Why Kiln Dry Your Tobacco?
A little history: Originally tobacco was smoked in pipes or ground into snuff. Tobacco curing was unheard of. With the advent of cigarette papers, cigarette smoking was born. Consumers demanded a more pleasant aroma and smoother taste, so heralded in the age of "curing". The purpose of curing is to sweat out the obnoxious smell and allow for a more palatable product and is a step that really should not be skipped. You can of course, sun or air dry your product and smoke it, but you will have a quite harsh product that will not be a pleasant experience. So do seriously consider finishing your product in a kiln. There are a number of free kiln plans on the internet that you can easily build at home. On such plan can be found HERE.
On average, you can expect to cure approximately five pounds of tobacco at a time over a 3-4 week period. This equates out to approximately enough tobacco for over 2,000 cigarettes at a time with each batch.
Shredding your Tobacco: When your tobacco is finished, then you need to cut it into long, thin strands for rolling or pipe smoking. The Cuthof Cutting Kit will do the job quickly and accurately. Read more on it below.
Flavoring your Tobacco: The secret to great tasting smooth tobacco is in the flavoring. The commercial companies use flavorings to smooth out tobacco, remove harshness and stinging and deliver a mellow flavored tobacco. Now you can do the same at home with our Tobacco Flavorings.
We offer two types of flavorings, Tobacco Enhancers which work to generally smooth out tobacco and remove harsh tones and Top Note Flavors which are absorbed by the tobacco to create a pleasing taste and aroma.
We suggest applying a Flavor Enhancer to all home grown tobacco, allowing it to fully dry and then applying a Top Note Flavor for best results. Applying our flavors is a very simple process:
1. After tobacco has dried and cured properly ( Get Jim Johnson's Guide for Home Gardeners for complete curing and processing information including free how-to build your home kiln directions), remove stems and shred tobacco (see our Cuthof Shredding Machine below) into the size you will use when smoking.
2. Place a pound of shredded tobacco into a large open tray and start misting the tobacco with the flavoring while stirring the tobacco thoroughly. 2 ounces of our pre-mixed flavoring will flavor one pound of tobacco.
3. After flavoring has been applied, cover container for 3-4 hours to allow tobacco to fully absorb flavoring, then spread tobacco out on a table or shelf to dry. Stir the tobacco every 4 hours or so to facilitate drying.
4. After 24 hours, tobacco should be ready to use. We recommend sampling a batch to insure that it has dried adequately, if it has not, allow to dry until burns evenly when lit.
Store bought tobacco that has been allowed to dry out and would no longer be smokeable can be given new life simply by adding our flavorings, using the above process. You can even mix 50/50 your homegrown tobacco with store bought tobacco for your own unique blend and still retain many of the smoking flavors that you are accustom to with that brand and save money!
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Information offered above is just a sample of info found in Growing and Processing Tobacco @ Home book.
A reminder to my customers:
Virtual Seeds is primarily a garden seed company, not a tobacco company. I am very glad to offer advice on germination and growing of your plants, but I am not knowledgable in the curing and processing of tobacco. That is a whole different line of knowledge and I cannot offer advice on how to finish out your crop. I invite you to visit any number of tobacco forums online to contact other tobacco growers who are more than glad to share their techniques and answer your questions.
TA80 "GROWING AND PROCESSING TOBACCO AT HOME"
by Jim Johnson
Covers all aspects of raising and processing tobacco at home.
* How to plant the seeds, care for the plants,
* identify and cure tobacco pests and diseases, plus
* how to harvest the plants,
* how to air cure,
* complete instructions and drawings on building your own kiln,
* how to flavor your tobacco,
* how to make cigars, cigarettes, chewing tobacco and snuff
along with loads of other useful information.
$29.99 w/ free shipping!
