Cold Pressed Flake

In the spirit of recycling old how-to threads...

Made another batch of flake over the weekend. Received a nice pressure chamber from @emperorzurg, 4"x4" steel, with a steel pressure plate. This batch is a mixture of cigar scraps and VA flue cured. A few posters suggested flavorings, but for this batch I wanted to see how straight tobacco would taste.

http://i.imgur.com/dnpYL4W.jpg

Here's the chamber as it's being filled. I applied alternating layers of VA flue cured and cigar scraps, slightly moistened with DW for pliability.

http://i.imgur.com/NNrIQ7J.jpg

Here's a pic of the whole setup - the floor plate is a piece of 1x8 pine with a layer of waxed paper on top. Also, I coated the chamber and pressure plate with vegetable oil to minimize rust and interaction between the tobacco and the steel.

http://i.imgur.com/Glm8YPY.jpg

Here's the setup in action. Approx. one plastic grocery bag of loose cigar scraps plus a little less than 1/4 pound of VA flue cured with stems removed pressed down to about 1".

Result: flavor is pretty good, although not as good as commercial VA flake (what was I expecting?). Burned pretty well - nice and cool, only requiring 1 relight in the 45 minutes that it burned, and no gurgling

Update: I now use a piece of steel (another gift from @Emperor Zurg ) for the floor plate, and instead of vegetable oil, I just line the chamber with a plastic grocery bag to separate the tobacco from the steel.

Just pressed another batch of flake, batch 24 to be exact. I actually pressed it a week ago, then after the usual fashion, squeezed it under a couple of weight plates (50# total) for a week. I usually squeeze them for a couple of weeks, but this one felt about right after a little over a week so I pulled it. Here it is in solid form:

http://i.imgur.com/5N60UIT.jpg

It's composed of Dark Air, Bright VA, prilep, cigar scraps, cigar scrap cavendish, burley, and I quote from my notes, I can't remember what all else :) Cased w/ DW and added some rum and vanilla before pressing. I had originally intended for this to be a twist, hence the cigar scraps, but it sort of fell apart, so I pressed it for flake instead. Twists can be tricky if you don't set them up just right. Here it is sliced:

http://i.imgur.com/khdvWu3.jpg

I didn't add any of the stronger flavored leaves e.g., latakia or perique as I wanted to keep it mellow for use as chaw for the long northern VA car trips we call commuting. It will need to dry out for a couple of weeks before it's smokeable but I did tuck in a plug between the cheek and gum for a while. Nice flavor, like Levi Garrett but smoother, and about medium in the vitamin N department.

It is with great regret that I must report the demise of batch 24 to mold :( Never got as far as smoking any but it made pretty good chaw. Guess I didn't let it dry enough, plus the heat of sitting in my truck during the day probably didn't help.

Currently hydrating/casing batch 25, which is basically the same as batch 24, but I added some peach flavoring.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bruck

It is with great regret that I must report the demise of batch 24 to mold

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LOL!!

It's funny because I tried a couple of casing experiments and they all succumbed this way. :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Emperor Zurg

LOL!!

It's funny because I tried a couple of casing experiments and they all succumbed this way. :(

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I'm tempted to toast this batch just to be sure!