Snuff recipe - no baking

[RyanM22]

Have been looking into various moist snuff recipes, and came about this one from Snuffhouse. No heat is necessary, except for the sauce. This seems a ton easier than baking the tobacco mixture. Is heating the mixture what differentiates snuff from snus? I'm still not sure of the difference. Was curious to get opinions, or if anyone has tried something similar. The flavors are subjective, as is with anything. Here it is:

...

Ingredients
************

100g of base tobacco. (Raw rustica foliage or compressed would be the best, but you can also experiment with other kinds and get reasonable results, or bulk up your rustica with commercial tobacco.)
Rum (or liquor of choice)
Espresso coffee powder.
Sodium Bicarbonate

Method
********

Make sure the tobacco is bone dry so that it breaks down easily. Reduce this to the mill that you like; you can use a coffee grinder/food processor with sufficiently fine cutting capacity or mortar and pestle, and then sieve it. Take the stuff that didn't go through the sieve and reduce further by using the mortar and pestle.

When you have the basic powder, make up a sauce of rum with the espresso disolved directly into it - the relative amounts are down to personal taste but the overall volume of sauce should be just enough to make the snuff lightly moist. Add 2 teaspoons of sodium bicarb to the sauce. Bicarb helps with the nicotine uptake and some people use a great deal of it in home blends, I go for smaller amounts because a lot of it can ruin a snuff.

You now have raw, unmatured snuff. If the snuff at this stage is too moist just leave it at room temperature in an open container until the excess has evaporated (just aim for the moisture level that you enjoy). You then need to let the snuff season for a minimum of 3 weeks. When I make this snuff for my own use I just use an old cookie jar with a screw top lid and I give it a good shake up and airing every now and then. When it's ready, fill up your snuff box and enjoy a pinch of unique snuff.

...

I am guessing that 3 weeks to settle would not be necessary with baking/heating

 

[Jitterbugdude]

There are many that would argue that the recipe you quoted is not snus. Traditionally snus has always been heated. Back in the 1800's this heating would last for up to 6 months until Swedish businessmen figured out a way to reduce the heating time ( by increasing the temp).

With that said~ I made my first batch this weekend and when I initially mixed the ingredients together I sampled some and it tasted excellent. I do not know if the finished product will taster better/worse than the raw mixture but the raw mixture tasted just fine. Also, I've never has "real" snus before so I have nothing to compare too.

One of the reasons for heating is the snus companies want to control TSNAs. One of the ways to do this is to heat the tobacco high even for the temps to kill the bacteria that convert the nitrates in the leaf to nitrites .

 

[workhorse_01]

I'm curious to see how you like the grit of the sodium bicarbonate. If you don't bake it down to sodium carb. your going to have a mouth full of sand.

 

[squeezyjohn]

This looks like a recipe for dry nasal snuff that you sniff up your nose rather than the mouth kind.

Which would explain the discrepancy in methods.

 

[RyanM22]

Squeezy, I think you are correct

 

[G-Chew]

Have been looking into various moist snuff recipes, and came about this one from Snuffhouse. No heat is necessary, except for the sauce. This seems a ton easier than baking the tobacco mixture. Is heating the mixture what differentiates snuff from snus? I'm still not sure of the difference. Was curious to get opinions, or if anyone has tried something similar. The flavors are subjective, as is with anything. Here it is:

...

Ingredients
************

100g of base tobacco. (Raw rustica foliage or compressed would be the best, but you can also experiment with other kinds and get reasonable results, or bulk up your rustica with commercial tobacco.)
Rum (or liquor of choice)
Espresso coffee powder.
Sodium Bicarbonate

Method
********

Make sure the tobacco is bone dry so that it breaks down easily. Reduce this to the mill that you like; you can use a coffee grinder/food processor with sufficiently fine cutting capacity or mortar and pestle, and then sieve it. Take the stuff that didn't go through the sieve and reduce further by using the mortar and pestle.

When you have the basic powder, make up a sauce of rum with the espresso disolved directly into it - the relative amounts are down to personal taste but the overall volume of sauce should be just enough to make the snuff lightly moist. Add 2 teaspoons of sodium bicarb to the sauce. Bicarb helps with the nicotine uptake and some people use a great deal of it in home blends, I go for smaller amounts because a lot of it can ruin a snuff.

You now have raw, unmatured snuff. If the snuff at this stage is too moist just leave it at room temperature in an open container until the excess has evaporated (just aim for the moisture level that you enjoy). You then need to let the snuff season for a minimum of 3 weeks. When I make this snuff for my own use I just use an old cookie jar with a screw top lid and I give it a good shake up and airing every now and then. When it's ready, fill up your snuff box and enjoy a pinch of unique snuff.

...

I am guessing that 3 weeks to settle would not be necessary with baking/heating

Don't get me wrong...I love the idea of this method...but let me suggest substituting the bicarbonate for carbonate. Some where in this forum I learned that bicarbonate requires 100F for a few minutes for the chemical reaction to take place which is what produces the pH balance needed for preservation. If you don't heat it you will only get the grit and no pH. However you can add sodium Carbonate which is the same thing either by making it from bicarbonate (just heating it in the oven so the CO2 is given off then you have it) or buying it. Just wanted to help.
Question: what did you mix as your liquid/rum? And how much espresso ?

 

[RyanM22]

I actually have a small batch going now, but did not use this method. As squeezy pointed out, this is more for a nasal snuff. It should be done some time tomorrow. Maybe Wednesday, the latest. I'll post how it came out in a new thread, since I am heating it.

 

[G-Chew]

Awesome! I'd love to sample some ...

 

[RyanM22]

Awesome! I'd love to sample some ...

Only if it comes out good!

 

[POGreen]

Snus has not always been heattreated JBD , back in the 16 and 1700's they would dip the tobaccoleaves in various sauces and wrap them in linencloth and make it tight with the help of strings or rope.
Every now and then they would open the package and remake the bundle inside the cloth , one would do this in those says were tobacco or snus factories.
Using this procidure , it could take up to 1 year to have the snus ready to use , using no other heatsource than what was inside that linencloth.
It wasn't until 1822 when a certain Jacob Fredrik Ljunglöf entered this scene things began to change , J.F Ljunglöf was of the opinion that this process was far to timeconsuming and that something had to be done to the matter.
Together with his associate Jöns Jacob Berzelius they came to revolutionize the making of moist snus for all times to come by heattreating the tobacco.
Somewhat like the making of Perique Tobacco , they would also use barrels of wood and pack'em full with dipped 'baccaleaves and put a good weight on top of the barrell.
Happen to have snus reciepes from 1801 in PDF-format and have read it several times , have another one from 1852 .