Recipe for Ettan snus

[squeezyjohn]

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 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.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Very nice write up. I do not like a lot of nicotine so what happens to the taste of this if I leave out the lye water?

 

[squeezyjohn]

Without the lye water - it would be more sour and would have less good keeping properties. There is another thing which the alkali does to the taste giving it a somewhat sponge-cake taste which is delicious.

My advice would be to halve the amount of lye - and maybe substitute the burley lamina for either maryland leaf which is less strong, or replace half of the burley lamina flour with burley stem flour. That would keep the taste right and knock down the nicotine.

But the resulting snus here is only the standard strength stuff. If you use it loose, you can control how much you put in your mouth too - small pinches will still taste rich and give less nicotine.

 

[squeezyjohn]

In fact - thinking about it, I tasted the mix before I added the lye water on the last batch - and it was pretty horrible tasting, bitter, mealy and sour all at once. It definitely didn't taste like snus!

 

[DonH]

Awesome recipe, Squeezy, I may need to try this someday.

 

[squeezyjohn]

It's definitely worth it DonH - I've been using this all day today and it's satisfying and delicious.

The crock-pot water bath method may look daunting, it is a very precise way of maintaining temperature control, but anything which keeps the temperatures around the levels mentioned in the recipe will also work fine such as a good oven set on low heat. It's worth checking the temperature of the snus mix from time to time using less precise methods though as if it goes over 90ºC then the snus will develop unpleasant burnt flavours.

 

[jojjas]

Great recipe Squeezy
I vill try this next time i "bake" a new batch
Just some additional info , the old method to make snus is following
Mix all ingredients together and place it in heat source for 120 hours in 50°-55° C (122-131 F)
I have not try this recipe yet ,but in the future i will do that , its invented by the person who created "Ettan snus"
Jacob Fredrik Ljunglöf year 1822 , and in those days he called it "Ljunglöfs No 1"

So for you english speaking boys Ettan is the same as No.1

 

[DonH]

I like Squeezy's recipe better. All those ones that say heat it for 120 hours seems way to long.

 

[squeezyjohn]

So for you english speaking boys Ettan is the same as No.1

Thanks Jojjas! Ettan is number one in my book ... one of the very best!

I know that the older way to make snus is with lower temperatures for a longer time (I bet it tasted better too - more like a fermentation) ... but they have not used that method in the factories for many years because the growth of micro-organisms at lower temperatures is a health hazard.

I also know that real Ettan snus recipe doesn't use any cocoa powder in it - all of it's chocolate taste comes from the tobacco aroma. But without a complicated blend - the cocoa powder makes a very very similar taste to the final product.

By the way - apparently this is the original recipe for Ettan in this picture ... It looks like the Da Vinci code - I'm not sure I followed it right!

 

[DGBAMA]

Some of these snus recipies interest me a lot, but I wonder about texture? How does the finished product come out, when I see "tobacco flour" I think of a powder that would in something like a paste when moist. Anyone care to post pics of how finely the tobacco is ground, dry; and of the finished product?

I am saving all my stems just in case I can use them for this.

 

[FALaholic]

Many thanks for the heads up on Prillan Portionspasars. I've always wondered if there was something out there for us to make our own pouches. Sure beats picking long cut from between your teeth.
Seems somewhat of a hassle to make your own pouches. If only there was a machine. I'd be ecstatic to crank a handle and have them spit out.

 

[squeezyjohn]

Some of these snus recipies interest me a lot, but I wonder about texture? How does the finished product come out, when I see "tobacco flour" I think of a powder that would in something like a paste when moist. Anyone care to post pics of how finely the tobacco is ground, dry; and of the finished product?

I am saving all my stems just in case I can use them for this.

The texture of snus is markedly different to something like Copenhagen dip. It should be like a kind of mouldable clay that sticks together very cleanly. Almost like play-doh.

They sell both fine and course grind snus for texture preferences. But there always should be at least 20% in a very fine dust grain otherwise the snus doesn't stick together at all.

I'll try and post some pics later.

 

[squeezyjohn]

If only there was a machine. I'd be ecstatic to crank a handle and have them spit out.

Me too ... I've searched exhaustively for an all in one solution online but it's pretty clear that nothing exists yet. The only tips I have are you can make them as you go along and skip heat sealing the ends, just fold them over instead. And also it far easier to load the syringe and stuff if the mix is significantly drier than my recipe. However if it's too dry then the cooking process doesn't work right!

 

[squeezyjohn]

Here you go DGBAMA ... some photos of the grind of the flour made in my blender and the consistency of the finished snus from this recipe.

Burley Lamina flour


Virginia Bright Leaf lamina flour


Finished Snus in can


An example of how mouldable/sticky the finished snus should be


The finished snus should stay together in your mouth rather than go all over the place. It's traditionally used in the upper lip towards the front of your mouth and with a bit of practice it's almost un-noticable while being used.

 

[DGBAMA]

Thanks SJ .

 

[workhorse_01]

I've been using from a quart of homemade Copenhagen I just finished on Wednesday. I still use the 120 hr. low heat method. I figured out that's why ammonium carbonate is in the recipe, as a preservative. I've had a pint of snuff sitting on the counter for over a month, and no problems with it at all. I'm going to try your cooking method, but I want the cope flavor, and I don't want mine sticky.

 

[squeezyjohn]

Cool workhorse ... the crock-pot method is great for getting temperatures accurate.

Modern day US dip and Swedish snus are very different versions of mouth tobacco although they started out as the same thing about 100 years ago when Scandinavians emigrated to the USA.

All the old Swedish snus recipes have a long cook time at a lower temperature, but these production techniques were changed more recently because it was found that the same microbes that cause the fermentation of the tobacco (which gives all the nice rich flavours you get in something like Cope) also are the ones that significantly increase the chances of mouth cancer. So the swedes, attempting to make a healthier snus, changed the procedure to higher temperatures for shorter times. They also switched from using fire cured tobacco to air cured for similar reasons. The flavouring at the end of the process was then altered to try and give back some of the depth of flavour to the snus - including liquid smoke and other things which mimic the taste of fermented tobacco.

I use snus because it is scientifically proven to be one of the safest ways to consume tobacco out there ... I don't want to quit because I love it - but I no longer smoke. However I occasionally treat myself to a can of dip from the USA and Copenhagen is my favourite by far. I don't think you could ever fully replicate that delicious salty-sweet, fermented, smoky taste using modern snus-making techniques unfortunately.

If I come up with a good Cope recipe - I'll share that too though!!!!

 

[workhorse_01]

You are right in line with my thoughts. I say we collaborate on this and see if we can hit the Copenhagen recipe. I'm close and am about to start a new run of it. I've noticed the flavor of the alcohol in the fermentation is about 30% of the final flavor. The smoke is about 48%, the type of tobacco is 20%, and the ammonia is about 2%. By the way, unless you are a lover of scotch whiskey don't use it as the ethyl alcohol. It is quite nasty. (In my humble opinion) I tried corn licker, and next will try old #7. In the end what I want is as far away from all cancer causing agents as I can get, without sacrificing taste. My brother dip's whatever is cheapest, and I'm still on cope. If I dipped it only for what was cheapest I'd quit and start taking salt pills!

I use snus because it is scientifically proven to be one of the safest ways to consume tobacco out there ... I don't want to quit because I love it - but I no longer smoke. However I occasionally treat myself to a can of dip from the USA and Copenhagen is my favourite by far. I don't think you could ever fully replicate that delicious salty-sweet, fermented, smoky taste using modern snus-making techniques unfortunately.

If I come up with a good Cope recipe - I'll share that too though!!!!

 

[squeezyjohn]

Brilliant

I'll make my next batch an attempt to make a cope flavour snus (which will still be sticky and fine ground - but that's really just a product of the grind size.)

I've been sitting here with my can of Cope attempting to work out what I think's in there flavour wise too. Here's my thoughts:

There's sweetness from some kind of artificial sweetener - probably saccharin or sucralose but only a bit. I won't be adding any sugar to mine as I never do with oral tobacco. I might try xylitol or a concoction made by boiling up bruised liquorice roots in water both of which are safe and give good sweetness.

It's very savoury - not only from the salt. I reckon there's some monosodium glutamate in there that gives it that savoury smoked ham-like taste. I would probably use Soy Sauce for this bit - or Marmite yeast extract!

Hooch ... there's definitely alcohol in there and I am probably going to use a fruit eau-de-vie which is 100% pure distilled fermented fruits (I know because I was there when it was made ... if you know what I ........)

Tobacco - I'm going to use a blend of burley, virginia flue cured bright leaf and fire cured - the fire cured I'm using is very strong and won't require too much - maybe 10-20% of the blend. I'm choosing this blend because it's known not to be bitter when processed.

Top-note aroma ... this is what I'm having trouble with ... I'm pretty sure there is something in there flavouring Copenhagen. And I think it's the essential oil of a flower, probably Rose Geranium, or rosewood - that's used in a lot of nasal snuff too. It's tricky because there's fermented tobacco in there - and similar flavours develop through that process too. Whatever I use there needs to be very little of it.

Because I'm going to use a snus-type recipe for mine I will be using potassium carbonate - and that will immediately introduce some ammonia taste to the finished product as it reacts with the tobacco. Which means I won't add anything else that might strengthen the effect!

I'm certain it will take a lot of attempts though ... it's a tricky flavour to put your finger on isn't it?

 

[workhorse_01]

Yes it is. I'm getting closer each time. The complete list of ingredients for Copenhagen is on the United States smokeles tobacco website. I'll copy and paste it.