Fermentation is a fermentation process that occurs under the action of special substances contained directly in the processed product. Most often, such biotechnology is used by summer residents when harvesting leaves of horticultural crops for tea. But many owners of suburban areas also ferment a plant such as tobacco.
The advantages of the method
Fermentation is a process that makes tobacco suitable specifically for smoking. After a similar procedure, the leaves of this plant:
Also, after fermentation in the leaves, the water content decreases. Moreover, they, of course, become resistant to mold.
Where to begin
Actually, before fermentation, tobacco must be sorted. In this case, first of all, it is necessary to remove all rotted and dried parts of plants. Further, you can also remove the topmost leaves from the bushes. It is from them that the most fragrant tobacco is obtained. Such leaflets are best fermented separately. In factories, such material, for example, is used to make cigars. At home, from the upper leaves in the future, it will be possible to make the highest quality cigarettes. But, of course, such sorting of tobacco at the initial stage is an optional procedure.
Home technique
The process of tobacco fermentation at home usually involves two steps:
Each of these steps is carried out according to a certain technology, which cannot be violated.
Equipment
Fermentation is, in fact, just a process of fermentation of concentrated juice of dried and again moistened leaves. This procedure should be carried out strictly at a certain temperature. That is, to create the most suitable microclimate for fermentation, one usually has to use special equipment.
Some people who grow tobacco simply ferment it in jars in a pot of water (for 5-7 hours). Of course, you can use this method of processing. However, unfortunately, it will not work to get high-quality tobacco, which in its characteristics is similar to industrial, when using this technology. The fact is that the fermentation of the leaves of any plant correctly takes place only at a temperature of about 50-55 degrees. Water, as you know, boils at 100 about C.
Therefore, instead of a pan for tobacco fermentation, it is better to use an ordinary chicken incubator. Such devices are good because inside them, using a special controller, you can set any desired temperature, including 50 ° C. The owners of suburban areas usually get chickens in the spring. And therefore, in the summer or in the fall, at the time when the tobacco is processed, the incubator is in any case idle.
Pre-drying
To prepare tobacco for fermentation, you only need strong enough twine. The bushes of the plant you just need to hang on it in some kind of ventilated room, without drafts. The optimum air temperature in the room selected for preliminary drying of the leaves is 25-35 about C.
Tobacco humidification
You need to dry the leaves until they change color to brown, crunch and crumble in your hands. Now you can begin to prepare tobacco for fermentation. For this bushes:
divided into small lots and watered abundantly with water, for example, from a watering can;
cover each batch with a rag for about an hour.
Then the fabric is removed and the readiness of the material is checked. To do this, take a handful of leaves and compress it in a fist. If the tobacco does not crumble or break, it means that the moisturizing procedure was successful. Leaves should not be wet, but softened. When squeezing in a fist, moisture should not be released from their lump.
Incubator packaging and fermentation
If processing is not supposed to be too much tobacco, dried and moistened leaves should be folded into jars with a capacity of 0.5-0.7 liters with screw caps. This will allow you to get the highest quality end product. Three-liter cans with nylon caps are usually used to pack large quantities of tobacco .
To lay out leaves softened by moisture in washed and dried containers is denser. After the glass container is filled, it is closed with lids and placed in an incubator for 7-10 days. Fermentation is a procedure that, as already mentioned, should be carried out at a temperature of 50-55 o C. It is on this parameter that you need to configure the incubator. In a week and a half, all his smoking qualities will appear in tobacco.
The final stage
If all fermentation conditions (temperature, ventilation) are met, the final product will be as aromatic and of high quality as possible. The leaves aged in the incubator are subsequently poured out of the cans and dried on plywood. Then they are crushed. For this procedure, the frame is pre-made from a bar and tightened with a metal mesh with a cell of 3 mm.
The dried fermented tobacco is rubbed through such a device very easily. At the same time, unnecessary leaf veins are also removed during processing. At the final stage, the wiped material is additionally sieved through a colander to remove dust.
Store chopped fermented tobacco is recommended in paper bags or jars. But you can also immediately make a cigarette out of it. For the manufacture of the latter, it is worth using a special purchased device, which can be ordered via the Internet.