Yeah, I think with many of these legendary blends of yesteryear, they were probably great, but there are likely blends every bit as good today.
Recreating the Original 3 Nuns - Perique + G&H Curly Cut? How Much?
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OK, so I ordered the Curly Cut, but it was out of stock. Some have claimed the Cabbie's Mixture is close, but with some research I found it only has 6% perique.
In the short run, I'll just buy some Cabbie's and mix in some perique. I'm not sure how close it'll be--probably nothing like it, but everyone says the modern Three Nuns and Three Friars aren't really like it either, so it should at least be as close as those approximations. I'll at least have the perique percentage correct. It does mention a black cherry flavor from the perique, which might be similar to that in the original Three Nuns.
The early ads mention "Sherry" or "Cherry" as the flavor.
I also found some very detailed research done on this forum in this thread regarding decoding the code words used in the old recipes, e.g., "Molon." It seems the topping was rum, sugar, and anise, so the "cherry" may be partly from the perique as well.
(Source)
In the short run, I'll just buy some Cabbie's and mix in some perique. I'm not sure how close it'll be--probably nothing like it, but everyone says the modern Three Nuns and Three Friars aren't really like it either, so it should at least be as close as those approximations. I'll at least have the perique percentage correct. It does mention a black cherry flavor from the perique, which might be similar to that in the original Three Nuns.
The early ads mention "Sherry" or "Cherry" as the flavor.
I also found some very detailed research done on this forum in this thread regarding decoding the code words used in the old recipes, e.g., "Molon." It seems the topping was rum, sugar, and anise, so the "cherry" may be partly from the perique as well.
So here's what I ended up doing: I bought the Samuel Gawith's Cabbie's Mixture, and added blending perique to get it to 22%, and let it sit for some weeks.
I then ordered the vintage tin below off ebay:
I packed the tobacco in this tin.
The Cabbie's Mixture smelled so delicious straight out of the tin that I was loath to taint it's purity, but after the added perique marinated with it, it smelled even better.
It was a beautiful, spicy smoke--quite bracing with the perique on top, but the underlying VA leaf prevented it from being overwhelming. My father, brother, and I, went out and smoked it immediately. I don't know how close it was to the original Three Nuns, but if it was close... well then I can see why people liked the blend so much!
I then ordered the vintage tin below off ebay:
I packed the tobacco in this tin.
The Cabbie's Mixture smelled so delicious straight out of the tin that I was loath to taint it's purity, but after the added perique marinated with it, it smelled even better.
It was a beautiful, spicy smoke--quite bracing with the perique on top, but the underlying VA leaf prevented it from being overwhelming. My father, brother, and I, went out and smoked it immediately. I don't know how close it was to the original Three Nuns, but if it was close... well then I can see why people liked the blend so much!
Nice! I have Curly Cut on order and it will be here next Monday. I'm looking forward to trying out and I also have about 2 ounces of straight Perique to play around with. I have not tried Cabbies Mixture but I aim to, someday.
There's a difference between what you're referring to (known as Acadian Perique) and manufactured Perique. Acadian Perique is made in the same facility as St. James Perique, by subjecting dark air-cured tobaccos to the exact same process as Perique. It's then blended with St. James.
Manufactured Perique was made by using Burley and lacing it with a Perique-flavored top dressing. While Acadian Perique is very similar to St. James Perique, the flavored Burley really isn't that close.
Russ
Those that have said the casing/topping is what makes three nuns are correct.
I have some old tins. Spent a lot of money on ebay to get them.
The old Three Nuns has a certain rich rummy tobaccoey taste and aroma that I haven't found in any other blend.
Its a bit sweet and spicy at the same time.
The recipe has Demerara rum and Anatole. Anetole is what give anise its flavour and is used to flavour ouzo.
The coins were small like the size of a penny or dime.
7% of the 22% perique centre of the coins was manufactured perique using a Cavendish steaming process. This was flavoured with invert demerara sugar and citric acid and also rum and perique. This this manufactured perique helps with the final unique taste and aroma.
At one time, I purchased all the ingredients from the recipe to make it.
My attempt was unsuccessful. I will try again though.
If you mix up a blend of tobaccos with the exact proportions to the recipe, it gives a nice smoke though.
But its lacking the unique three nuns taste and aroma -
P1 15% Imported Perique (Louisiana)
P2 7% Manufactured Perique (Black Cavendish)
P3 31% Filler (Burley)
P4 47% Wrapper (Bright Virginias)
or can forget the Manufactured Perique and just use 22% perique.
Cheers
Tim
P.S Can someone beg Macbaren to make an original recipe version.
I have some old tins. Spent a lot of money on ebay to get them.
The old Three Nuns has a certain rich rummy tobaccoey taste and aroma that I haven't found in any other blend.
Its a bit sweet and spicy at the same time.
The recipe has Demerara rum and Anatole. Anetole is what give anise its flavour and is used to flavour ouzo.
The coins were small like the size of a penny or dime.
7% of the 22% perique centre of the coins was manufactured perique using a Cavendish steaming process. This was flavoured with invert demerara sugar and citric acid and also rum and perique. This this manufactured perique helps with the final unique taste and aroma.
At one time, I purchased all the ingredients from the recipe to make it.
My attempt was unsuccessful. I will try again though.
If you mix up a blend of tobaccos with the exact proportions to the recipe, it gives a nice smoke though.
But its lacking the unique three nuns taste and aroma -
P1 15% Imported Perique (Louisiana)
P2 7% Manufactured Perique (Black Cavendish)
P3 31% Filler (Burley)
P4 47% Wrapper (Bright Virginias)
or can forget the Manufactured Perique and just use 22% perique.
Cheers
Tim
P.S Can someone beg Macbaren to make an original recipe version.
Here's my original email from a few years back -
I really like my vapers and have read much about the legend of Three Nuns.
The word is that the old version is far superior than what's produced today.
The tinned version made by orlik and sold in the EU. The pouch ready rubbed version sold in the UK
and now the version made by Macbaren.
The old Three Nuns recipe contained a fair amount of perique and since 1992? it has not contained
perique but rather dark fired kentucky instead.
If you do a google or ebay search for Three nuns you will find some old three nuns advertisements.
Notice how the focus is on the perique in Three nuns.
It seems that without perique it aint three nuns.
So I really wanted to know what the fuss was all about and started to hunt on ebay for an old tin.
It didnt take me long to realise it would be an expensive exercise.
I eventually procured some old Three Nuns from ebay which I had to rehydrate.
The aroma from the tin is amazing. I still dont know if it's the age that made it smell this good
or if it smelled like that when fresh.
No other tobacco I've had smells like this.
No other tobacco I've had smells this good.
The aroma is deep and rich and sweet and raisony and rich tobaccoey like an aged tobacco rum plum pudding.
Now I'm fan of aged Ps Luxury navy flake, with 5 years its really sublime stuff.
It is somewhat flavoured which, to me, adds to the appeal.
Smoking the old Three Nuns is like smoking the aged PS Navy but the three nuns is richer and deeper
and has a different flavouring. They are both sweet and spicy at the same time.
Yes three nuns is flavoured with a superb rich tobacco enhancing flavour which adds to its appeal like it does with PS luxury Navy.
This flavouring is what makes Three Nuns unique.
So I started to extensively research three nuns. Tried all the blends that try and copy it.
The copy blends use a flavouring which trys to copy the three nuns flavouring,
but they dont get it quite right and most of them dont have enough perique in the blend.
Then I came across a post on another forum that had this link to the original recipe
Three Nuns Recipe
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/evl27a99/pdf
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/nvy96a99/pdf
Many of you would have seen this before.
I was curious to find out what was in this legendary three nuns.
That recipe is useless because the tobacco industry used code words for the casing's and additives.
Ingredients in the recipe like Molon dont actually exist.
However.
After some intensive research on the legacy tobacco library website I found a document that defines the code words.
Casings, flavourings and Additive Codes
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/vla13f00/pdf
and also found detailed production instructions.
Three Nuns Manufacturing process
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ohz46a99/pdf
Molon (Invert Sugar) Recipes
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ugu75a99/pdf
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/iio95a99/pdf
Recipe for denaturing demerara rum (Butite)
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ide27a99/pdf
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/action/document/page?tid=bix57a99
They used denatured rum to avoid the alcohol taxes
I'm not sure whether this alters the flavour of the blend.
So the three nuns ingredients include - Invert sugar (brown or raw), glycerin, water, Gum arabic, demerara rum (denatured), Anethole (extracted from Anise) used in making ouzo.
The mixture of Anethole & rum is often referred to as peroco.
It seems like the flavour profile of three nuns is anise, rum and brown sugar.
Anethole is a very strong and a little goes a long way, it has a very high boiling point and is sweeter than sugar. Its flavour makes the smoke sweet and rich. Anethole basically smells and tastes like ouzo.
The manufactured perique seems to be a type of cavendish which is cooked under pressure and steam for a long time, to make it go black.
These ingredients are easily obtainable.
Believe it or not im going to try make a loose cut version of this and maybe press it to make a crumble cake, as I dont have or know how to get whole leaf tobacco.
I have purchased all the ingredients online and the early tests are promising.
I'm not exactly sure what type of viginia to use and what type of tobacco is used for the perique substite. I'm going to use white burley in my first attempt as perique is a type of burley.
I'm going to attempt to cook this in a pressure cooker as describe in the manufacturing process.
I cant see why the original recipe three nuns cant be made.
So I beg Macbaren or someone else to use the original recipe to make a classic version of three nuns. Macbaren could have two versions -
Three Nuns Modern and Threen Nuns original recipe.
Heres the references again -
Three Nuns Recipe
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/evl27a99/pdf
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/nvy96a99/pdf
Casings, flavourings and Additive Codes
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/vla13f00/pdf
Three Nuns Manufacturing process
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ohz46a99/pdf
Molon (Invert Sugar) Recipes
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ugu75a99/pdf
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/iio95a99/pdf
Recipe for denaturing demerara rum (Butite)
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ide27a99/pdf
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/action/document/page?tid=bix57a99
I really like my vapers and have read much about the legend of Three Nuns.
The word is that the old version is far superior than what's produced today.
The tinned version made by orlik and sold in the EU. The pouch ready rubbed version sold in the UK
and now the version made by Macbaren.
The old Three Nuns recipe contained a fair amount of perique and since 1992? it has not contained
perique but rather dark fired kentucky instead.
If you do a google or ebay search for Three nuns you will find some old three nuns advertisements.
Notice how the focus is on the perique in Three nuns.
It seems that without perique it aint three nuns.
So I really wanted to know what the fuss was all about and started to hunt on ebay for an old tin.
It didnt take me long to realise it would be an expensive exercise.
I eventually procured some old Three Nuns from ebay which I had to rehydrate.
The aroma from the tin is amazing. I still dont know if it's the age that made it smell this good
or if it smelled like that when fresh.
No other tobacco I've had smells like this.
No other tobacco I've had smells this good.
The aroma is deep and rich and sweet and raisony and rich tobaccoey like an aged tobacco rum plum pudding.
Now I'm fan of aged Ps Luxury navy flake, with 5 years its really sublime stuff.
It is somewhat flavoured which, to me, adds to the appeal.
Smoking the old Three Nuns is like smoking the aged PS Navy but the three nuns is richer and deeper
and has a different flavouring. They are both sweet and spicy at the same time.
Yes three nuns is flavoured with a superb rich tobacco enhancing flavour which adds to its appeal like it does with PS luxury Navy.
This flavouring is what makes Three Nuns unique.
So I started to extensively research three nuns. Tried all the blends that try and copy it.
The copy blends use a flavouring which trys to copy the three nuns flavouring,
but they dont get it quite right and most of them dont have enough perique in the blend.
Then I came across a post on another forum that had this link to the original recipe
Three Nuns Recipe
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/evl27a99/pdf
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/nvy96a99/pdf
Many of you would have seen this before.
I was curious to find out what was in this legendary three nuns.
That recipe is useless because the tobacco industry used code words for the casing's and additives.
Ingredients in the recipe like Molon dont actually exist.
However.
After some intensive research on the legacy tobacco library website I found a document that defines the code words.
Casings, flavourings and Additive Codes
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/vla13f00/pdf
and also found detailed production instructions.
Three Nuns Manufacturing process
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ohz46a99/pdf
Molon (Invert Sugar) Recipes
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ugu75a99/pdf
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/iio95a99/pdf
Recipe for denaturing demerara rum (Butite)
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ide27a99/pdf
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/action/document/page?tid=bix57a99
They used denatured rum to avoid the alcohol taxes
I'm not sure whether this alters the flavour of the blend.
So the three nuns ingredients include - Invert sugar (brown or raw), glycerin, water, Gum arabic, demerara rum (denatured), Anethole (extracted from Anise) used in making ouzo.
The mixture of Anethole & rum is often referred to as peroco.
It seems like the flavour profile of three nuns is anise, rum and brown sugar.
Anethole is a very strong and a little goes a long way, it has a very high boiling point and is sweeter than sugar. Its flavour makes the smoke sweet and rich. Anethole basically smells and tastes like ouzo.
The manufactured perique seems to be a type of cavendish which is cooked under pressure and steam for a long time, to make it go black.
These ingredients are easily obtainable.
Believe it or not im going to try make a loose cut version of this and maybe press it to make a crumble cake, as I dont have or know how to get whole leaf tobacco.
I have purchased all the ingredients online and the early tests are promising.
I'm not exactly sure what type of viginia to use and what type of tobacco is used for the perique substite. I'm going to use white burley in my first attempt as perique is a type of burley.
I'm going to attempt to cook this in a pressure cooker as describe in the manufacturing process.
I cant see why the original recipe three nuns cant be made.
So I beg Macbaren or someone else to use the original recipe to make a classic version of three nuns. Macbaren could have two versions -
Three Nuns Modern and Threen Nuns original recipe.
Heres the references again -
Three Nuns Recipe
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/evl27a99/pdf
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/nvy96a99/pdf
Casings, flavourings and Additive Codes
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/vla13f00/pdf
Three Nuns Manufacturing process
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ohz46a99/pdf
Molon (Invert Sugar) Recipes
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ugu75a99/pdf
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/iio95a99/pdf
Recipe for denaturing demerara rum (Butite)
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ide27a99/pdf
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/action/document/page?tid=bix57a99
Awesome work, timpiper!
Whatever I came up with was delicious, but it does look like it's lacking the topping described in the earlier three nuns.
It'd be great to have someone remake the exact original from those recipes.
Whatever I came up with was delicious, but it does look like it's lacking the topping described in the earlier three nuns.
It'd be great to have someone remake the exact original from those recipes.
I relish the idea of someone resurrecting the old 3 Nuns tobacco using this recipe, but I would prefer it to be someone other than Mac Baren, their tobacco prices are to high. Maybe the Standard Tobacco guys could work something out with Russ O.
"Whatever I came up with was delicious,..."
You do realize now Beast that everyone who has read all of this are now salivating and I think you should be a gentleman and do the honourable thing and post us all a good sized sampler of what you concocted :
:
Regards,
Jay.
You do realize now Beast that everyone who has read all of this are now salivating and I think you should be a gentleman and do the honourable thing and post us all a good sized sampler of what you concocted :
:Regards,
Jay.
Oh, I have forgotten that I was going to try this myself. I have the Deluxe Curly Cut and some Perique at my disposal. I'll be whipping something up real soon. The only problem is I order the Curly Cut from Mars Cigars and the blend came WAY too dry, so I've since re-hydrated it but I know there is some flavor lost once it dries out.
Let us know how it goes! Like I said, I'm fairly certain that what I'm came up with was probably a far cry from the original three nuns, but it was delicious nonetheless.
An interesting quest, for sure. Since seasonal crops of tobacco, and sources from different areas and soils, and other variables play into tobacco leaf from year to year, and decade to decade, the probability of producing C.S. Lewis's blend as he knew it seems remote, but that doesn't mean you can't discover wonderful things along the way. For all we know, what you blend or mix might be ... much better. Although, I know, in a way we'd hate to think so.
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