Newb question about tinned vs. bulk tobacco

**Tobias Lutz** · 03-14-2015, 09:55 AM

Originally Posted by mooster

At the risk of pissing someone off again, I don't buy this. The reason canned food products have expiration dates is because the tastes change, not because the food goes bad. (Supposedly ten year old sardines are to die for; I'll never know-I can't stand them when they're new!) And I have a hard time believing that there's any "marrying" going on inside a can of Spam.

A large amount of the canned food stuffs left over from WWII were burned out during the conflict in Korea.

**NeverBend** · 03-14-2015, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by johnnyflake

I know, I have been looking again since I responded to this thread. The 3.5 are really find and will work very well. I had found 5.0 mil on Amazon about a year, year & a half ago and picked up a 50 count package. Now I cannot find them either. I will probably order the 3.5 mil shortly.

Hi Johnny,

I'll let you know what I find. I want the sealer for food (to freeze meat) so I'll buy accordingly but I'll order a unit this week (or week-end). Thanks again.

Pete

**mooster** · 03-14-2015, 04:26 PM

Originally Posted by johnnyflake

omg - really!!!

Sorry; I'm not sure what you mean.

**NeverBend** · 03-19-2015, 01:30 AM

Originally Posted by mooster

At the risk of pissing someone off again, I don't buy this. The reason canned food products have expiration dates is because the tastes change, not because the food goes bad. (Supposedly ten year old sardines are to die for; I'll never know-I can't stand them when they're new!) And I have a hard time believing that there's any "marrying" going on inside a can of Spam.

Hi Mark,

(how've you been and how's the Jacopo smoking?)

Sorry for the tardy response.

I'm not a chemist so I can't comment on the differences in bacterial activity between Spam and Balkan Sobranie but you seem to be comparing flesh to wood and their rotting rates rather than their ageing. In all my years of making, selling and smoking tobacco the changes are only consistent with the marrying of the flavors between fermented leaves and not with the accumulation of tens of trillions of little bacterial sh*tlettes. The impacting bacterial activity in tobacco occurs when the leaf is fermented not when it's stored otherwise you get mold.

The changes in tobacco occur with air present or none at all but no change occurs if the leaf is dry. Pressure and temperature affect the rate of change but both of these influences are used during tobacco processing and their effect is known and these changes are not bacterial.

Urban legend is that Robert Rex of Drucquers Tobacconist (SF) started 'ageing' when they found a bag of their popular Cooks #5 tobacco that had been sitting around for some time. When tasted it was not only still good, many though it was superior. Robert told me this story himself in 1981 sp now you can decide if Drucquer's started the tobacco ageing craze or not. Robert sold the store the following year to open a winery (http://www.deerfieldranch.com/Winery/Winery.index.html). People have compared the ageing of tobacco to that of wine, perhaps started by Robert himself, where the agents of change are thought to be the same.

Wines and tobacco change by chemical reaction. We'd need the chemist to explain the differences between the two because wine is a liquid and tobacco only needs moisture for the changes to occur but marrying or ageing is the interaction between leaf over time when stored in a moist form where they take on characteristics of other leaf, even of he same variety.

Regards,

Pete

**mooster** · 03-19-2015, 01:58 AM

Originally Posted by NeverBend

how've you been and how's the Jacopo smoking?

Which one; you created a monster...

To be honest, I always looked at the term "aging" as a polite way of saying "rotting rates" anyway, so yeah. I guess we're talking about different things.

**Commander Quan** · 03-19-2015, 02:58 AM

I'm just going to leave this here... http://www.glpease.com/Articles/vacuum.html

**johnnyflake** · 03-19-2015, 11:15 AM

Originally Posted by mooster

Sorry; I'm not sure what you mean.

OMG means "Oh My God" then Really means, in this sense, a Sarcasm!

Man, your trying to compare processed foods with, zillions of additives, to something botanical and, in a sense, alive!

I'm done with this!

**mooster** · 03-19-2015, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by johnnyflake

OMG means "Oh My God" then Really means, in this sense, a Sarcasm!

Man, your trying to compare processed foods with, zillions of additives, to something botanical and, in a sense, alive!

I'm done with this!

Ah, throwing a tantrum. That's what I figured, but I wasn't sure. So your brilliant theory is that "zillions of additives" (preservatives included) cause food products to decay faster than an unpreserved plant product? Interesting, but you might want to rethink it. It may also shock you to discover that some plant products are actually canned as well, and the same taste changes occur. I would have thought that you would have at least noticed canned tomatoes by now...