Can you continue to smoke until it's all ash or do you need to toss it when it gets down to it? I've been tossing it when I get near the bottom.
A Question On Dottle
- Thread starter El Capitán
- Start date
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If it stops tasting pleasant and taking easily to the light, there is no need to tough it out to the very bottom. In fact, doing so could scorch your draft hole. Toss it.
Yup just smoke it till YOU are done. Simple as that. Many struggle to enjoy the pipe due to fighting to keep it lit to the bottom.
Dottle happens. Dump it out and forget about it.
Drawing nigh on fifty years ago, a little group of us Ozarkians were in science class when the teacher taught us that every flavor in the world, all of them, are combinations of the four basic tastes our taste buds can differentiate between. There’s sour, bitter, salty, and sweet, and nothing else.
One of my friends questioned, then why isn’t there bacon flavored ice cream, then?
Not long ago the Japanese convinced the world there is a fifth taste, called umami (savory), so maybe he was right back then and it took science a long time to catch up to the wisdom of the hillbillies.
en.m.wikipedia.org
Before anybody can make a profit selling any blend of tobacco under the sun, the tobacco has to taste good, at least at the start of a smoke. All the horrible blends have died, long ago.
I completely believe every briar should be broken in all the way down to the bottom, but that process takes a day or two.
When you’re smoking a good blend of tobacco in your pipe, and it’s not good anymore, then stop.
Toss that out.
Let the pipe cool, and repeat.
One of my friends questioned, then why isn’t there bacon flavored ice cream, then?
Not long ago the Japanese convinced the world there is a fifth taste, called umami (savory), so maybe he was right back then and it took science a long time to catch up to the wisdom of the hillbillies.
Umami - Wikipedia
Before anybody can make a profit selling any blend of tobacco under the sun, the tobacco has to taste good, at least at the start of a smoke. All the horrible blends have died, long ago.
I completely believe every briar should be broken in all the way down to the bottom, but that process takes a day or two.
When you’re smoking a good blend of tobacco in your pipe, and it’s not good anymore, then stop.
Toss that out.
Let the pipe cool, and repeat.
That depends upon you, how well you loaded the blend, how dry the blend (especially true when you near the bottom) is and, most importantly are you still enjoying the taste/bowl? It's a bowl to bowl decision to my way of thinking.
Don’t overthink pipe smoking. You smoke because and when it’s enjoyable to do so. If it starts to lose flavour or when it becomes rancid, just dump it and put your pipe to the side. Don’t concern yourself with dottle or completely smoking your tobacco down to white ash.
My pipes burn to the bottom with a fine white ash everytime.. What is dottle anyway?
smoking down to the bottom is kind like happiness. You really can't make it happen and chasing it seems to chase it away. Leaving the conditions most conducive towards that end and then forgetting about it seems to work best with both.
Dottle is fine to toss out. There is no need to smoke down every last shred, ever. Every pipe restorer and repairman I've talked with, and I've talked with the best over the decades, have been united in this.
Striving to smoke every last shred to ash will generate the kind of heat in the chamber that will eventually damage your pipe, causing heat cracks to form in the wood, structurally weakening it. Nincompoops to this.
Sometimes I'll smoke everything down to ash, but it's because the particular blend just burns cool and doesn't require any effort. It's nothing I strive for, and it's often a surprise. I generally toss away the last bits.
Some very frugal smokers gather the dottle in a jar and eventually smoke down that conglomeration. I suppose if it tastes good, why not?
Striving to smoke every last shred to ash will generate the kind of heat in the chamber that will eventually damage your pipe, causing heat cracks to form in the wood, structurally weakening it. Nincompoops to this.
Sometimes I'll smoke everything down to ash, but it's because the particular blend just burns cool and doesn't require any effort. It's nothing I strive for, and it's often a surprise. I generally toss away the last bits.
Some very frugal smokers gather the dottle in a jar and eventually smoke down that conglomeration. I suppose if it tastes good, why not?
I fill my pipes to the top and then smoke them to the bottom. I am almost always chasing flavors the lower I go in the bowl. Once I hit the flavor is gone point, I dump the ash and grab another pipe. Smoking wet shitty dottle is not my thing. I could care less if I throw out a gram of tobacco.
Don't fall prey to some of the things people say. Gotta smoke to the end. Don't dump ash, smoke it till there is nothing but hot coals. Your ash has to be white for you to get a good smoke. That last one always makes me laugh. I have smoked a pipe for over 20 years and never found pure white ash. Also relighting your pipe is not a sin, you will not be sent to the deepest regions of hell if you relight. It is just part of the art of smoking a pipe.
Don't fall prey to some of the things people say. Gotta smoke to the end. Don't dump ash, smoke it till there is nothing but hot coals. Your ash has to be white for you to get a good smoke. That last one always makes me laugh. I have smoked a pipe for over 20 years and never found pure white ash. Also relighting your pipe is not a sin, you will not be sent to the deepest regions of hell if you relight. It is just part of the art of smoking a pipe.
I have seen a lot of different greys but never white yet. Now I am losing hope!
Life is too short to smoke dottle. Toss it.
I always have some dottle. Smoke to the point you are happy with. Some pipes I find allow me to smoke closer to the bottom with minimal dottle though. My MM cob tends to let me get close to the bottom, as does my Flacon, although I don't often smoke it due to the cheap feel of it.
The joy of pipe smoking over cigars is that you feel less obliged to plough through to the bitter end because you feel you have to.
The joy of pipe smoking over cigars is that you feel less obliged to plough through to the bitter end because you feel you have to.
Like many have said above. It get's too nasty tasting and difficult to light and keep alight.
I have read on the forums that some guys dump it out and save it to smoke in roll-ups. Was gonna try it myself, if I can get the papers.
I have read on the forums that some guys dump it out and save it to smoke in roll-ups. Was gonna try it myself, if I can get the papers.
When the flavor becomes less good, stop smoking it. That's the objective, not smoking every last bit of unburned tobacco. Especially with MM cobs, sometimes I will get good flavor to the bottom and the pipe just won't relight, and I can see there isn't any tobacco to relight. That's fine, very thrifty, but it is still an issue of flavor. Bad flavor ends a smoke. Diminished flavor ends a smoke.
We aren't doing the slowest pipe smoking race. So, just stop when the pack tasted awful. The 1/3 bowl in the bottom is full of tar and moisture. They aren't healthy to smoke.
Or the neighbor's yard. (I take care of that part of the yard.) ?