can i use olive or cooking oil to remoisten schmalzler
I have zero experience with rehydrating Schmalzlers. I suspect you could use olive oil but would have to do it in very small additions until you got the right consistency. Additionally olive oil with impart an olive oil smell to it, so it may ruin the end product. Though a dry schmalzler is kinda already ruined. I believe they use mineral oil to grease schmalzlers but dont try it as I’m not sure how safe any of that is. If nobody else offers any advice I would try the olive oil, at least it’s safe.
Try clarified butter or ghee. You can make it or buy it, depending on budget, spare time, whatever. It does go rancid faster than most other fats, but can be refrigerated. Caution: if chilled it gets harder than a rock in no time. Just warm up the snuff and fluff it with a clean, VERY clean, dry fork and it’s ready to sniff. Great flavor and smooth as silk on the nostrils. To reconstitute the schmalzler with water, go with distilled water, mist it on, seal the container, shake, let it sit, repeat until it’s to your liking. I’m not a huge fan of the genre, but I keep my limited stash sealed tightly in mason jars and spoon it out on those rare occasions I feel like having black goop running into my 'stache and down my face. I’m not sure if I need a hankie, or a crash helmet and a drool bucket when I do this stuff. It’s why I prefer toasts like Lundy Foot and HDT.
For long-term storage use mineral oil.
One thing I forgot to mention about homemade ghee; you can control the browning of the solids to add a nutty flavor to the final product. I won’t bore you with Maillard effect and all that stuff, but the French have a sauce called Beurre Noisette, or hazelnut butter, that is simply whole butter cooked over low heat until the solids turn a light brown. That may be a bit over the top for snuff, but you might like it. Just be careful with the heat. Burnt butter is crap. http://chefinyou.com/recipe/homemade-ghee http://www.buzzfeed.com/christinebyrne/how-to-make-perfect-brown-butter#223qhsd
As far as I have understood, this is what they use in Germany (there is some difference in the usage of the word ‘paraffin’): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid\_paraffin\_(medicinal) This is commercially available. However, I would use homemade ghee instead.
@SkeG Correct. Mineral Oil and Paraffin Oil are the same thing. There’s really nothing wrong with it, but it isn’t a naturally occurring substance. It’s from petroleum refining; Vaseline, aka petroleum jelly is a close cousin. Like propylene glycol, it is used in food manufacturing, cosmetics, soaps and all sorts of “food safe” applications. I don’t use it in my snuff, but it’s great for sharpening knives, keeping wooden cutting boards conditioned and other things. Old Cajuns still use it as a laxative (yuck) and as gun oil. @cstokes4 is right that it is perfect for long term storage, as there is no risk of rancidity. I’m curious if a small percentage added to natural animal fat would lengthen the shelf life.
@chefdaniel I wonder if Lanolin would be useful since it is used in cosmetics without spoiling?
@cstokes4 If it was seriously purified it might work. The downside is it comes from sheep fat, and if you’ve ever smelled sheep fat that’s gone even a little rancid, you damn sure don’t want that in your nose. It has a staying power that is more akin to a half-life. When the time came to break down lamb carcasses most of the culinary staff became very scarce, almost invisible. Getting that smell out of your skin required time; no amount soap would work, since most of it contains lanolin, acids didn’t work, sodas and salts didn’t work. You just had to grin, bear it, and stink for several days. It made riding the bus home from work a very lonely journey. The upsides were you could sit in a bar and drink in peace and solitude since no human being would get within breathing distance, and your dogs would love you to death with their “kisses”. =))
Toasted a ground batch of Dunhill 965 in a tad of peanut oil/ Great scent. Will be watching the rancidity though. I scorched it pretty good… 
I also used linseed oil once. Pure too much of a own smell, but after it was heated, the oil became tasteless. I think there are simply many possibilities 
Be careful of “raw modified” linseed oil it has plasticizers added to make it useful as an oil for use in industry. In English speaking countries linseed oil that is safe for consumption will be labeled “flaxseed oil” in order to differentiate it from “linseed oil” which may not safe for consumption by humans and animals.
Well, this was from a supermarket sold for cooking, so I believe it was not too dangerous :). Only used once, then moved on.
snuff with lineseed oil? Good idea, my organic store also sells it. I now have a tin of snuff with added Truffle Oil. Only buy it from organic stores then you’re sure of real truffles being used. The industry uses sythetic flavour. Truffle has a nice woody/forest scent and reminds of mushrooms.
@jeffcraft1, as to fully answer your question I used some olive oil to moisten a tiny batch of Sternecker ungefettet. half a teaspoon with three drops of olive oil. Worked and I didn’t smell any olive, although I expected so. I think (correct if I am wrong) you asked this because you have half a tap box of bernard and don’t want to toss it away. Therefore it makes no sense to go on to buy some special oil or think about the shelf life when the amount is used up pretty quickly. If this is indewed the case, then olive oil passes the test IMO