Made a Traditional Schmalzler - Some Insights!

CobbGoots

Recently made a Schmalzler - a very simple one, using the darkest cigar I could find, and butterschmalz.

Here are some insights I didn't mention in the video:

1. A zester is a cheap, reliable, and easily obtainable tool for grating tobacco into a snuffable size. I always used to use a coffee grinder or a blender, and I found that there was no real way to stop the tobacco from blasting right into a super fine toast grain (especially with the coffee grinder). The zester is my new recommendation for anyone looking for a way to make tobacco flour of a good size for snuff!

2. Different fats, especially butterschmaltz or duck fat, were probably added to snuff because they smell really, really good.

3. Schmalzler bottles were probably used not only because they keep the air interchange within the schmalzler to an absolute minimum, but also because you can dump a fluffy pile onto the back of the hand, the fingers, or the knuckle without compressing the snuff as you do with an English style. It doesn't matter so much with water-moistened or dry snuffs, but with schmalzler, the fluffier the pris is, the comfier it goes in.

SnuffScape

Very interesting, I watched the whole thing and I might try this and I am also more excited for my schmalzler order. And I love those Gletscherprise cuties at 18:46 LOL

volunge

Amazing video, @CobbGoots, including the whole ghee making process, and spot-on insights!

Coffee grinder is great for fine dry snuffs (especially those made from a stem/midrib - scotches and toasts) and even SPs (lamina / lamina + midrib), but when you are up to coarser snuff, nothing beats manual grind, like old good mortar and pestle (which gives very "live" grains) or... yes, a rasp (or a large fine grater)! Grinding manually, you take the full control of the particles size. However, it might be a hassle to use a rasp for non-conditioned, bone-dry leaf from bales, but it's great for rasping cigars. And it would work like a charm with carottes. Could be another cool project, making one ;-).

Thinking about schmalzler, it seems that this type of snuff was primarily made (and originated) at home. It probably was a very regional thing. Old German books (and their translations), covering the manufacture of snuff - at least those digitized ones and accessible for reading online - do not mention a single schmalzler recipe (at least up to the second half of the 19th century). There are many German, French, Italian, Spanish and Dutch snuff recipes, but no schmalzlers. Surely, I would love to be corrected and directed to any old source with a schmalzler recipe.

Bernard started with French style snuffs (the most popular back then) in 1733; Bernard website doesn't mention when the production of schmalzler began. Poschl makes schmalzler since 1902, Sternecker - 1890.

Interesting to know that Colonial goods stores sold ground Brazilian tobacco - like Sternecker's ungefettet. Another solid proof that homemade was a common thing in Bavaria back in the day.

Brazilian dark whole leaf: https://www.leafonly.com/search/brazil

P. S. I'm badly tempted to order a sachet of Poschl Brazil A and treat that stuff with a slaked lime in a Bernard style. Poschl schmalzlers have beautiful flavours, but I always get irritated by the low potency.

Another option for more potent schmalzer could be moí rustica rope (twist) tobacco (most Brazilian moist rappees are made of rustica varieties). One Brazilian member have made snuff of it and reported astonishing potency of even non-alkalized flour. He posted in Snuff making 101 thread this past spring/summer. Sadly, it's hard to procure moí outside Brazil, and even if you manage to find the seller, it will be pricey.

volunge

Brazilian fume de corda (not rustica), used for commercial rappees:

https://http2.mlstatic.com/fume-de-corda-arapiraca-forte-100grcorra-antes-que-acabe-D_NQ_NP_739139-MLB41451671630_042020-F.webp

It's probably safe to assume that Brazilian commercial rappees could be used as a beautiful base for schmalzler.

Moí roll (rustica, used for Amazonian tribal snuff; described as very aromatic and potent even in its raw shape, that is, non-alkalized): https://drive.google.com/file/d/14ZgpZRrWC4o5EJ-4Rbis0CY5phJpKi22/edit

Courtesy of @faktiheiny, link transferred from https://snuffhouse.com/discussion/6032/snuff-making-101/p7 .

I think both could be used for shmalzlers; fume de corda as a stand-alone base, moí - as a potency booster in a blend. A mix of both might be a golden mean (1:1 or 2:1).