I have been thinking about the ‘main rib catastrophe’.
Let me just define terms.
The main rib is pretty obviously the centre rib of a tobacco leaf. In a fully developed leaf, the main rib is substantial.
The rest of the leaf is known as ‘the lamina’, and includes the minor ribs which run across the leaves.
The catastrophe is that it would be a shame to throw away a substantial portion of the leaf, and yet, the main rib is a nuisance. It helps to squash it with a rolling pin, which removes a lot of the moisture, but it is still a nuisance. It is a nuisance during towelling and a nuisance during wadding.
What should be done?
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I had an idea. Here is a pic of a main rib taken from a cured leaf:
You can see from the ruler (30cm) that it has shrunk a lot during curing. It is dry and hard, but pliable. I intend to dry it out totally when it will become very hard and brittle. I shall then break it up into small pieces and pop the pieces into my daughter’s coffee bean grinder, which will reduce it to little granules. The importance of doing that is to remove sharp bits which can rip tubes and minimise the size of hard lumps which can block tubes.
But look again at the pic. What are you seeing? Is it not essentially a TWIG? The thought occurred to me, “Why am I trying to ‘ferment’ twigs?”
My new plan, then, for this next year, is not to try to ferment the main ribs. I shall cut them out and let them dry out completely. They still have a certain amount of nicotine within them. The nicotine content does not depend upon the curing process, which only effects the taste of the tobacco.
Thus, a big nuisance has been removed. I shall cut out the main ribs and ferment the lamina by towelling and wadding. I’ll force the main ribs to dry out completely, probably by putting them on the fireplace for a few days (it works), but I suppose a sunny window ledge will do, or even microwaving. There is no time pressure, so just let them dry!
Another technical advance….
29/01/2013 at 14:10
Interesting. I imagine you will have to process this quite finely in the coffee grinder, and then really use it as ‘filler’, in an appropriate proportion, with the rest of the processed tobacco. I have found that any portion of the main rib that is of any size, tends not to burn at the same rate as the tobacco so that like smoking a small piece of wood. It is a shame, however, to throw such an appreciable part of the leaf away…..
29/01/2013 at 15:21
Spot on JB. The grinder can be set from ‘fine’ to ‘course’. I use it on the course setting, because I do not want it reduced to dust, but to particles.
And, yes – I just toss the particles into the processed stuff and mix it up.
You would tend to think that the ash which results from burning the particles would fall off the cig easily, but it doesn’t. The ash behaves as normal.
29/01/2013 at 19:12
So where did you send the email that I didn’t get?
29/01/2013 at 21:03
I’ve re-sent it to your google address – the one I had was a livejournal one.
30/01/2013 at 01:23
Still no sign of it.
29/01/2013 at 19:26
Well folks, I finally got around to my experiment of flattening some freshly cut stem with the old rolling pin, and then fermenting it in a polythene bag together with some fresh leaf, and am pleased to announce that, contrary to popular opinion, it is absolutely worth the effort, once you pull out the obviously woody bits.
I’m mighty glad I came across your article about processing the leaf with a rolling pin, Junican, and I don’t think you should abandon the idea altogether. There is a deal of difference between fresh midribs and the dried twigs from your flue-cured whole leaf, and in my experience the former are well worth fermenting, wadded in together with the fresh leaf.
29/01/2013 at 21:35
Good heavens, Acet. Where do you live? It must be somewhere warm to have fresh leaves at this time of year.
We’ll give that method a go when we have some produce to work with.
29/01/2013 at 23:52
Garden of England, J! … Kent. It’s chilly enough out there though.
My transplants are still going in the greenhouse, believe it or not, although the growth has considerably slowed with the cold temps and lack of sun.
They are looking a bit threadbare now, unfortunately, what with me smoking like a chimney, but I cannot complain, they have done me proud.
I’m toying with the idea of building a rocket stove in the greenhouse.
http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp