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

[Tobias Lutz]

So after receiving tutelage from @Bruck , I decided I would take a shot at making Cavendish and document the process in case others are interested. I did mine on the cheap, you can be more elaborate if you so desire. Rather than work with my stock of Virginia and Orientals, I decided to "recycle" some random sticks I had taking up space in my humidor. If you are working with whole leaf, I imagine the process would be pretty much the same.



Step one was to gather the sticks and remove the bands

I then split them down the middle so I could "rub out" the binder and filler...



Step two involved a single cut in order to try and keep the pieces moderately large for steaming

Rubbed out, I placed the tobacco in a bus pan and prepared my topping



Step three is prepping the leaf for topping by placing it in a large mixing container

My topping recipe for this was pretty simple...whiskey, and pure vanilla & almond extracts.



Step four is mixing your topping in a clean spray bottle

Once I had the bottle set to a mist I soaked the entire tub of leaf with a little more than 8 ounces of topping



​Step five is making sure the leaf is thoroughly wet. I then allowed it to sit overnight and absorb the flavoring goodness.

In the morning I gathered a small hibachi grill, an old pot with colander, a plate for a lid, and some charcoal.



Step six is lighting your fire and getting the water boiling in the pot. The reason this is done outside is because you are fermenting the tobacco a second time, at a very accelerated rate. This will release ammonia and stink up your house for the first half of the process. If you live alone, knock yourself out but if you have a wife and kids you may want to spare them the olfactory torture.

I then loaded the colander full of leaf. It may take up to 30 minutes to get it full. Similar to cooking spinach, you need to let it begin to reduce before you can fit it all in the pot.



Step seven is steaming the leaf. You need to make sure you check the water (mine is lasting for about an hour at a time with this set-up), and stir the tobacco as it cooks down. Ultimately we're looking to do this for 8-12 hours


Four hours...


Eight hours...

When it came to be the deep brown/black color I was looking for, and it smelled sweet, I spread it on sheet pans and let it dry a bit. Then I packed it (still pretty moist) into gallon freezer bags and pressed it under 50lbs of free-weights for 24 hours. I think sliced these pressed "cakes" up, laid them out to dry for jarring, and then packed it up to use for blending.

[Bruck]

A fine thread recycled from the old forum
Speaking of almond extract... I like the dimension it adds to the flavor profile, but you have to be careful not to use too much, or it can dominate.

[Demuths1770]

i would love to give this a try over the summer

[rx2man]

Tobias, how long ago was this post originally made? How did it turn out? Is it still aging? If it turned out good can I try it? All I can say is WOW

[Tobias Lutz]

Tobias, how long ago was this post originally made? How did it turn out? Is it still aging? If it turned out good can I try it? All I can say is WOW

I made this last fall- I be glad to drop some in the mail to you this week.

[Will46r]

Tobias, how long ago was this post originally made? How did it turn out? Is it still aging? If it turned out good can I try it? All I can say is WOW

Now you have something to do with all your lower end ceegars lol

[rx2man]

Now you have something to do with all your lower end ceegars lol

That implies that he has lower end cigars!!!! lol.

[Bruck]

This is what I do with most of my cigar rolling scraps. Makes a great pipe tobacco component as it retains just a bit of the cigar tobacco "edge."

[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.

[quo155]

I just saw this thread...very cool to see. Maybe I'll try this this summer myself. I have several damaged cigars and plenty of whole leaf.

Cool thread!