squeezyjohn
Well-Known Member
As an attempt to get a solution to my hanging woes - I processed lots of this year's crop by making carottes of tobacco in the traditional way - each carotte I made was a single variety of tobacco. The process was to take out the mid-ribs, loosely roll many colour cured leaves together in canvas and then compress this down very tightly using a thin rope coiled around the canvas and pulled as tight as possible.
I've just unwrapped the ones I made in October to have a check. The tobacco has totally transformed in texture and aroma. For the black stalk mammoth which was a nice medium brown and had a sweet grassy aroma (although as a tobacco chewer myself it was very bitter) - the centre of the carotte has now become a shiny black surface with the texture of beef-jerky and the aroma smells more like malt or molasses than tobacco to me. In comparison - the bit at the end which didn't get compressed is still light brown and has a grassy aroma.
What have I made??? It tastes quite nice to chew, but is a little sour and still a bit bitter.
I've just unwrapped the ones I made in October to have a check. The tobacco has totally transformed in texture and aroma. For the black stalk mammoth which was a nice medium brown and had a sweet grassy aroma (although as a tobacco chewer myself it was very bitter) - the centre of the carotte has now become a shiny black surface with the texture of beef-jerky and the aroma smells more like malt or molasses than tobacco to me. In comparison - the bit at the end which didn't get compressed is still light brown and has a grassy aroma.
What have I made??? It tastes quite nice to chew, but is a little sour and still a bit bitter.