I love this stuff and try to keep a box filled with it at all times. It makes me happy. It genuinely smells like the fumes from an aged premier cru cognac–a little orangey, a little apply, some spice, even a little rancio. Delicious. Moreish. I shovel through my box with this one. It’s also, however, the weirdest consistency I’ve ever seen. Prins Regent is clumpy and gives the impression of only being medium moist. It’s light as air. And there’s the problem. Researchers could study the trajectory of nasal breathing by mapping the small, light brown particles that shoot out of my nose. As an experiment, I took a medium pinch, lightly inhaled, and sat upright with a piece of printer paper on the desk in front of me. Upon lightly exhaling, I examined the paper: it looked like a shotgun target with very fine birdshot. Pretty much covered. No wonder disease spreads so rapidly. What the devil can I do about this? Should I put a quarter or something into my box to break it up a little more fine? Should I put a black cloth over my head before snuffing, like the French do when eating ortolans, to hide my grossness from God and my fellow man? Have any of you dealt with this problem?

What the devil can I do about this? Should I put a quarter or something into my box to break it up a little more fine? Should I put a black cloth over my head before snuffing, like the French do when eating ortolans, to hide my grossness from God and my fellow man? Have any of you dealt with this problem?

Maybe you should drown it in Armagnac. It works for the French on the wee birds.

@Malatesta - My tips are: A) use a snuff spoon, and B) once it’s in press your nostril closed along the outside. Now I’m not saying that you won’t still leave a crumb trail, but it will be greatly reduced!

Interesting about the snuff spoon, @mrpaul. I don’t have one of those yet. Improvisation is in order. However, I can say that the old press the schnozz together trick unfortunately doesn’t work on this one for me. It just won’t stick. And I like really course, moist snuffs and deal with the dribble all the time, but Prins Regent sprays like a blunderbuss with a worn bore. @chefdaniel, spot on. The preparation of ortolans has always intrigued me. Not in a hurry to try one, mind, but its an interesting process. I would bathe in Armagnac if I could (to me, it’s the noblest expression of spirits), but I certainly wouldn’t want to drown in it! Have you eaten them?

@Malatesta‌ I have. Before I fully understood the entire process, but I have to admit they are tasty morsels. And morsel is the best term to describe them; tiny, two bites if you’re careful, one if you’re me. I had them while doing a little R&R during a brief but meaningful Navy TAD assignment. Carcassonne is in Gascony and I ate more goose, duck, cassoulet, foie gras and other foods that I had no clue that the birds I was about to eat had actually been drowned in Armagnac; I thought that a good fate if I had a choice in the matter. I think Armagnac is so much better than Cognac. One dish I remember well was a duck stuffed with prunes that had been steeped in black tea and Armagnac (the chef gets to drink the resultant beverage-(another reason to become a chef) then roasted over plum wood coals on a spit. It was in the village of Condòm in the Midi-Pyrénées. I drank quite a bit of the local brandy. In my drunken stupor I made very few friends when I called the dish “Rubber Ducky”, moments before doing pirouettes into the dark in search of the host’s daughter. That made me even fewer friends. Her brothers were not impressed as I recall. Similar adventures were experienced during a Calvados induced haze while visiting Mont St. Michel a few years later, but the birds were pigeons (I think they were pigeons).

@chefdaniel. Squab! Mmmm, squab. Can’t get enough, mostly because they’re so small. Couldn’t imagine munching on an Ortolan, but definitely willing to try. I’ve had the goose stuffed with tea/brandy/prune–so good. @everyoneelse. Sorry for the tour down the old gastronomic lane, but I do love food. I’ll control myself better in future.

@Everyoneelse. I won’t.

hah. I probably won’t either, but I’m polite enough not to let THEM know that. Oh, wait.