Lessons learned while attempting to 'Can' tobacco...

[Stackle2]

I've been ordering tobacco every couple weeks for the past year, & when I got back to the U.S. a week or so ago I had a couple pounds of tobacco waiting for me. 99% of it is stuff that I've never tried, & I gotta say, I've had some 'ho-hum' moments, but more often than not I find myself blown away by the wonderful quality/taste of some of the blends that I am trying out (especially the G.L. Pease blends, WOW, I understand what the hype is about now!). Anyway, since I am opening a LOT of tins, I got a bunch of 6 oz jars (large baby food jars, easy considering my infant son eats 2 jars of baby food a day) with the intent of breaking the tins down into jars just big enough for about a weeks worth of tobacco. I was positive that I could use traditional canning methods with the baby food jars, & that I could get them to reseal quite easily.

I made quite a few mistakes. First of all, only put about 2" of water in a sauce pan, & maintain a very controlled slow boil. Secondly, don't add the tobacco until right before you seal the jar. I discovered the importance of adding the tobacco last (unfortunately) while attempting to seal about a half dozen flakes of PS Luxury Navy Flake that Kyle was kind enough to send me. The tobacco was too light, the jar floated & tipped, & the tobacco was saturated. On an interesting side note, when 6 flakes of PS LNF gets wet, it swells up to about 600% of its original size...lol

Anyway, made a lot more mistakes, & I'm sure that I will continue to do so as I perfect my method, but over all, I am ecstatic with the results. The jars sealed, the little freshness cap even went down to indicate good vacuum. I just picked up a few quart jars as well, I think one of those will easily hold about 150 grams of tobacco, so I can store my bulk favorites in those.

Have any of you made wasteful or disasterous mistakes while trying to develope your cellar?

 

[joshoowah]

None, because I don't boil my jars. I don't even recommend anyone doing that. I help my fiancee can her apple butter, jalapeno's, pickles, etc. Canning tobacco is quite different though. I find there is no need to seal it like you would food. It seals itself after a week or so of sitting. The risk of losing tobacco is virtually none that way. I've been cellaring tobacco for only two years, but it's worked brilliantly thus far. I've opened up to 10 jars that I started two years ago and it had aged nicely.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Aye, first time I've heard of someone trying to actually "can" tobacco. Sounds like a lot more trouble than tossing it in the Mason/Kerr jars and forgettin' about 'em for a period of time. 8)

Extra points for going all-out, though, Stack. :lol:

 

[ZeroContent]

if you feel the need to ,just heat the lids so the sealing compound is soft and makes a good seal but leave tobacco long enough and it'll create a vacuum on it's own which is what you want so you get oxygen enzymes doing their aging for awhile before the tobacco to into anaerobic aging. Heat sealing is unnecessary.

 

[Cigar2you]

Great effort but I do concur with what's post. Just stuff it in the jar and crank the lid down

 

[Dave_In_Philly]

Hey, thanks for the tip about the baby food jars. My wife's due in little over a month, so I plan to put that suggestion to good use. How do you get the baby food smell out of the jars - more importantly how do you get it out of the lids?

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Descenting lids is as easy as ammonia, in most cases: Fill each jar with about a teaspoon of household ammonia, close it up, shake it around, leave it for a day, run through the dishwasher, air dry, and you should be good to go. 8) I re-use jars all the time.

If that doesn't work, you can always boil the jars for about 20 minutes after the ammonia trick.

 

[jlong]

He may be on to something. The baby food residue may enhance the tobacco flavor as it ages.

 

[Stackle2]

Yeah, I may have been 'under the influence' when I came up with this bright idea, now I am just putting the tobac in there & tightening the hell out of the lids, its working fine either way. Just ended up heating the jars of the ones that I actually want to do an age test on though, & then got carried away when I ran out of bulk tobac & started getting ridiculous with it.

& as far as getting the smell out, ran it through the dishwasher, then did a further scrub by hand with scalding water & an extremely mild bleach solution, haven't had a bit of odor left from the baby food. On the other hand, I now crave pureed squash & carrots every time I smoke, but that could be due to something else... :cat:

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Once a soldier, always a soldier. This war: tobacco--IT WILL SUBMIT TO MY EFFORTS. :lol:

 

[flytyer]

I check my lids every ounce in a wile sometimes they become slightly loose. It doesnt happen often though but worth it to check.

 

[MartinH]

Yeah, I may have been 'under the influence' when I came up with this bright idea, now I am just putting the tobac in there & tightening the hell out of the lids, its working fine either way. Just ended up heating the jars of the ones that I actually want to do an age test on though, & then got carried away when I ran out of bulk tobac & started getting ridiculous with it.

& as far as getting the smell out, ran it through the dishwasher, then did a further scrub by hand with scalding water & an extremely mild bleach solution, haven't had a bit of odor left from the baby food. On the other hand, I now crave pureed squash & carrots every time I smoke, but that could be due to something else... :cat:

Have you ever tasted the "meat" versions of baby food. OMG- it looks and smells (and tastes, I think) like fraggin dog food. My son ate "turkey and potatoes" yesterday and I couldn't believe he actually likes the stuff. If anyone wants to do a taste-test pictorial and post pics, I'd love to see them. LOL

 

[stan41]

He may be on to something. The baby food residue may enhance the tobacco flavor as it ages.

I shudder to think about FVF flavored with strained carrots!
Stan