squeezyjohn
Well-Known Member
Hello,
I've just finished developing a new recipe which makes something almost indistinguishable from Ettan snus made by Swedish Match. I'm very proud of it and would like to share the recipe of how to make it from whole leaf tobacco. The leaf I used was bought from www.pureleaf.co.uk - which if I'm not mistaken is the same leaf as is available from http://wholeleaftobaccollc.com/ but for European buyers.
Making tobacco flour
The first thing you must do is strip the midribs from the leaf just like for cigarettes. But when making snus - retain the stems in a separate pile.
You have to grind the leaf in to flour. Any grinding technique will work, but make sure the leaf is fully dried out in the oven or the sun so that it is crispy and completely moisture free before grinding. My technique of grinding which is good for fairly large batches is to crunch the leaves so they shatter to tiny fragments and then blitz this is a food processor or blender until a fine powder is obtained. Tobacco flour can be stored long term in this form in a sealed glass jar. I keep separate jars for the leaf lamina flour and the stem flour. Stem flour is lower flavour and nicotine but can be used to balance out stronger tobaccos.
Lye Water
The only other ingredient you need that is not a common store cupboard ingredient is Lye Water which is available as a food grade additive from chinese/far-eastern supermarkets - it's usually used in the production of noodles. Lye water is a concentrated Potassium Carbonate solution and it's used as an alkali to increase the potency of the snus. The brand I used was this one
Equipment needed
CROCK POT / SLOW COOKER
To successfully make the snus you need a method of keeping the mix at a constant temperature for long periods of time. I use the cheapest available crock-pot / slow cooker like this one. This will be used as a water bath. I also made a trivet from bent chicken wire fencing to keep any contents of the water bath from sitting right on the bottom of the crock pot.
PID TEMPERATURE CONTROL UNIT
Crock pots alone do not give a constant controllable temperature so I also bought a PID unit designed to convert a crock pot in to a sous-vide machine cheaply. A quick google will find plenty of these devices available - you simply plug the PID in to the mains electricity, plug the slow cooker in to the PID, insert the temperature probe in to the crock pot filled with water, close the lid and set the temperature to maintain on the PID unit. Anything now placed in the water bath will be maintained at that temperature.
KILNER / MASON JARS
Any water tight sealed container which will fit inside the crock-pot water bath will do, but I like Kilner clip top jars with a rubber seal as the glass is inert, they're long lasting (provided you don't shock them with heat - they shatter then!) - make sure that they will fit inside the crock pot!
The recipe - yields about 10 regular cans or 500g (1lb) of loose snus
100g (3.5oz) Virginia Bright Leaf Lamina Flour
100g (3.5oz) Burley Lamina Flour
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
16g (0.5oz) sea salt
240ml (8 fl oz) boiled water
The resulting snus is a perfect copy of Ettan, the oldest brand of Swedish snus still available today. It is rich, chocolatey and tobacco flavoured and this recipe makes a regular strength snus of about 8mg/g nicotine.
The snus can then be stored for a month refrigerated in whatever container is available provided it's airtight. For longer keeping up to a year - the snus can be frozen with no ill effects.
If you are a user of portion snus then it is possible to turn this loose snus in to the small pouches by buying these things called Prillan Portionspasars - it's a fiddly process though. You have to cut the end from a small syringe and force the snus in to it and then inject each individual bag and heat-seal the open end. When I make portions I use hair straighteners to seal the end! However if the idea of using hair-straighteners challenges your masculinity - you can use a soldering iron.
I've just finished developing a new recipe which makes something almost indistinguishable from Ettan snus made by Swedish Match. I'm very proud of it and would like to share the recipe of how to make it from whole leaf tobacco. The leaf I used was bought from www.pureleaf.co.uk - which if I'm not mistaken is the same leaf as is available from http://wholeleaftobaccollc.com/ but for European buyers.
Making tobacco flour
The first thing you must do is strip the midribs from the leaf just like for cigarettes. But when making snus - retain the stems in a separate pile.
You have to grind the leaf in to flour. Any grinding technique will work, but make sure the leaf is fully dried out in the oven or the sun so that it is crispy and completely moisture free before grinding. My technique of grinding which is good for fairly large batches is to crunch the leaves so they shatter to tiny fragments and then blitz this is a food processor or blender until a fine powder is obtained. Tobacco flour can be stored long term in this form in a sealed glass jar. I keep separate jars for the leaf lamina flour and the stem flour. Stem flour is lower flavour and nicotine but can be used to balance out stronger tobaccos.
Lye Water
The only other ingredient you need that is not a common store cupboard ingredient is Lye Water which is available as a food grade additive from chinese/far-eastern supermarkets - it's usually used in the production of noodles. Lye water is a concentrated Potassium Carbonate solution and it's used as an alkali to increase the potency of the snus. The brand I used was this one
Equipment needed
CROCK POT / SLOW COOKER
To successfully make the snus you need a method of keeping the mix at a constant temperature for long periods of time. I use the cheapest available crock-pot / slow cooker like this one. This will be used as a water bath. I also made a trivet from bent chicken wire fencing to keep any contents of the water bath from sitting right on the bottom of the crock pot.
PID TEMPERATURE CONTROL UNIT
Crock pots alone do not give a constant controllable temperature so I also bought a PID unit designed to convert a crock pot in to a sous-vide machine cheaply. A quick google will find plenty of these devices available - you simply plug the PID in to the mains electricity, plug the slow cooker in to the PID, insert the temperature probe in to the crock pot filled with water, close the lid and set the temperature to maintain on the PID unit. Anything now placed in the water bath will be maintained at that temperature.
KILNER / MASON JARS
Any water tight sealed container which will fit inside the crock-pot water bath will do, but I like Kilner clip top jars with a rubber seal as the glass is inert, they're long lasting (provided you don't shock them with heat - they shatter then!) - make sure that they will fit inside the crock pot!
The recipe - yields about 10 regular cans or 500g (1lb) of loose snus
100g (3.5oz) Virginia Bright Leaf Lamina Flour
100g (3.5oz) Burley Lamina Flour
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
16g (0.5oz) sea salt
240ml (8 fl oz) boiled water
- The tobacco flours and cocoa powder were combined and mixed thoroughly.
- The salt was dissolved in the water - and then mixed with the tobacco flours and cocoa powder mix using a food processor to get a thorough mixing. However a fork and a bowl is a fine way to mix
- The mixture was turned in to a 0.5 litre Kilner jar, sealed with the rubber ring to ensure water-tightness and was then heated to 85ºC (185ºF) and held at that temperature for 24 hours in the crockpot water bath.
- After this first cook - 5 teaspoons of lye water was added and mixed in thoroughly. This was then put back in the crockpot for another 12 hours at a cooler temperature of 75ºC (167ºF).
- Remove the jar from the crock pot and leave in a cool place for 5 days with the rubber seal removed to allow ammonia gas which can spoil the flavour to de-gas
The resulting snus is a perfect copy of Ettan, the oldest brand of Swedish snus still available today. It is rich, chocolatey and tobacco flavoured and this recipe makes a regular strength snus of about 8mg/g nicotine.
The snus can then be stored for a month refrigerated in whatever container is available provided it's airtight. For longer keeping up to a year - the snus can be frozen with no ill effects.
If you are a user of portion snus then it is possible to turn this loose snus in to the small pouches by buying these things called Prillan Portionspasars - it's a fiddly process though. You have to cut the end from a small syringe and force the snus in to it and then inject each individual bag and heat-seal the open end. When I make portions I use hair straighteners to seal the end! However if the idea of using hair-straighteners challenges your masculinity - you can use a soldering iron.