Incense Cones: Tutorial

I recently discovered the simple process of making incense cones, which gives me another way to use our abundance of Western Sage. They burn slowly and smell heavenly.

To make incense sticks, cones, molds, or trails, you first must begin with a finely powdered incense mixture called Makko.

Ingredients Needed:

Makko powder (approximately  60-70%)

Incense Resin (I used dried sage but plan on trying pine tree bark in my next batch), ground into a fine powder

Directions:

1. Grind each of your incense ingredients into a fine powder.

2. Sift your powder through a flour sifter, and combine all ingredients into a bowl.

3. Add Makko Powder, mix.

4. Add warm water, a little at a time. Knead your mixture as you work, creating a thick paste.

5. Continue to knead. You should be able to make roll your dough into a ball. Slowly add more water if the dough is too dry but do so very carefully because too much water quickly makes the mix too soupy and unworkable. Continue to knead.

6. Let dough sit overnight with a damp, covered with a damp towel.

7. Knead to dough again, adding more water if necessary.

8. Begin to shape your dough into cones. If  you like, you can create mini molds with paper.

9. Dry the cones by standing them up on a wax-paper covered board. Place the whole thing in a paper bag and scrunch closed. As soon as the outside of the cones are dry you can turn them on their sides to dry the bottom and inside. Check and turn several times daily.

Note: an added bonus of working with makko is that if your sticks, cones, or molds don’t burn well for any reason, you can simply grind it all back into powder again, adjust, test, wet, knead, form, dry, burn and enjoy – no waste!

Have Fun!