My latest brainstorm

[wruk53]

Or as my wife would say, my latest brain fart. Twice I have made a sailor's perique and twice it has chewed my hands to a pulp. (I have that old man skin going on). So I came up with a new method that I'm pretty sure will work like a charm. I cut some petioles from a sabal palm tree and placed them evenly around my canvas filled with rustica and tied a series of constrictor knots around it , then tightened the constrictor knots as tightly as i could. I'd guess the psi to be at least 80. Note the long tag ends of my rope, this so I can attach a handle on each end and stand on one handle and pull with my hands as hard as I can, to tighten. These stalks are hard and stiff, so the pressure is evenly distributed along the length of the perique, The second photo is an end view of the stalk. The rounded side is to the outside of the perique. I'll leave this sit in the closet for a few months and report on how it turned out.

 

[ericthered]

This looks intriguing! I'll be following to find out the results, but in the meantime, I'd like to know how your previous two sailor's periques turned out. Did you use your own leaf? Were the end results smokeable? How long did you let them go before unwrapping them?

 

[wruk53]

This looks intriguing! I'll be following to find out the results, but in the meantime, I'd like to know how your previous two sailor's periques turned out. Did you use your own leaf? Were the end results smokeable? How long did you let them go before unwrapping them?

The first one was made with dark air cured that I bought from WLT. It was aged for six months. I didn't wet it enough, so it turned out as hard as a rock, I had a hell of a time cutting it up. Could probably have steamed it a little and let it sit overnight before cutting, but I was in a hurry to make a batch of snus. The smell was not that different from regular leaf, probably because of the lack of moisture. I don't smoke, so I can't answer that question. The other one is still in the closet. been there since late Sept. (Maryland 609). The one I just made with the sticks, I grew this winter. I sun dried it for a week or so. The leaves are mostly still pliable and some of them dried green. I don't believe this will make any difference since it will be cooked as snus anyway. I'm growing some prilep now and my plan is to make a 90/10 blend of prilep/rustica snus. The rustica is strictly to raise the nicotine level. The rustica has a faint smell of cloves, so it should be interesting to see how it turns out.

 

[Alpine]

Cloves? That’s interesting! My rusticas smell of wet dog while curing (and growing!) but after kilning the smell turns flowery (violet I dare to say). What strain do you grow?

pier

 

[wruk53]

It was advertised as wild rustica. Purchased from Victory Seeds.

 

[wruk53]

This looks intriguing! I'll be following to find out the results, but in the meantime, I'd like to know how your previous two sailor's periques turned out. Did you use your own leaf? Were the end results smokeable? How long did you let them go before unwrapping them?

I unwrapped the MLD609 perique today after 6 months aging. It has a cigar like smell to it, completely different than when I wrapped it. So it definitely went through a fermentation process. The smell reminded me of the old time red man chewing tobacco that you used to get in the paper wrapper, this was before they started making it so sweet and extra moist. It was still kind of on the dry side, but i was able to shred it with my hands just by twisting it. Next time I'll wet it just a tad more than "in case", that should do the trick.