Making Black Cavendish Pipe Tobacco

[deluxestogie]

I don't get how you are able to do this without turning the leaf into something like canned spinach?

The leaf is steamed, rather than boiled. It never loses its fibrous durability, and when dried down, feels like familiar tobacco. The commercial process of making Black Cavendish is a similar one.

As noted earlier in the thread, I used Maryland 609, which yielded a mild smoke with a smooth taste and a pleasant aroma.

Bob

 

[Ishi]

Bob;
I tried a Krupp veg steamer but had to wash it out 2 times the water got so thick it would not perk very well. It looked like i had removed about every thing from the leaf( it was burly) Did you boil down the liquid and use it as a sauce on the tobacco before you pressed it?
Dan

 

[deluxestogie]

Did you boil down the liquid and use it as a sauce on the tobacco before you pressed it?

The liquid was never in direct contact with the leaf. All the liquid was discarded.

Bob

 

[Ishi]

My steamer used about a qt. of water every hour and the leaf was always above it. Maybe a veg steamer was not the way to go. The water got so thick that it did not perk very well. Will post a pic of the steamer when I get time.
Dan

 

[Steve2md]

I used a hot plate with a 3 gallon soup pot half full of water and a colander sitting on top. It worked well, as long as I remembered to add water..........

 

[johnlee1933]

Mine is running now. For the first 3 hours I left the exhaust running. Now I have shut it off. No bad smell I can detect. My nose isn't as sensitive as it has been in the past. So far the leaves aren't darkening much but the water is turning brown so I guess something is going on.

John

 

[johnlee1933]

Mine is running now. For the first 3 hours I left the exhaust running. Now I have shut it off. No bad smell I can detect. My nose isn't as sensitive as it has been in the past. So far the leaves aren't darkening much but the water is turning brown so I guess something is going on.

We are at 8 hours now and the leaves are just starting to blacken. In spite of the temptation otherwise I only peek every two hours and check the water level. The water is getting pretty dark brown now. I'll check again in two hours.

John

 

[johnlee1933]

At 15 hours I gave it up. I drained the leaf as directed and it is now hanging on a plastic hanger drying. Tomorrow I will press and try slicing. I have a guillotine paper cutter that ought to do the job. RH is 60 temp is 77°F. The AC just came on so the RH will drop some.

John

 

[Steve2md]

Mine took almost 24 hours with MCB. I changed the water every once in a while to keep from making syrup in the pot. It came out VERY dark brown, almost black and smoked smooth. I didn't try casing it, just used it in pipe blends I made.

 

[Michibacy]

I'm coming up on hour two of my cavendish. I don't have a metal strainer so I just folded tin foil on top of the pot before hand. and stabbed about 100 holes in it plus a few larger ones to let it breathe. The center picture is the leaves about 30 minutes in. I'm not going to do a 24 hour or probably even 8 hour. It'll probably be a 3 hour and I'll call it good, it's starting to smell sweet instead of the "blanched spinach" smell.

 

[Steve2md]

looks like you are headed in the right direction

 

[Michibacy]

It seems to be going quite well *keeping fingers crossed* I used nine leaves, six havana 142, three green brior. Anxious to see how it smokes.

 

[johnlee1933]

Mine got 15. It is drained, pressed and drying prior to shredding. I am going to make some small shreds for pipe testing and some longer longer ones for cigar blending. I'll let you know how it goes and what I think.

John

 

[johnlee1933]

The leaf is steamed, rather than boiled. It never loses its fibrous durability, and when dried down, feels like familiar tobacco. The commercial process of making Black Cavendish is a similar one.

Bob

Bob, My results were less than spectacular. Do you think a pressure cooker would work?

John

 

[Steve2md]

I think a pressure cooker would get you closer to cooked spinach. The cell walls of the leaf would be destroyed. just lots of time and lots of steam. You'll get there.

 

[SmokesAhoy]

I steamed some burley, but not as long. I was trying to remove some of the bite without taking too much of its character away. I'll smoke it in a few days and report if the decreased time had any affect.

 

[Steve2md]

If I remember correctly, I did mine with VA Bright leaf, and it took about 24 hours. lots of water changes and babysitting, but it came out very nice(but ruined my wife's colander) wish I still had some left...

 

[deluxestogie]

I have thought about trying a pressure cooker. At 15 psi, the boiling point elevates to 121ºC (250ºF). The reason I have not yet tried it is the hassle of doing timing trials. A raw head of cauliflower is liquefied after 1 minute, but cabbage holds up fairly well to the 15 minutes required for corned beef (if I remember correctly--it's been a while). With each trial, the temperature rises slowly, but must be immediately vented at the end of the timed period.

I guess that a two leaf batch wouldn't waste too much with each trial. I suppose I'll give it a try when things slow down. One-year-old leaf would already have completed most of its aging (which is no longer possible after the high temps of steaming or pressure cooking), so that is preferable to freshly color-cured leaf.

Bob

 

[Steve2md]

Yay! Bob to the rescue!! detailed trial please!

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Yeah that'd be awesome to pressure cook it in a few minutes. I didn't even do the full 12hrs much less 24 and it was still annoying heh