The Step-by-Step Thread for Turning Cigars into Cavendish

[Bruck]

Waking this thread back up with some Cavendish steaming pron:



Steaming some cigar rolling scraps on the gas grill today - did it once indoors, that was it, just once, Mrs. Bruck found the odor objectionable, which of course it is during most of the steaming.

Making pseudo-cavendish is my main way of consuming the copious scraps that result from rolling cigars. I haven't done any actual measurements (it's a little tough to measure tobacco weight, as you're mainly measuring water), but I would estimate that about 1/3 of the raw leaf I start out with ends up as scrap. I can't throw it out - I paid good money for it! I also like to use cigar scraps as the innards of a twist/rope.



Here it is after it's steamed a bit. Same amount of tobacco; the water just relaxes it.

...which is why you have to regularly turn the tobacco as it's steaming - it sort of congeals into a limp mass, so the bottom/outsides get steamed while the top/innards stay cool.

Aroma and appearance indicate when the tobacco is done steaming. It's all dark brown/black, and the gym shoes odor gives way to a sweet, toasty aroma. After I take it off the steamer, I dry it out on wire racks over newspaper, then jar it up. There is a pressing step for making true cavendish, which I skip as I've found it really doesn't make much difference for my purposes, which are blending and making homemade flake.