using a higher temp to get it done quicker needs a lot more scrutiny. My first batch flashed up in no time at all due to not watching it and dense tobacco smoke puring out of an oven is pretty memorable and gross. I was hyper cautious the next time around and the slow temp gave it a really even dryness.
Plug is usually very sweet and sticky, compressed block.
@Xander- It is called “Amish Chewing Tobacco”. Every time I have been to Demuth’s it has been closed, so I cannot attest to that. I purchased it at a tobacco stand at a flea market. Here is the only picture I could find of it:
I also have a pouch of their “Honey Cured”, but have not tried to do anything with that, yet. I’m not sure if the chicken flavouring is going to work out. Left it in there for a bit last night, reheating it as it got cold. But after so long, I had to take it out as it was hardly even putting a scent off anymore. Perhaps I will try it with some hot chicken broth or something. I’m not sure yet. The others are still in the tupperware. @snuffster- That’s about what I did. It didn’t take all that long, either, as the tobacco was relatively dry when I started. I just put the oven as low as it could go, check the tobacco every couple of minutes, and move it around on the tray to make sure none of it burned and got stuck to said tray. ~Ken
I personally don’t think chicken flavor appeals to me as a snuff, but orange does.
You can order some twist from MrSnuff. Click on KENDAL and you will find Kendal Black XX twist and Kendal No4 twist there. Dave hasn’t got any in stock now but it should be there soon. This twist is dry enough to grind up straight away and it makes a lovely, strong, real tobacco snuff.
@tom- I figured it would just be something wacky to try and make. Who knows, it could turn out good. And yes, I’m really hoping the orange turns out well. @Pieter- Yes, but those are quite expensive. How much snuff do you get out of one of those twists? ~Ken
Seriously man, the chicken one… I would not take that one up in my nose. Any bacteria you don’t know about, getting in your snuff… brrr… Carefull dude!