A Few Homemade Dip Questions From A Noob!

[nunapitchuk]

For any other newbie's that are searching on here: I made a video of making my dip from pipe tobacco. Here is the link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWfcHvOpk9I&feature=youtu.be

 

[tullius]

Do you have advice on what I should do with the leaves when I get them? Do they need to be cooked or are they ready to grind up and make dip from when I get them?

Remove the midrib and grind the lamina up. I take out the midrib and shred lamina 1/8" wide with pasta machine, then bake at very low heat for a little to dry it out, then pulverize several times in food processor, sifting in between, because I like super fine cut dip. I'm making tobacco flour, basically. Your favorite is extra long cut, so straight into the processor after midrib removal should be more suitable. You might try a meat grinder if you have one, heard it gives good results?

Dark air-cured tobacco is a separate class from burley. It can be potent. For your first batch with it, consider leaving out the sodium carbonate.

I haven't found this to be the case, but I am cutting 50% with dark fire cured and then putting 30-33% stems in, so maybe Bob has a good point. Try 100g batches until you get what you like. If you keep the dip a touch on the dry side and add the sodium carbonate after cooking, you can try it without first, and then add it after if necessary.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Your leaves will be ready to go when you get them. No aging required.

 

[nunapitchuk]

Thanks so much for the advice and information. What variety of tobacco plant is used to make the dark air cured leaves? Does "dark air cured" just mean that they are hung up and dried in the dark? Just curious. I will take the advice when I get them and do some small batch experiments until I find a recipe that I like.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Thanks so much for the advice and information. What variety of tobacco plant is used to make the dark air cured leaves? Does "dark air cured" just mean that they are hung up and dried in the dark? Just curious. I will take the advice when I get them and do some small batch experiments until I find a recipe that I like.

It does not mean that. Imagine a chart.
Air cured tobacco
Light air cured tobacco
Burley
Maryland

Dark air cured tobacco
Dark air
Cigar leaf

This is by no means comprehensive or global. Different people at different times have classified tobacco in different ways.

 

[deluxestogie]

Dark Air Cured is a USDA market class. Specific tobacco varieties include one-sucker, Little Yellow, and many "numbered" varieties from KY and TN, such as KY165 and KY180.

The class tends to have thick, sticky leaves that cured dark, and are relatively high in nicotine concentration (and flavor).

Bob

 

[Jvergen]

Well first try at making chewing tobacco my past experience has been with Redman golden. This is a blend of dark air, Maryland, fire Cured and Virginia bright leaf. Casted it with salt, gylercin, water and sorghum syrup. Currently chewing some now not bad a little high in nicotine but not. Any suggestions would be great for future batches. This sight keeps taking me down new paths you guy are great.

Jeff

 

[deluxestogie]

Do check the WLT Wiki (link in menu bar) for smokeless.

Bob

 

[KenneyG]

Here is a brief description of how I make dip... along with some explanations a long the way.

1. Pack a mason jar with shredded tobacco to which I have added a salt/water mixture to get it nice and moist (not sopping wet)
2. Cook for 8 hours at 185F. I'm not sure why you would want to do a double cook but for dip it would be a waste of time.
3. Pour hot tobacco into large metal bowl and add glycerine/sweetener.
4. Let cool/age for about a week. ( I keep the bowl on a counter top with a lid partially covering the bowl. I fluff up the dip once per day.
5. After about a week or two I will separate the dip into smaller batches and add my various flavorings.

So.. I like Yellow Twist Bud for my dip. It is fairly light in nicotine. I do not use any type of pH altering stuff such as sodium carbonate. Originally dip (snus etc) was made with up to 50% ground up stems. Stems have essentially no nicotine so I believe manufacturers started adjusting the pH in their mix to increase the nicotine absorption due to the stems. You do not need Sodium Carbonate for dip. I think this whole pH adjusting chemical thing began hundreds of years ago. Tobacco manufacturers had tons of stems left over from stripping the leaves for chew and pipe tobacco. So, what do you do with tons of stems? Use them as filler for dip. But that would make a weak product due to the low nicotine so add some Sodium Carbonate to increase the uptake of nicotine. This is a good example of a manufacturer turning his potential waste material into a profit instead of a loss.

For a sweetener I use Xylitol and pure Sucralose. Since I am going to have dip in my mouth I do not want to use sugar. Xylitol has excellent anti-tooth cavity properties as well as anti-microbial properties (the two being related).

The Glycerine is two fold. It has good anti-microbial properties and it adds "mouth feel" to the tobacco. This means that when you put dip in your mouth, all the flavor will not be sucked out in 30 seconds.

The reason I add my flavoring last is because I like a lot of variation in my dip. Sometimes I desire wintergreen, other times black licorice or even orange flavored. I usually make a big batch and after aging, break it up into smaller batches and store in the freezer. This is completely finished dip with the exception of the flavoring. If I am dipping wintergreen but have the urge for some apple cinnamon I just thaw a baggie of unflavored dip and add my flavoring.

Dip is easy.. don't over complicate things. As a matter of fact, you don't even need to cook your dip at all. That's just done to kill off any enzymes/bacteria that cause a rise in TSNAs.

If interested, let me know and I'll post my recipe (with quantities).

I am very interested in this please post the amounts

 

[tullius]

I am very interested in this please post the amounts

He did.

A Few Homemade Dip Questions From A Noob!

I have been studying up on making my own dip and had a few questions. I haven't read every single thread, YET, probably because most of them I read there are lot of tangents that open up... not a bad thing at all. I'm still in the sponge phase of my tobacco education, soaking up all the...

fairtradetobacco.com

 

[Knucklehead]

He did.

A Few Homemade Dip Questions From A Noob!

I have been studying up on making my own dip and had a few questions. I haven't read every single thread, YET, probably because most of them I read there are lot of tangents that open up... not a bad thing at all. I'm still in the sponge phase of my tobacco education, soaking up all the...

fairtradetobacco.com

Good find, brother. You found that as though you had read it before. Good post.

 

[tullius]

I read it several times repeatedly, and it was very helpful, thanks again to @Jitterbugdude

 

[deluxestogie]

@KenneyG, Welcome to the forum. Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself forum.

Bob

 

[Schteve]

I made chew one time with Turkish. It had an odd taste. I say go and experiment, you might like it.

I just made some too and it's delicious. I ended up adding lemon flavour later too and it pairs really well.

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum, @Schteve. Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself forum.

Bob

 

[Big dipper]

Here is a brief description of how I make dip... along with some explanations a long the way.

1. Pack a mason jar with shredded tobacco to which I have added a salt/water mixture to get it nice and moist (not sopping wet)
2. Cook for 8 hours at 185F. I'm not sure why you would want to do a double cook but for dip it would be a waste of time.
3. Pour hot tobacco into large metal bowl and add glycerine/sweetener.
4. Let cool/age for about a week. ( I keep the bowl on a counter top with a lid partially covering the bowl. I fluff up the dip once per day.
5. After about a week or two I will separate the dip into smaller batches and add my various flavorings.

So.. I like Yellow Twist Bud for my dip. It is fairly light in nicotine. I do not use any type of pH altering stuff such as sodium carbonate. Originally dip (snus etc) was made with up to 50% ground up stems. Stems have essentially no nicotine so I believe manufacturers started adjusting the pH in their mix to increase the nicotine absorption due to the stems. You do not need Sodium Carbonate for dip. I think this whole pH adjusting chemical thing began hundreds of years ago. Tobacco manufacturers had tons of stems left over from stripping the leaves for chew and pipe tobacco. So, what do you do with tons of stems? Use them as filler for dip. But that would make a weak product due to the low nicotine so add some Sodium Carbonate to increase the uptake of nicotine. This is a good example of a manufacturer turning his potential waste material into a profit instead of a loss.

For a sweetener I use Xylitol and pure Sucralose. Since I am going to have dip in my mouth I do not want to use sugar. Xylitol has excellent anti-tooth cavity properties as well as anti-microbial properties (the two being related).

The Glycerine is two fold. It has good anti-microbial properties and it adds "mouth feel" to the tobacco. This means that when you put dip in your mouth, all the flavor will not be sucked out in 30 seconds.

The reason I add my flavoring last is because I like a lot of variation in my dip. Sometimes I desire wintergreen, other times black licorice or even orange flavored. I usually make a big batch and after aging, break it up into smaller batches and store in the freezer. This is completely finished dip with the exception of the flavoring. If I am dipping wintergreen but have the urge for some apple cinnamon I just thaw a baggie of unflavored dip and add my flavoring.

Dip is easy.. don't over complicate things. As a matter of fact, you don't even need to cook your dip at all. That's just done to kill off any enzymes/bacteria that cause a rise in TSNAs.

If interested, let me know and I'll post my recipe (with quantities).

The tobacco I just bought is fire cured but it is not dry.. do I need to dry it first or just follow your directions from the beginning? Also I am not a sweet snuff guy. So could I just leave out the sweetners. Will I get a product that tastes like natural? I have salt, fermented licorice powder, glycerin and sodium carbonate.
This will be my first attempt at making any kind. I started dipping powder snuff when I was I kid. Then it was Copenhagen till that got too expensive then changed to red seal fine cut natural. Now longhorn fcn.
I really want a strong natural flavor dip. I thank you in advance for any advise you may be able to give.

 

[Jbg]

The tobacco I just bought is fire cured but it is not dry.. do I need to dry it first or just follow your directions from the beginning? Also I am not a sweet snuff guy. So could I just leave out the sweetners. Will I get a product that tastes like natural? I have salt, fermented licorice powder, glycerin and sodium carbonate.
This will be my first attempt at making any kind. I started dipping powder snuff when I was I kid. Then it was Copenhagen till that got too expensive then changed to red seal fine cut natural. Now longhorn fcn.
I really want a strong natural flavor dip. I thank you in advance for any advise you may be able to give.

If your used to store bought moist snuff don't use jitterbugdude's recipe. He doesn't alkalise his dip and it will have little bio-availble nicotine.

 

[tullius]

If your used to store bought moist snuff don't use jitterbugdude's recipe. He doesn't alkalise his dip and it will have little bio-availble nicotine.

Or you could use his recipe, and then add the appropriate amount of sodium carbonate. Just a thought