DIY Canning of Tobacco

[dougc905]

I've been thinking of this for a while - 'canning' my bulk tobaccos similar to putting food away. Nobody seems to have broached the subject here yet so here I go.. I'm thinking of vacuum sealing by the way. Home canning involves boiling the jars and lids to heat them up, then pouring heated product into the jars and sealing. A vacuum is formed when the jar cools. Obviously, boiling the jars is bad for the tobacco's humidity so I tested a used jar dry by putting it in the oven at 200 degrees. When it was hot, I screwed the lid on semi-tight and let it cool off. Sure enough, a vacuum was formed so this may work for tobacco.

Not wanting to destroy any perfectly good tobacco and not having any bad tobacco on hand, I'm stalled. My concern is that putting cool tobacco in a hot jar will take the heated air out of the jar and not allow a vacuum to form. Heating the tobacco in the jar will solve this but may damage the tobacco. Doing this and then spritzing with (hot) water may restore humidity but inconsistently.

Any ideas? If anyone has tried this, please describe what you did and how it turned out.

Thanks! Doug

 

[Buck]

My "fool proof" method of "Jarring tobacco".

For this discussion ANY glass jar with a metal lid will do. I recycle many of
my food jars into tobacco storage duty.

Wash jar & lid in very hot soap and water or dishwasher.

Set jar & lid in DIRECT SUNLIGHT for 2>4 days out of doors to allow
sun and air to kill all bacteria & fungus that might be left in jar.

Fill tightly with the tobacco of choice leaving as little air as possible when done.

Soak lids in boiling water until read to close the jars.

Place pre-heated lid on room temp jar to effect a seal of the jar.

Place in cool to room temp dark place until used. Once sealed leave it
alone until ready to consume.


This is the method I've used for several years now with zero failures or lost
tobacco. Some have been stored like this for over 7 years now.

YMMV :study:

 

[free_byrd15]

So this is a bit off topic....but can you just take a mason jar, fill it, put the lid on, and screw the ring on as tight as possibly and still create an adequate seal?

 

[Carlos]

So this is a bit off topic....but can you just take a mason jar, fill it, put the lid on, and screw the ring on as tight as possibly and still create an adequate seal?

That's what I do. The lids suck down tight given time. Something going on inside those jars is changing the pressure. But I figured that a tight lid was adequate for my needs.

 

[wharfrathoss]

So this is a bit off topic....but can you just take a mason jar, fill it, put the lid on, and screw the ring on as tight as possibly and still create an adequate seal?

yes

 

[free_byrd15]

excellent!

 

[dougc905]

Thanks Buck! I'll try it.

The science teacher in me is wondering how the hot lid manages to create the vacuum. Must be a matter of degree.

BTW, I'm interested in LONG term storage. Like from now until I'm 70. I buy about 10 times as much tobacco as I smoke.

Doug

My "fool proof" method of "Jarring tobacco".

For this discussion ANY glass jar with a metal lid will do. I recycle many of
my food jars into tobacco storage duty.

Wash jar & lid in very hot soap and water or dishwasher.

Set jar & lid in DIRECT SUNLIGHT for 2>4 days out of doors to allow
sun and air to kill all bacteria & fungus that might be left in jar.

Fill tightly with the tobacco of choice leaving as little air as possible when done.

Soak lids in boiling water until read to close the jars.

Place pre-heated lid on room temp jar to effect a seal of the jar.

Place in cool to room temp dark place until used. Once sealed leave it
alone until ready to consume.


This is the method I've used for several years now with zero failures or lost
tobacco. Some have been stored like this for over 7 years now.

YMMV :study:

 

[ftrplt]

I also use quart/liter-sized jars with the clasp-rings and rubber seals. After filling the jars, I place a double layer of clear plastic packaging (Saran Wrap, if you will!!) over the jar mouth before closing and snapping the closure. This gives a really tight seal. To check it, just sniff for any tobacco aroma around the seal. Shouldn't get any!! Works for me!! :cheers: FTRPLT

 

[Stefanos]

I'm going to get smart like you guys and buy some bulk. 8)
Pint size mason jars should do the trick if they still make them.
How do you manage with flakes? Stuff as many in as possible?

Kilted has me thinking of Full Virginia Flake today, but my usual is Marlin Flake.

 

[Hermit]

The science teacher in me is wondering how the hot lid manages to create the vacuum. Must be a matter of degree.

I don't see how heating the lids accomplishes anything.
Not enough thermal mass to effect much.
The aerobic bacteria eat up the oxygen and
create a vacuum without heating anything.

 

[mark]

dipped the mason jars and lids in boiling water to sterilize them,,,, cooled them, packed the tobacco, placed the lids on top and screwed the rings down tight,,,yes, after about five days the lids sucked down tight indicating a vacuum had formed,,,

 

[Bent Stem]

You don't want to put your tobacco into heated jars for cellaring; it's not necessary and can ruin your tobacco. I believe it was GLP that wrote about this in the Tobacco Cellaring FAQ. I don't recall all the specifics but do a google search and you'll find what I'm talking about.

 

[pipetongue1]

I Have many, many #'s stored in Mason jars, jelly jars, some for up to 6 yrs. now, just a tight seal will do , Ken :tongue:

 

[Natch]

I'm going to get smart like you guys and buy some bulk. 8)
Pint size mason jars should do the trick if they still make them.
How do you manage with flakes? Stuff as many in as possible?

Kilted has me thinking of Full Virginia Flake today, but my usual is Marlin Flake.

Both Mason and Ball make quart, pint, and half pint jars. I use all three sizes. The wide mouth quart and pint are great for flakes. Most of the half-pints are also "wide" mouth, although they use the standard jar lid, being a smaller jar in diameter, it's still a straight run down the side. With the wide mouth pint and half pint, I do trim the flakes down so they fit in, but most flakes will fit directly into a quart jar and still be almost an inch below the top. You can slide them perfectly, no breaking or smashing.

I generally get 8 to 12 ounces of shag cut in a quart jar, 7 to 10 ounces of cube cut, but can easily get a pound of flake in.

Natch

 

[Natch]

You don't want to put your tobacco into heated jars for cellaring; it's not necessary and can ruin your tobacco. I believe it was GLP that wrote about this in the Tobacco Cellaring FAQ. I don't recall all the specifics but do a google search and you'll find what I'm talking about.

Yes, he's posted a couple of times against heating the tobacco, and especially against using the microwave to heat them.

I must disagree with several statements here about how much you need to sterilize the jars and lids. Think of what you're putting in there; tobacco leaves that were grown outside, hung for months in "less than sanitary" barns, and blended in a clean, but certainly not sterile environment. I'll bet you could find thousands of spores of just about everything in nature on each bit of leaf we smoke. Doesn't the aging process need some of those micro beasties to do their magic?

I clean the jars and lids and let them drip-dry, but do nothing more than that. Then seal them "cold". I've had a few jars that after almost 10 years, were budging upward notably, and gave a loud pop when opened, so the pressure was positive, not negative in the jar. I like to keep my nose near the seal when I open it go get a whiff of that lovely, aged treat. That's just what works for me.

Natch

 

[Mikem]

I clean the jars and lids and let them drip-dry, but do nothing more than that. Then seal them "cold". I've had a few jars that after almost 10 years, were budging upward notably, and gave a loud pop when opened, so the pressure was positive, not negative in the jar. I like to keep my nose near the seal when I open it go get a whiff of that lovely, aged treat. That's just what works for me.

Natch

I have also been doing it this way for years with no problems. I love hearing that "pop" when opening up a jar that you have had aging for four or five years.

 

[Buck]

Thanks Buck! I'll try it.

The science teacher in me is wondering how the hot lid manages to create the vacuum. Must be a matter of degree.

BTW, I'm interested in LONG term storage. Like from now until I'm 70. I buy about 10 times as much tobacco as I smoke.

Doug

I need to make one point a little bit more clear about my method....heating the
lids.

Since I re-use food jars the rubbery seal inside the metal lid needs to be
softened to seal well. So I give them a brief soak in boiling water to soften
them up. That way when I place on a room temp jar the heat is sucked out
by the glass causing the seal to 'suck' in to the jar's edge.

It's all a matter of energy transfer and soft seals. Pretty simply really.

My method isn't about vacuum sealing as much as it's about keeping the
air out of the jar.

YMMV :study:

 

[jeepernick]

I have a vacuume sealer (Think seal-a-meal) I have purchased two mason jar attachments one for small lids and one for large lids. I have sealed all of my jarred tobacco with this. Not sure of the outcome as far as aging goes but I figured if I could get some of the air out the anerobic process would start sooner. Plus no heating of jars, lids, etc.

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

The only thing I would add is that jarring a lb or three, I never use qt jars; pints are best as you can open a jar without stopping the aging process in the other jars. Also, depending on the tobacco comes, I only jar 4 ozs or 100 g per jar as this amount is perfect for my smoking process-enough to season a few pipes and plenty left over to enjoy.

 

[Stefanos]

I just canned some for the first time last week, and found 2 ounces of broken flake loosely filled up an 8 ounce jar.
I also did some FVF the same way, but could have forced more in.

Is it true that the tighter you pack it in the slower it ages? There's probably a happy medium somewhere; there always is.