ok. so what’s the problem with heat and snuff? im obviously missing something here. is heat the concern, or is drying out due to heat the concern. the way i see it, the snuff gets sealed in a jar and pressure cooked for storage. being it is in a jar, no moisture, flavor, or oxygen is permeable through the glass. I fail to see the problem here. i should note that my bulk is intended for the next few years of storage. i dont see a better way for long term, especially since i have a hatred of plastic storage devices like bottles, jars or bags. i have yet to find a plastic that is suitable for anything. but then again im new and strange, so what do i know.
I have some tins that are about two years old and they’re are just fine. I have “damaged” more snuff airing it out when fresh than just leaving it sit in a tin in a drawer.
Um…Heating generally equals cooking. Not necessarily a problem with snuff, but you may be missing something. Cooking will change that which is cooked. So unless you are designing a change in your snuff you should try to maintain a stable temperature for storage of a finished product. That being said, you may still be somewhat successful in your “canning” of snuff. If you could take notes on any color changes and let us know of other results you have with this method it would be greatly appreciated. Already, I am curious as to what types of snuff you are intending to store with this method so that I may form a hypotheses of your success.
The thing you’ve missed is that snuff should generally be stored in a cool, dry place, in an airtight container and away from heat as much as possible in order to preserve it. Canning bulk is a particularly bad idea, though. Say you bought 100g of a WoS snuff, and you decant it from a bulk container to a 21g tin to a snuffbox. That means that you’d need to recan it and reheat it about five times over the course of its life. That’s just no good for it. If you absolutely must play with kitchen gadgets in storing your snuff, I’d suggest a vacuum sealer instead.
So the 10 day trip in the back of a mail van in the mid summer wont affect the snuff, but my heating it will? I’m going to have to respectfully disagree. With the additives in snuff and bacteria in the world, i was wondering about anaerobic reactions specifically, so i figured i would “TRY” a new method, that no one seems to have tried before. If it is used for canning vegetables, why not snuff, which in a round about way is also a vegetable matter. I should share that i canned 1 jar with the pressure cooker and 1 without the cooker, to compare differences. Also as I said earlier, this is intended for super duper ultra mega uber long term storage. I don’t intend to test these for the next few years. i have plenty of bulk that i currently dig into to recant(decant?). BTW, Toque Quit is the lab rat here.
I just vacuum seal it in the tin or now by the drum. I would never heat up snuff that has any flavor or scent added, myself. I could not bare to say heat up a Rose snuff or even Manjul. I keep all of mine in a large heavy plastic dog food drum at 65 degrees. My open snuffs in a humidor at 65% RH. Good luck with the experiment!
Well, you can try it, I’m just telling you why I think it’s a bad idea. And I don’t know where you live, but the mail vans here don’t get that hot. Bath canning would heat it to 212°F/100°C, and canning with a pressure cooker seems to bring it up to 240°F/115°C. Either one is substantially hotter than the back of the mail vans around here, and I live in a fairly hot place.
Toque Quit is the perfect candidate (double pun, can, date). Be sure to store in darkness. Also remember upon opening that there will be a breathing phase the snuff will go though.
what is this “breathing phase” you speak of?
When you first open it, it will have a certain character, after breathing it’s character should improve. I mention this so that you you won’t judge your experiment prematurely upon opening.
thanks for the heads up. another point to this experiment is to see if the ammonia character remains longer than normal. im hoping it does. in the mean time…i’ll be enjoying my vanilla, coke, dholakia white cocktail.
Not being a scientist (well I used to be), I am sure that heating organic material (such as snuff) increases cancer causing nitrosamines. That is why I wouldn’t cook tobacco. It has already been heat cured once. My advice is choose your favourite snuffs, buy in bulk, store in an airtight container in a dark cool place, and don’t stockpile excessive amounts. Over the last year and a half, I’ve bought 300 odd different snuffs, yet my daily rotation is six or so now (O&G, Wilsons Prime Minister, Queens Extra Strong, Lavender, Rose of Sharrow and Hedges). As I now have just these snuffs in bulk, the snuff is always fresh.
I don’t know how many of you are loaded up and figuring out a way to store bulk for long time, but I found this, tried it, and it works. Low cost and vacuum seals the crap out of the jar! http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Alvin-Vacuum-Sealer/ *never pulled the 20" they talk about… really minus 8 or so, but it sure is vacuum sealed.