Finding the cure

Once you've grown and harvested your tobacco, what do you do with it? Talk about it here.
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kbadkar
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Finding the cure

Post by kbadkar »

Well, it's getting time to standardize on curing procedures. So far, I've collected a lot of leaves from miscellaneous plants, so I have been experimenting with coloring and curing.

The leaves that were already yellow, I've threaded onto safety pins and hung up to dry (cure) in my tool shed. The small ones I packed as many as I could on the pin, the larger ones 2 per, which straddle the rope. As I set up properly, I'll tie 2 large leaves at the stem and straddle them over a long stick. I'm a bit worried about the humidity being low in my air cure chamber. Los Angeles average humidity for the next few months is between 60-70%.

I tried air-drying some green leaves on a whole Turkish Samsun stalk that the wind busted, but they are drying green, so I am trying my hand at coloring leaf by piling in cloth. I've had some success and some mold. The thick native varieties have a lot of moisture in the leaves and are more prone to mold/rot, but in some instances, they've colored to a deep rich brown and have cured in the "coloring stack" to a nice soft leathery feel. They smell wonderful and believe they have fermented somewhat, more than just coloring. If this turns out to be a good thing, I'll be more vigilant with the piles to get this result consistently. To be on the safe side with my larger leaves I have stacked them individually with cloth between. They have colored to yellow fine without the risk mold development. But come harvest time this won't be efficient and I'll have to pile them. Or harvest when they are yellow and send them directly to the air cure. When you color, do you let it go to yellow and then hang, or do you color to a deep brown? Do you bother to color cure already yellow leaves to get a brown?

I have 6 or 7 really nice Black Sea Turkish Samsun plants 4-6ft tall. They've been topped a few weeks ago and soon I'll start harvesting. I've read that Oriental tobacco's are sun cured, but I haven't read about any methods, except to leave them on the lawn in the sun. Has anyone sun cured their tobacco? Is it as simple as stringing them up in the sun instead of the dark tool shed/work shop? Should they be in direct or indirect sunlight?

I'm interested in pressure fermentation. The Perique YouTube video was helpful. I've read about the C-clamp on wood form or tuna can methods. Basically, cure the tobacco until dry, wet (re-moisten), strip the stem, pack, press, and wait 9 months. As Petty says, the waiting is the hardest part. Does anyone know the tobacco strain they use to make Perique? If Perique is an actual type of tobacco (not just a processing method), does anyone know a close relative, or can suggest a type of tobacco that it closely resembles in smoking characteristics? Has anyone had success or failure with fermentation?

Has anyone built a cure chamber? Are the results much better than simple air-drying in a not so controlled environment? Or is it just quicker?

How about after the cure when the tobacco is good and dry? I've read about baling, continued fermentation, and stack rotation for a year or more. Does anyone do this or something analagous? Do you wait at least a year before smoking your hard work?

Sorry about the long post. There is just so much "loose" information out there that either overlaps or contradicts and I have a mosaic of understanding, but nothing cohesive. Tobacco growing forums are not so enlightening and fractured as well. I wish there were some authoritative work out there that puts this all together in great detail... something like the Joy of Cooking for tobacco. The venerable Mr.Perkins has done the best job of simply explaining curing in his post in this section, but it only leaves me wanting more. If anyone (hello Smitty) else can simply expound on their successes and failures at curing tobacco, I, for one, would love to hear it.
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Smitty
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Post by Smitty »

Sounds like you have yer hands full! But in a good way. :wink:
My Samsun Oriental was picked just as the leaves started to turn yellow. With that variety there is a lot of sap in the leaves. It was too dry and not enough humidity to sun cure mine. If you decide to try it I would choose a wind free dry and lay them out on an old sheet for the day and see how that goes. I used some 1x1x4' poplar strips and used about 50 finishing nails to hang the leaves, by piercing the stems, until they dried, in the shed. The color change was not as drastic as the Burley or Virginia doing it this way. They stayed green and yellow when finished. I did try one batch of about 20 leaves using a towel to change the color. These Samsun leaves turned very brown this way but it did not seem to make any difference in the final smoke. The Oriental is a sourish blending tobacco after all. I wound up adding smoke to my Samsun and smoke it as is.
I picked both Burley and Virginia when they were yellow and used the stacked leaves wrapped in the towel trick to change the color to dark brown then hung them up in the shed on the poplar strips until dry.
pierredekat

Re: Finding the cure

Post by pierredekat »

kbadkar wrote:I'm a bit worried about the humidity being low in my air cure chamber. Los Angeles average humidity for the next few months is between 60-70%.
Two things to consider, I think, would be to: A) go down to your local Radio Shack and get one of these nifty Indoor/Outdoor Thermometer/Hygrometers for $20; and B) if you do notice that you're having trouble with low humidity, put a large pan/bucket full of water down on the floor, or whatever, to supply the extra moisture you're needing in your cure chamber system.
I tried air-drying some green leaves on a whole Turkish Samsun stalk that the wind busted, but they are drying green...
One thing I noticed with my tobacco last year is that those notorious "green" leaves do eventually darken to a much richer looking, browner color if left in a warm, moist cure-chamber-type environment long enough.

I think I mentioned in another post, way back, about how tobacco breathes moisture, how it can go back and forth between dry/crumbly to damp/pliable from sunset to sunrise.

Well, the curing process never really reaches a stopping point unless you cryogenically freeze your tobacco. So, don't sweat the "green" leaves too much, because they'll eventually turn out a lot nicer if left to cure awhile longer.

Besides, the worst-case scenario is that you take any odd-colored leaves and do the tuna-can-fermentation thing. I think pretty much anything that goes through that process is going to turn out chocolaty brown or almost black.
They smell wonderful and believe they have fermented somewhat, more than just coloring. If this turns out to be a good thing, I'll be more vigilant with the piles to get this result consistently.
Sounds good.
When you color, do you let it go to yellow and then hang, or do you color to a deep brown? Do you bother to color cure already yellow leaves to get a brown?
I, myself, have not tried the stacking method for color curing, but my understanding is that the primary goal is to get the leaves from green to yellow. Once yellow, they are generally moved on to the next stage, whatever that is.
I have 6 or 7 really nice Black Sea Turkish Samsun plants 4-6ft tall. They've been topped a few weeks ago and soon I'll start harvesting. I've read that Oriental tobacco's are sun cured, but I haven't read about any methods, except to leave them on the lawn in the sun. Has anyone sun cured their tobacco? Is it as simple as stringing them up in the sun instead of the dark tool shed/work shop? Should they be in direct or indirect sunlight?
I haven't tried sun curing yet, either, but Smitty mentions about humidity being a factor, and I'm thinking with your low humidity, you might run into problems with your tobacco sun-drying, rather than sun-curing.

I'm thinking maybe you might just try curing it like you do the rest of your tobacco, or perhaps explore some other method.
I'm interested in pressure fermentation. The Perique YouTube video was helpful. I've read about the C-clamp on wood form or tuna can methods. Basically, cure the tobacco until dry, wet (re-moisten), strip the stem, pack, press, and wait 9 months.
Yeah, I'm bound and determined to try this myself this year.
As Petty says, the waiting is the hardest part. Does anyone know the tobacco strain they use to make Perique? If Perique is an actual type of tobacco (not just a processing method), does anyone know a close relative, or can suggest a type of tobacco that it closely resembles in smoking characteristics?
I haven't heard exactly what type of tobacco they use, but due to the fact that tobacco cross-pollinates and the fact that it acclimates itself to its surroundings from generation to generation, I have a strong hunch that they've cooked up their own variety over the years that could never be duplicated by any other method.

So you would probably just have to try some various tobacco types and see where that gets you.
Has anyone built a cure chamber? Are the results much better than simple air-drying in a not so controlled environment? Or is it just quicker?
I have not, yet, but from what I have read, it sounds like it delivers more consistent, controllable results.
How about after the cure when the tobacco is good and dry? I've read about baling, continued fermentation, and stack rotation for a year or more. Does anyone do this or something analagous? Do you wait at least a year before smoking your hard work?
I have been aging my tobacco from last year in a large cooler that I monitor the temperature/humidity on. A lot of the harshness has been tempered, and it's definitely smokable at this stage.

Thus far, I have blended it with some of my store-bought tobacco with good results, but eventually I want to delve earnestly into flavoring and/or fire curing.
Sorry about the long post. There is just so much "loose" information out there that either overlaps or contradicts and I have a mosaic of understanding, but nothing cohesive. Tobacco growing forums are not so enlightening and fractured as well. I wish there were some authoritative work out there that puts this all together in great detail... something like the Joy of Cooking for tobacco.
Yeah, totally.

The fact that we have the internet nowadays will help, since it gives us an awesome method for accumulating knowledge. I think eventually we can get there if we keep putting our heads together. But each one of us is definitely going to have to do some experimenting and documenting, as best we can.
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kbadkar
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Post by kbadkar »

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience Smitty and Pierre Perkins! My trepidations have transformed into eagerness to explore variables. It's nice having a wheel to tweak rather than re-invent. Please continue to post your experiences and conclusions! I will do the same... some time next year, I guess.
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