How to make swedish snus

[jojjas]

Gear needed

Hand cranked (old style) meat grinder, dont use your household electric grinder , it will shurley die, mine did



Oven with a good thermomether


A good scale


Mixer


and some ovenproof plastic containers with lid


First
You could use any kind of tobacco leafs you want, even stems could be used ( i prefer burley and or virginia) , but they must be wery dry or it became to heavy to grind them you could even use unfermented leafs only they are dry
Grind tobaccoleafs to fine powder, somthing between fine sawdust and oatmeal flour

when that is done ,
ad equal parts tobacco flour with boiling water with approx 50-70g salt ( 2-2,75 oz) you could use more salt if you prefer

ex: 0.5kg tobacco you should mix with 0.5l water

Then mixed tobacco and salty water together so everything is well mixed and then put it in the plastic container and press it hard with the end of a wooden plank or somthing similar put on the lid and make sure its tight

When that is done fire up the oven ,and make sure that temprature is stable about 90°C (±5°C)
Place the container in the oven for 24h (here is the fermentation occurs)
After 24 h take out the container and mix the tobacco so there are no lumps

Next step is a little bit crittical , do this out side ,if its hot direct from oven it can irritate your eyes and nose when you mix it together
Boil 0.25l water with 40-70 g of sodium carbonate and add to the tobacco (i prefer 45-50g) if you want stronger (more nicotin ,more strenght) snus use the high dosage
then put it in the plastic container and press it hard with the end of a wooden plank or somthing similar put on the lid and make sure its tight
place it in the oven for 12h 90°c

After 12h take out the snus from the oven, let it cool down, mix it well so there are no lumps , and now its the time add flavor and if you want , some substans to keep it moist
Store it in refrigerator to keep it moist and fresh

Mikael

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Thank you for your quality contribution, this comes up all the time and looks like a great recipe.

Stickied

 

[workhorse_01]

How is this different from moist snuff? I hear snus all the time and I don't know the difference. The only difference between this and my recipe is I add ammonium carbonate and I don't use the metric system. LOL I've been using Copenhagen original for about 35yrs. I guess you could say anything I make is going to taste like that.

 

[jojjas]

How is this different from moist snuff? I hear snus all the time and I don't know the difference. The only difference between this and my recipe is I add ammonium carbonate and I don't use the metric system. LOL I've been using Copenhagen original for about 35yrs. I guess you could say anything I make is going to taste like that.

Iwill try to explain the way i think it is
I think it is question about language confusion from older days

Ex: here in europe we called it fotball in Usa you called it soccer
Snuff is that tobacco form Columbus brought back from the caribbeans (i am not sure about that )
Here in europe , snuff is tobacco powder meant sniff (snuff) up in your nose
and snus is the swedish use of wery moist tobacco meant to form a little ball to put under your upper lip

Thats the short explantion i think it is
Here is some more to read about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snuff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snus
Mikael

 

[workhorse_01]

My Great Grandmother used Railroad Mills powdered scotch snuff in her lip. I know it was designed to go up the nose. I think she paved the way for the moist snuff we have today. I gave her some Copenhagen one time and I thought she was going to turn green. She gave my brother some Rail road mills and he coughed and blew a cloud. The only difference between the two was moisture and taste.

 

[johnlee1933]

My Great Grandmother used Railroad Mills powdered scotch snuff in her lip. I know it was designed to go up the nose. I think she paved the way for the moist snuff we have today. I gave her some Copenhagen one time and I thought she was going to turn green. She gave my brother some Rail road mills and he coughed and blew a cloud. The only difference between the two was moisture and taste.

Have you tried mine yet? What's the verdict?

 

[workhorse_01]

Ill let you know Wed. After it sets a week. It'll probably be really good

 

[Michibacy]

Have you tried mine yet? What's the verdict?

I let yours sit a while, I tell you what friend that's a good product right there, still a bit course for the nose but real nice for the lip.

 

[johnlee1933]

I let yours sit a while, I tell you what friend that's a good product right there, still a bit course for the nose but real nice for the lip.

You could screen it thru a 400 micron screen if you chose. I have one for screening seed and they're cheap.

 

[workhorse_01]

Yes I have one also and I also use it to screen seed. It's the perfect size once the flour is rehydrated. John when I send your package out tomorrow are there any seed I have that you would like?

 

[SmokesAhoy]

so if i didnt have a scale capable of measuring small things is there a ratio recipe? All dry tobacco probably has the same weight by volume, all water has the same weight by volume, same with the na2c03, can anyone with a scale work out a "by ounce" recipe equivalent for this? If you dry your tobacco in the oven at 150 within a few minutes its dry dry. 8ounces as one would measure flour must have a close enough weight no matter who does this, then its just a matter of the other 2 ingredients and one can follow this recipe.

 

[johnlee1933]

Yes I have one also and I also use it to screen seed. It's the perfect size once the flour is rehydrated. John when I send your package out tomorrow are there any seed I have that you would like?

No thanks Hoss. It is too late for me to start new seedlings and I haven't been doing that well with them anyway.

 

[G-Chew]

When you say : "Grind tobaccoleafs to fine powder, somthing between fine sawdust and oatmeal flour

when that is done ,
ad equal parts tobacco flour with boiling water with approx 50-70g salt ( 2-2,75 oz) you could use more salt if you prefer

ex: 0.5kg tobacco you should mix with 0.5l water "

Can you elaborate a little more for me? Yea, I'm dumb and wanna make sure I don't screw it up...

 

[squeezyjohn]

In metric measurements 1 litre of water weighs exactly 1 kilogram (1000 grams) so it's easy to measure the weight of water by it's volume - I think that's what he meant.

So using the US measurements system it's almost the same as saying for every pound of tobacco flour add just over 1 pint (US) of water.

In my experience of snus-making - it's better to add less water than this and then add some at the end if it's too dry. The reaction required to make snus will still happen if there is about half the water stated in this recipe although it will probably end up a bit dry to form a nice pinch easily.

 

[G-Chew]

Great! Thanks this helps a lot man!

 

[squeezyjohn]

so if i didnt have a scale capable of measuring small things is there a ratio recipe? All dry tobacco probably has the same weight by volume, all water has the same weight by volume, same with the na2c03, can anyone with a scale work out a "by ounce" recipe equivalent for this? If you dry your tobacco in the oven at 150 within a few minutes its dry dry. 8ounces as one would measure flour must have a close enough weight no matter who does this, then its just a matter of the other 2 ingredients and one can follow this recipe.

Unfortunately this is not the case - different tobacco varieties ground up in to flour of different coarseness have very different weights by volume. However - snus making is really an art and not a science and those amounts tend to be rule of thumb rather than absolute. I separate my stems and lamina when grinding up tobacco flour and find that flour of stems absorbs a hell of a lot more water than the lamina of a thin leaf such as a virginia - up to twice as much! Thicker leaves will absorb more too.

As I said in the answer above - it's best to go for a much reduced water content while you are "cooking" the snus and then adjust with water later if it is too dry. As long as you have 30% moisture content in total the reaction that allows the process that makes snus will work.

Drying out overly wet snus is really tedious - possible, but far harder than adding a little water.

 

[G-Chew]

Question: where do you find oven proof plastic containers?
I've never seen em'

 

[DGBAMA]

Guess I never paid attention........so.........

Snuff is the powdered stuff you sniff.......and Snuss is a pinch in the lip, same as "Dip" in the US.?

 

[G-Chew]

Pretty much I think...except snus goes in the upper lip not the lower...

 

[squeezyjohn]

Question: where do you find oven proof plastic containers?
I've never seen em'

I don't think he can mean plastic it would melt ... probably pyrex. Glass would also be fine.

The key thing to do is raise the temperature for the right amount of time - I don't even use an oven - I put my snus mix in a mason jar sat in water in a crockpot that's been hacked to give more control over the temperature by fitting a PID unit and temperature probe (just cuts the power when it goes over a certain temperature and turns it back on when it falls below that temperature) - you could probably just pass the power through a dimmer and get similar results.

You can do it hotter for a shorter time or a bit cooler for longer and that also affects how the snus tastes.

85ºC (185ºF) for 2 days gives a darker caramelized flavour
70ºC (158ºF) for 5 days gives a more rounded lighter taste

But the key thing is to try to make sure that the snus stays at a constant(ish) temperature