This is a recipe from one of our professional snuff makers that you might like to experiment with. This is the first of an occasional series that will be placed in the FAQ section.
If you make it - or adapt it - please let us know how you got on.
An old Rotterdam recipe produce an “Odor” snuff. Take 500 grams of powdered tobacco ground through a coffee grinder and add 22 drops of Bergamot oil, 12 drops of Clove oil and 10 drops of Lemon oil. Mix well, strain through tea sieve, leave overnight. Ready.
A German recipe for Hannover snuff. For 500 grams of powdered tobacco, take 10 grams of fine cut yellow sweet clover mix with 40 ml boiling water and let it cool down. Filter and add to the filtrate 50 ml tap water, 10 grams Ammonium chloride and 5 grams Potash. Mix well with the tobacco leave in a warm place to ferment. After convient fermentation cool down with 50 grams of kitchen salt.
I haven’t tried the Hannover recipe yet, but I hope you have enough to go on.
Wow, Thanks a bunch. The timing on this is perfect. Here are some notes on what I will be doing today. Due to my limited ingredients it may seem as if I have changed the recipe completely but if you do look close enough I really have not strayed too far.
1/4 cup tobacco flour
2 teaspoon woodruff herb water in which was 2 teaspoon woodruff herb steeped sub for clover
1/8 teaspoon sodium carbonate sub for ammonium chloride
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar sub for potash
jarred and set in towel warmer (110’) for 12 hours then set at room temp to check until salted
1/2 teaspoon salt
notes;
My Burley leaves were in such great condition it was difficult for me not to imagine all the cigarillos that I could have rolled with what I was tearing up. Taken out of case in a metal bowl over a crock pot. Ground and sieved, I prefer sieving dry. The strained woodruff tea was very mildly scented. Coumarin being the matching ingredient to the yellow sweet clover. Tonka bean might be a good substitute here. This tea is the casing for fermentation not necessarily the topping or final scent. Mixed the alkalizers into the tea making sure completely dissolved. Put flour back to whirl in the solution. Some fiddling and scraping to ensure a complete mix. Immediately the scent of ammonia developed. To set aside in my 110’ towel warmer may be overdoing it but since such effort was made to find such a device I will use it. I remember recently reading about snuff fermentation regarding the twelve hours so I will use that number in the chamber however the supply of oxygen will be limited as the half full jar is sealed. I will edit my next post tomorrow after the jar has cooled and opened to check. At that time I will decide on whether or not to salt right away or let sit.
Cream of tartar sub for salts of tartar sub for potash. My potassium substitute. I know that’s a big leap (my biggest) but I have read about cream of tartar being used in snuff and now here is my chance.
notes;
Opened up the jar after about twenty four hours of so twelve of which were at 110’ artificial heat. It still has a strong ammonia smell. It’s a lot darker than when first jarred. Separated a pinch to air for testing. Surprisingly the tea which I thought weak gave this a distinct pleasant scent. I had a hard time getting myself to put a whole teaspoon of salt in just 25 grams of snuff so I opted for a half teaspoon. I tried to get the salt to dissolve in a little water for mixing in but to much water was necessary for that and the snuff is already a little too moist so I gave it a whirl with the salt thrown in dry. After salting the scent was more pronounced and much longer lasting. Now to let it rest for a week or so… As if I won’t be picking at it the whole time.
Not an effective substitute for potash since it’s acidic. It was used in quite a few old snuff recipes to add (or enhance) the natural sourish aroma caused by fermentation.
Ok so instead of starting a new thread, I will post my question here. Has anyone used leafonly.com for the leaves? If you have, how did it go? Thank you for your answers and this thread in general.
Did you spot this in the WIKI for cream of tartar?
Potassium carbonate can be made by igniting cream of tartar producing “pearl ash”. This process is now obsolete but produced a higher quality (reasonable purity) than “potash” extracted from wood or other plant ashes.
Results… I have twenty five grams of fresh Woodruff Hannover snuff! I am amazed by the herb scenting and am looking forward to using other herbs in this manner. I have a lot of saucing/casing ideas that will work using this type of recipe. A lot of fun will be had experimenting with fermenting times too. I’m a lot more interested in saucing/casing and fermenting than I am in topping / scenting.
*I never did double check my math work on that recipe I used. I suppose I should get a gram scale to measure weight in stead of estimating volumes.
*This fresh snuff appears to be still burning through oxygen after 48 hours as the jar lid was vacuumed on pretty well. I should re-think the airtight environment I gave it on its fermentation phase. It seems it could have used more oxygen than I gave it.
I was going for a recipe for Brazil Carotte as it is very similar to our C&B described as smelling like old Cheshire cheese, but I had to put this one down due to Juxtaposers use of cream of tartar. It’s an incredibly easy recipe if you have access to some rose petals.
“Take forty parts of French or St. Omar tobacco with twenty parts of fermented Virginia stalks in powder; the whole to be ground and sifted. To this powder must be added two pounds and one- half of rose leaves in fine powder; and the whole must be moistened with salt and water and thoroughly incorporated. After that it must be worked up with cream and salts of tartar, and packed in lead to preserve its delicate aroma.” The celebrated gros gram Paris snuf.
Don’t go off and buy a packet of Gitanes, our Quit and some cheap Scotch snuff should be fine. I’d guess 50g Quit 25g Scotch and 75g rose petals. For the salt water mix 1/8 of a teaspoon of salt in 1/4 a mug of warm distilled water allow to cool, mix in but stop before it becomes a paste. Then add cream of tartar to taste. I’d also skip the lead casket if you want to live. I’ll just add the immortal line “Not to be tried at home”. LOL!
@Juxtaposer Glad your experiment worked out, altho I’m surprised it did, given the amount of soda you put in. I use 1/16th tsp. to a 1/4 cup tobacco for unfermented snuff. The cream of tartar must’ve been acidic enough to neutralize the excess. Yet another serendipitous discovery. Congratulations.
It’s not quite over yet. The vacuuming is slowing down but the ammonia is still wicked strong. Hopefully I can time the airing of it so that the moisture content is perfect when it is completely ready for consumption. I will likely load a box in a couple days to see how that goes.
Edit; another day and it’s clear it’s not really slowing its oxygen consumption like I assumed.
OK I just decided to leave the lid off and let some moisture evaporate. Its almost black and I think the high moisture is driving the cooking. I certainly don’t want to put any more salt in it.
Day5; I am only leaving it open to air while I am around so that I can keep an eye on the moisture levels. All in all, even with all these notes, the fermentation times and temperatures are not recorded very accurately , nor is any of the time spent with lack of oxygen or time spent airing recorded in great detail. What effects these have will remain to be seen in further snuff making experiments. What I do have is a fantastic one of a kind snuff. That is for sure!
Well I have made a lot of homemade snuff, I like high nic snuff, Ok one of my favorite recipes is, 50/50 Nicotiana Rustica & Virgina Toabcco with slaked Lime & backing soda, with just a touch of Virgin coconut Oil. As far as the amounts of slaked lime it depends on the batch size but if you use to much it will burn the shit out of your nose, so start with very little & work your way up. I don’t like perfumed snuffs at all , period, so I never create Old lady Snuff, LOL.
Here’s a quick, five minute recipe using everyday, household items. Don’t forget to pick up the Chapzugar and jaggaree the next time you are in a 7/11.
To 10 lbs of Snuff (which it is indispensable should be of a sweet Brazil character) take first 1.1/2 of the best French Plums. Let them simmer for at least 5 hours until reduced to the feel of a soft…pulp, adding while simmering about 2ozs of grated Chapzugar Cheese; add thereto while simmering 1.1/2 salt - when the plums are sufficiently soft rub them through a cane sieve in order to seperate the stones - then spread out your snuff and force the plums through a wire sieve on to the snuff - mix it well up with your hands and 1.1/2 pints of best Olive or Almond Oil and work the whole twice through the wire sieve: add about two glasses of Port wine lees.
If you can get any Jaggaree disolve 1.1/2 ilbs in hot water with 2 ozs Chapzugar and salt, if necessary a little wine lees - This is a much better recipe and requires no Plums - but the foundation must be a sweet luscious flavour’d snuff.