Maple Syrup

[Sidevalve45]

Hello,
I've been thinking about gearing up for the coming maple syrup season and I realized I didn't post anything about it last season or at least I don't think I did. Anyway I was looking for another hobby and thought tapping my maple trees might be fun. That and that time between winter and spring sucks anyway so I thought it would make the time go by quicker. We ended up making about 2 1/2 gallons of syrup our first season using a turkey fryer for a burner and also ran a Coleman cook stove. I burned five twenty pound LP tanks and two gallons of white gas......I'd have to sell it for $5.00 a tablespoon to come out even. Keeps me out of the bar I guess.

Thanks for looking
Sidevalve45

 

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[austin]

I have been wanting to make corn fritters and I always put syrup on them. Your syrup would be over the top. Great hobby you have there...

 

[tamrock]

Good job!...I'm a maple sugar candy addict. Can you make that stuff also?

 

[Sidevalve45]

Hello,
Last year was our first attempt at making syrup and I hadn't thought about making candy. I was too busy just
trying to keep from burning the stuff. Maybe after we've made a few more batches of syrup.

Sidevalve45

 

[flyadive]

I would burn wood instead of using gas. The wood won't cost you anything except your time gathering.

 

[tamrock]

Hello,
Last year was our first attempt at making syrup and I hadn't thought about making candy. I was too busy just
trying to keep from burning the stuff. Maybe after we've made a few more batches of syrup.

Sidevalve45

I looked it up and it does look like you'd need some special equipment to be making the candy for sure. I guess if I wanted some maple candy I can just get it on line like everything else. Still it ain't cheap. A quick look at the prices plus postage on line tells me each piece of candy will cost me an average of around a $1.08 for each 9.4 gram piece of candy. If you buy by the pound your can get a piece of candy for around 95 cents each.

 

[Silver Searcher]

On pancakes, or the morning porridge...Hmmm.

SS

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

Great stuff man! Pardon my ignorance on the subject. But how long can Maple Syrup last being stored properly?

 

[Sidevalve45]

We used a canning process like you'd use on vegetables where you boil the jars, lids and rings then fill them with the hot syrup, put the lids on just snug and boil the filled jars for twenty minutes. After that you set them out to cool with a towel over them. If done properly the lids will have a convex or slightly sunken in appearance which means they are sealed under a vacuum. I think it could last for several years this way unless it got sugary.

Thanks for your interest,

Sidevalve45

 

[jeff of pa]

$5.00 a tablespoon? can I smoke it ?

Like others I like it on Pancakes.

I grew up using Mrs. butterworths artificial Crap, but once I tasted the real sweet thing
Mrs. butterworths, tasted bitter & grose. stuff is expensive though.
I only buy it once a year now & have pancakes maybe 3 times a year

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

$5.00 a tablespoon? can I smoke it ?

Like others I like it on Pancakes.

I grew up using Mrs. butterworths artificial Crap, but once I tasted the real sweet thing
Mrs. butterworths, tasted bitter & grose. stuff is expensive though.
I only buy it once a year now & have pancakes maybe 3 times a year

Want to halves on a Cup? lol



Really Thou, thanks for sharing this. I'm glad I came across this post. I Might be able to find much Maple here in Texas, but this sparked something im going to be looking into further

 

[Gold Maven]

Brings back a lot of good memories, my Dad and I used to boil.

Started out with a flat pan over wood, then a small evaporater about 2 1/2' x 6' wood fired.

Natural gas is the way to go if you have your own well, wood can be nearly free. We used to burn oak wheel barrow handle cut offs for about $35/ single axle dump truck load. You would load that firebox up, she would roar for about 6 or 7 minutes, then load her up again, hour after hour.

One trick I remember, some times the sap will foam up and boil over your pan, just keep a some liquid coffee creamer handy, a couple drops into the foam, and she will settle right back down.

The first runs are always the best, as the season progresses the quality drops, and the syrup gets darker.

Maple Sugar candy is tricky, I love it, but the times I tried to make it, I would always end up with rock hard candy.

Good Luck.

 

[BigWaveDave]

Whenever my wife and I head to north to her folks, we make it a priority to get local maple syrup..that and local raw honey too.

 

[MiamiFox]

What is the process for making it? Do you just boil the sap?

 

[Sidevalve45]

Hello,
For starters I am no expert. But the idea is to use a pan with a lot of surface area and cook the sap down with a vigorous or rolling boil. The idea is to evaporate the water off quickly. Once the sap starts to thicken a bit you have to be very careful not to burn it....I've been lucky so far but I've heard that if it's burnt bad enough you may as well throw away the pan. Since I'm dealing with small quantities I transfer the almost syrup to a large sauce pan and continue cooking it down. At that point I start checking the syrups specific gravity with a hydrometer to get the viscosity just right. Some hydrometers are made just for making maple syrup. I believe you are basically measuring the sugar content with the device. The ratio is about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup but that can vary by the kind of maple trees you are tapping and can vary from year to year. A sugar maple may have 4% sugar content right out the tree where a silver maple may only have 1%. You can see why someone who is tapping a 1000 trees or more wants to boil as efficiently as possible. I find it an interesting hobby and I enjoy giving it to my friends as much as putting it on my own pancakes maybe more.

Thanks for looking
Sidevalve45

 

[MiamiFox]

Thanks for posting the process. 40 to 1 seems like a big ratio but the outcome is sweet. No pun intended.