Finding the cure
Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 6:26 pm
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.
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.