How To Make Incense Without Makko

The art of incense blending has thousands of years of history in China. The first known Chinese incense recipes book, called Blended Incense Recipes 《和香方》, was written approximately 2,500 years agone. Over the subsequent centuries, countless recipes were developed and recorded. We have written fairly comprehensively about the art of hand making natural incense sticks previously , so this commodity volition focus on the ingredients and formula of the incense.

Equally Chinese incense use evolved and became ever more than sophisticated, it was introduced to Japan forth with Buddhism in the half-dozen thursday  century (Tang dynasty). Through the Song dynasty (10 th -thirteen th  centuries) and beyond, incense was widely used in both countries, and recipes continued to flow across the ocean from Communist china to Japan. The foundations of Japanese incense (and of other East Asian countries such as Korea and Vietnam) therefore lies in Chinese incense. And when we refer to traditional formulas below, we refer to the collective foundations of all these East Asian incense.

Where do traditional Chinese (and Japanese) incense recipes come up from？

As incense was an integral function of ancient Chinese aristocratic and religious life, incense blends were adult in a multitude of ways. There were blends created by diverse ladies of the palace, literati and mandarins, traditional medicine practitioners, Buddhist institutions, and also incense houses that that kept their own secretive book of recipes.

In the Ming dynasty, approximately 400 years ago, the canonical Chinese incense book was writte: History of Incense or 《香乘》(pronounced Xiang Sheng, "shi-ang sheng").

The author 周嘉胄 (Zhou Wei-Zhou, "cho wei-cho") - a renowned intellectual of the time - spent over 20 years researching and compiling the volume. History of Incenseis a comprehensive guide of everything related to incense, including details of many incense ingredients, their uses, recipes and blends, and importantly many Chinese historical anecdotes and stories related to incense. It includes ancient incense recipes from palaces, temples, and diverse incense houses.

As official recognition of its importance, an edited re-create of this book was compiled into the Purple encyclopedia Consummate Library in Iv Branches of Literature 《四库全书》in the eighteen th  century. Of the 7 copies which were commissioned every bit part of the encyclopedia, four copies survive today, along with some other edited version that was taken to Japan and preserved in the Japanese Waseda University Library (see image below).

History of Incense  offers such an exhaustive insight into incense that it is however considered the "bible" for Chinese incense and incense crafts today. We are also avid students of the book, and its classic recipes class the footing for several products from the Kin Premium Incense Drove .⁣

Traditional Chinese (and Japanese) incense ingredient types

Traditional Chinese and Japanese incense are fabricated from all natural dry ingredients, which belong to the following iv principal categories:

• Woods – eg, sandalwood, Chinese cedar, nanmu (see below section)
• Flowers – eg, rose, osmanthus
• Herbs - eg, rhubarb, citronella
• Resins – eg, frankincense, benzoin

There are a small number of other types of ingredients, such dry out creature parts (eg, musk, shells), or dry out fruit parts (eg, citrus peel), but these are relatively few in numbers compared to the above categories.

Themain ingredients used in Chinese incense through history article has more detailed descriptions of some of the principal Chinese incense ingredients, for those of yous interested in this topic.

The stick incense and cone incense that we commonly use is a combustible blazon of incense, equally it needs to fire to release the scent. As a general rule, incense for burning should be made primarily from wood-based ingredients. These take the almost optimal balance of oil content (for olfactory property) and flammability.  Charcoal is not part of these traditional incense recipes.

Only a quick note here: aloeswood (also known as agarwood, jinko/jinkoh, oud/oudh) is a tricky ingredient to classify. Under many circumstances it acts like a wood-based pulverization, but loftier class aloeswood contains substantial oil/resin, so it tin take on the characteristics of resin and exist difficult to burn down.

What size should the ground incense powders be?

A note hither: we similar to ensure that our powders can pass through an 80 mesh screen sieve (0.18mm/0.007") at minimum, and ideally tin pass through a 100 mesh (0.15mm/0.0049") screen sieve. While powders more fibroid than this can even so exist used to brand incense sticks, nosotros've establish that the clumpier pieces can affect the called-for of the final stick (ie, information technology does not remain lit), and sometimes too results in more brittle sticks.

The incense binder - what is Makko pulverisation and what is information technology made of?

In add-on to the ingredient types listed higher up, all Chinese (or Japanese) style incense sticks too demand a binder. This is a mucilaginous substance that holds all the ingredients together into the final stick shape.

The typical binder used to make Chinese incense is something called Nanmu powder （楠木粉), or Tabu No Ki powder in Japanese. These are nigh commonly known as Makko powder, but we do not discover this a very descriptive name, as that but translates into "incense powder", which could refer to other types of binders. And then we generally use the Chinese word Nanmu to depict what we use.

Nanmu powder or Tabu No Ki powder is a forest based pulverization made from the Machilus thunbergii, also known as ruby-red Manchilus in Chinese, or Japanese Bay tree in English. The powdered wood turns into a glace, adhesive glue when it becomes wet. Usually it has a lite smell when it is in powder form, just the smell recedes significantly a couple of weeks after the incense dries, minimally affecting the intended fragrance of the last incense.

Traditional Chinese recipes actually call for the use of Elm bark powder, known equally Yu bawl powder (榆木粉/榆树皮粉). Unfortunately, the almost desirable type of Elm bark pulverization for incense binding purposes is a pale colored powder, and this type of powder tin be imitated by cheaper wood powders. Then in recent year, the overall quality of Elm bark powders available on the market has deteriorated due to the mixing in of "faux" powders. We therefore prefer to utilize Nanmu pulverisation, equally this is a naturally darker woods pulverization which is difficult to fake, and the quality is much more than stable.

The use of a wood-based binder (vs Xanthan glue, or gum Arabica) is particularly helpful for beginners. Wood helps with the called-for process, as opposed to gum, which hinders the process at certain quantities.

The percentage of binder used in an incense recipe ranges between 10-30% depending on the quality of the powder, and the types of other ingredients in the alloy.

Incense recipe to make incense sticks – a sample structure

Traditional Chinese incense are considered a office of a holistic wellness ritual, and so their blend follow a like construction as Traditional Chinese Medicine. We take simplified this to create the basic recipe structure below. The exact proportions can be tweaked and experimented with from here:

• 60%  base of operations powder/south
• 10% Secondary pulverisation/s (to give the incense its distinctive scent/s)
• 5%  Enhancing or fixative powder/s (to stabilize and enhance the incense)
• 25% Nanmu or Tabu No Ki powder (to bind the ingredients together)

A mixture of ingredients tin be used for whatsoever of the categories above, so this simple structure can in fact likewise become quite sophisticated.

Information technology actually pays to showtime unproblematic, and when in uncertainty, refer to the tips and tricks beneath.

Incense blends: a few tips and tricks for your own recipes

If you're new to making incense, these might exist helpful for you:

• Start simple – use one ingredient for each of the categories
• Australian sandalwood makes a adept default base pulverization
• Some type of herb or flower can exist a secondary powder. These can be common ingredients in your food/tea cabinet, like rosemary, mint, lavender
• An affordable aloeswood makes a adept enhancer
• Remember that incense sticks need to be flammable, so popular resins similar frankincense or myrrh will inhibit flammability if they are added in significant quantities
• As a break away from traditional methods, secondary powders can be substituted with essential oils. Please make sure you lot increase the amount of base of operations powder/s to business relationship for this change so the overall proportions are not disturbed
• The olfactory property of stick incense will evolve over time much like wine. Information technology'due south sometimes worthwhile to go back to a formula you didn't particularly like subsequently a few weeks to smell information technology once again

The principles and recipes share hither tin also be used equally a foundation for making either standard incense cones or backflow cones (which releases downward flowing smoke). If you are interested in making these, delight refer to this article.

Have you tried blending your own diy incense? Please leave a comment beneath if y'all have any thoughts or questions.

Source: https://kinobjects.com/blogs/news/how-to-create-your-own-incense-recipes

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