My first try at shredding & "stoving" the Lemon Virginia. I cut the leaf into ribbon right out of the bag w/o adding distilled or any other water. I "stoved" it in a high quality large clean teflon skillet, at very low temperature first, but then increased the gas flame as I did not see much change in several minutes. I continuously moved the ribbon around gently. It began to smoke and it wasn't steam. It even smelled burned, and doesn't smoke very well, mixed 1:3 w/ McClelland 5100 Red Cake
I am thinking maybe the cut ribbon needs first to be well hydrated, so that steam is involved in blackening it ? to create as written on the McCl Aurora label, "rich, deeply aromatic Black Stoved Lemon Virginia."
Another thought I had was to hydrate the ribbon well, spread out maybe 1/2 inch deep and then place a flat object on top, with weight and just let that "cook" undisturbed under low heat?
What are your thoughts?



