[TheForge] Maple syrup

[marilyn traber 011221]

> So my question to all of you out there that have made maple syrup or 
> know how to do it, how do you do it?  I mean, seems like the use of our
> burners (modified forge turned on end) is a great way to produce a 
> lot of heat.
> 
> Thanks,
> Jeff In Phoenix

Yeah, I made it as a kid.

As was mentioned, you need to have the right kind of maple trees for the sap, 
sugar maples, and you need to live in an srea with distinct seasons, because 
the right time to get the sap, spring time, when the roots are sending the 
sugary sap up the tree to feed the leaves, etc, is important. It's also 
important to be careful about how many taps you put on a tree- you don't tap 
trees under a foot in diameter, from a foot to about 2 ft, only one tap, etc.

Once you have the sap, as you know, you need to boil it down, as was 
mentioned, in flat pans. However, you need to be very careful not to let it 
boil over- it needs to be at a steady simmer, not a rolling boil, or it will 
boil over.

The reason for the flat pans, as your friend discovered, is efficiency, but 
you CAN boil it in anything that will hold water- it just takes longer. 
Usually the pans are about 4-6 inches deep, about a square yard in area (for 
home sypuping), and the sap itself is usually no more than 2-4 inches deep- 
shallower, you're likely to burn it, deeper is less efficient.

One thing a lot of home syrupers do is hook pans together with a siphon, and 
only add sap to the first pan- that way, once you have the series started, 
you can add sap to one end, and dip syrup out of the other end. Also, the 
pans tend to have baffles in them, so that if one tilts a bit, you don't get 
a tsunami of boiling syrup and sap splashing all over you, the fire, and 
everything else. From the top, looks sorta like this, if you can read this 
diagram:

 __________________________________________________________
|                                                          |
|______________________________________________________    |
|                                                          |
|    ______________________________________________________|
|                 First Pan                                |
|______________________________________________________    |
|                                                          |
|    ______________________________________________________|
|                                                          |
|___________________________________________________0______|
|                                                   0      |
|______________________________________________________    |
|                                                          |
|    ______________________________________________________|
|                                                          |
|______________________________________________________    |
|                  Second Pan                              |
|    ______________________________________________________|
|                                                          |
|______________________________________________________    |
|                                                          |
|__________________________________________________________|

The 0 is where the siphon would be.

As far as burners, I've seen the commercial set ups with long burners, rather 
like the gas burners under a gas bbq grill, for even heating, but usually the 
back yard syruper will simply make a wood fire of some sort- we used to buy 
slabs from the local lumber yard.

It's not something you can set up and walk away from for more that 10 or 15 
minutes. You really need to keep a fairly constant eye on things, making sure 
the fire stays up and the sap/syrup doesn't boil dry (good way to burn your 
pan up) or boil over (good way to make a Hel of a mess).

A couple of tips:

Rubbing butter on the edges of the pan will help prevent it from boiling 
over, although if you're REALLY neglectful, nothing will ;-0

And, the chilled sap is a nice drink by itself- rather like ice water with 
just a hint of sweetness.

Help any?

Phlip