How to make a sailor's Perique

[Chaukisch]

I just watched this nine minute video and wanted to share it with you.
A "Perique" means many things, we pipe smokers know and love it as that delicious dark tobacco that they make in Louisiana, the St. James Parish is especially famous for its barrel pressed and aged pipe tobacco.
A sailor has very limited space and only a short time on land, perhaps even a very thin budget. What he does have is some rope, a lot of time for aging at sea, a taste for tobacco and his wits.

And this is what a sailor of "back then" came up with,
a selfmade roll of raw tobacco leaves that he left to age and apparently called a "Perique".

I thought about pressing and thought a recent thread about noodle presses was the holy grail but this is something I'm definitely going to try as well. Hell, except for some proper canvas and a better knowledge about knots I got everything right here. It's just pressing but the procedure is what makes this so very special.

Savvy?

 

[crashthegrey]

Very interesting. I like getting to the pre modern root of names. This may well have preceded the method we use now. But videos are too long to watch so I guess I'll never know. Lol.

 

[Chasing Embers]

apparently called a "Perique"

From the French expletive.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Several years ago, we had a member named Deathmetal that posted this. but, it's good to rehash thing sometimes, especially when those of us who would remember, or not remember, are older than dirt.

I believe it was debated that this method was unverifiable, and/or was probably not practiced by all pipesmokers on board. But, it was probably practiced by some. It seems like rolling tobacco into pretzel shaped twists would be easier and more manageable... being that you could just slice them into coins shapes for easier loading. And, rolling twists goes back to the very first discoveries of tobacco.

None-the-less, it is an interesting video.

 

[Chaukisch]

Very interesting. I like getting to the pre modern root of names. This may well have preceded the method we use now. But videos are too long to watch so I guess I'll never know. Lol.

I'm usually the same with videos, but when it's about tobacco the video can't be long enough.
This process just fascinated me.

From the French expletive.

Do you know if something like that is still made and sold? It's nothing more than a crude way to press tobacco but I can't get over it. That whole idea behind the process and the look of the finished 'tuber'...
Just the thought of cutting one of those open and getting closer to the smell of the inside has me in goosebumps.

Several years ago, we had a member named Deathmetal that posted this. but, it's good to rehash thing sometimes, especially when those of us who would remember, or not remember, are older than dirt.

I believe it was debated that this method was unverifiable, and/or was probably not practiced by all pipesmokers on board. But, it was probably practiced by some. It seems like rolling tobacco into pretzel shaped twists would be easier and more manageable... being that you could just slice them into coins shapes for easier loading. And, rolling twists goes back to the very first discoveries of tobacco.

None-the-less, it is an interesting video.

I thought that there must've been a thread about this before, the forum has some age and tons of information to it after all. But I'm a bit of a sucker when it comes to unconventional methods of tobacco processing and thought this is something special, especially today.

But it's like I said before, if there's something new to me it'll be old news to the rest of you.
Awesome world, this tobacco world.

 

[simong]

From the French expletive.

No, the French expletive/equivalent was ‘carrotte’ . Perique in French (as in English) just refers to the type of tobacco. In the British Navy it was referred to as a ‘Prick’ of tobacco.

 

[mso489]

Pressure and aging aside, I think the old sailing ship crews mostly bought tobacco in cloth drawstring bags and took their chances with the humidity before the mast (forward in the ship where the crew slept). Their "racks," bunks that is, were wood with low sides to keep them from getting throw out, and all their clothes, gear, and pipes and tobacco were in a wooden sea chest. It was a Spartan life to say the least.

 

[Ahi Ka]

According to Bob/deluxestogie at FTT in reference to the above video:

Perique processed tobacco from Louisiana was historically compressed into a "carrote" after pressure curing, and sold that way commercially (for over 100 years). I believe that the sailor's term, "Perique," was derived from that method of packaging, rather than from any expectation that it would produce pressure cure tobacco (which requires that it not dry out during the process).

I would add that tambolaka logs are processed in a similar manner and I get some perique vibe from them where bits of the tobacco have fermented under pressure and without exposure to air

 

[simong]

@Ahi Ka google ‘naval prick of tobacco’ & you’ll find the true history of the process & terminology.

 

[Ahi Ka]

@Ahi Ka google ‘naval prick of tobacco’ & you’ll find the true history of the process & terminology.

I have, and I found that there are a few names to describe the same thing.

 

[simong]

I have, and I found that there are a few names to describe the same thing.

Prick! The British one is the one you should adhere to. From the British Navy Pricks thence came the mass produced Navy Cuts at the end of the 19th century & the British tobacco industry came into it’s own. At that time the world’s biggest Navy was British…..now, not so much. Lol

 

[Ahi Ka]

Prick! The British one is the one you should adhere to. From the British Navy Pricks thence came the mass produced Navy Cuts at the end of the 19th century & the British tobacco industry came into it’s own. At that time the world’s biggest Navy was British…..now, not so much. Lol

Ah yes, that glorious era where the crowns navy needed to be, was it 4 times larger than any other empire’s fleet…seems like someone was compensating for the size of their prick.

 

[UB 40]

I just watched this nine minute video and wanted to share it with you.
A "Perique" means many things, we pipe smokers know and love it as that delicious dark tobacco that they make in Louisiana, the St. James Parish is especially famous for its barrel pressed and aged pipe tobacco.
A sailor has very limited space and only a short time on land, perhaps even a very thin budget. What he does have is some rope, a lot of time for aging at sea, a taste for tobacco and his wits.

And this is what a sailor of "back then" came up with,
a selfmade roll of raw tobacco leaves that he left to age and apparently called a "Perique".

I thought about pressing and thought a recent thread about noodle presses was the holy grail but this is something I'm definitely going to try as well. Hell, except for some proper canvas and a better knowledge about knots I got everything right here. It's just pressing but the procedure is what makes this so very special.

Savvy?

My dear Chaukisch, and hat reminds me a lot of the invention of Cavendish. Ralf Dings (excellent author) writes in his blog: Cavendish? - https://rallis.blog/2019/08/15/cavendish/

“Seinen Namen hat er von Captain Sir Thomas Cavendish, der 1585, bei einem Besuch der Kronkolonie Virginia, den er im Auftrag der Königin unternahm, Tabak als Geschenk erhielt. Cavendish wollte den Tabak für die lange Seereise nach England haltbar machen und bearbeitete ihn. Wie, dazu gibt es zwei Geschichten. Einmal soll er den Tabak mit einer Mischung aus Rum und Zucker beträufelt haben, um ihn dann fest in Leinwand einzuschnüren. Die andere Version berichtet, er habe den Tabak unter festem Druck in Rumfässer gefüllt.“

“It takes its name from Captain Sir Thomas Cavendish, who received tobacco as a gift in 1585 during a visit to the Crown Colony of Virginia, which he undertook on behalf of the Queen. Cavendish wanted to preserve the tobacco for the long sea voyage to England and processed it. How, there are two stories. Once he is said to have drizzled the tobacco with a mixture of rum and sugar and then tied it firmly into canvas. The other version reports that he filled the tobacco into rum barrels under firm pressure.”

And here on Perique, probably the nick of Pierre Chenet, who transferred the Indian process of fermented tobacco into nowadays industry: PERIQUE- Das beinahe ausgestorbene Wunderkraut - https://rallis.blog/2019/07/08/perique-das-beinahe-ausgestorbene-wunderkraut/

Sorry guys, no translation.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Do you know if something like that is still made and sold?

Excluding antique and estate sales, I've not seen any available.

 

[Chasing Embers]

No, the French expletive/equivalent was ‘carrotte’ . Perique in French (as in English) just refers to the type of tobacco. In the British Navy it was referred to as a ‘Prick’ of tobacco.

It helps to dig a bit.

 

[Ahi Ka]

Excluding antique and estate sales, I've not seen any available.

And some types rustica sold as incense sticks

 

[Chasing Embers]

And some types rustica sold as incense sticks

Yep

 

[Chasing Embers]

@Ahi Ka

Why Mariah Carey?

 

[Ahi Ka]

@Ahi Ka

Why Mariah Carey?

@mikethompson made me do it.

 

[jpberg]

It’s available in many shapes and forms.
You know how all the Esoterica guys say “Well all you have to do is call the blah blah blah develop a relationship blah blah” like it was that easy?
Getting these very localized tobaccos (other than Mapacho, which is relatively easy) really does take time.
Kentucky, Ecuador, and Brazil are your best bets currently. Happy hunting.

Edited to add: @Ahi Ka , I still owe you a box, there will be a few samples of these included.