Delicious liquid gold!
May 25, 2017 6:05 AM Subscribe
How to make Maple Syrup (slyt) I really enjoyed this video of a modern maple syrup farm. Lot's of tubes and filters and pumps.
I learnt that Maple Sap is clear when it comes out the trees and that it takes about 40 litres of sap to make 1 litre of syrup.
I learnt that Maple Sap is clear when it comes out the trees and that it takes about 40 litres of sap to make 1 litre of syrup.
We go through a little more than a gallon of good syrup every year in our household, and I generally order it all at once to save on shipping. Evidently this year I ordered too early, because the sugar shack we order from told us that the extra dark stuff wouldn't be available until the end of the sugaring season. Instead of just taking the early-season stuff, I told them to hold the order, just send it when it was ready.
So it was a really amazing surprise when we got a big box of syrup in the mail sometime last month.
And yeah, this setup is much higher-tech than the smaller operations I've seen in Vermont.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:34 AM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
So it was a really amazing surprise when we got a big box of syrup in the mail sometime last month.
And yeah, this setup is much higher-tech than the smaller operations I've seen in Vermont.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:34 AM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
(feels a bit odd to watch a "how it's made" that's longer than 5 minutes and with no inexpensive graphics, over-enthusiastic and/or slightly annoying off-screen narrators, or bad puns...)
posted by effbot at 6:35 AM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by effbot at 6:35 AM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yeah, that is a LOT more modern than the operation I helped out with occasionally twenty years ago. The nostalgic part of my brain says there is still something to be said for the horse drawn wagons, early farmhand breakfasts and drinking sap straight from the bucket. My grown up adult brain, though, is glad for all of the stainless steel and purification hardware to make a safer, but still delicious, consumable product.
posted by Barticus at 6:55 AM on May 25, 2017
posted by Barticus at 6:55 AM on May 25, 2017
(They did have a few quadcopter shots. I continue to be amazed that shots that once would have been expensive are now not)
posted by zippy at 7:04 AM on May 25, 2017
posted by zippy at 7:04 AM on May 25, 2017
I made some homemade syrup from my mom's trees a few years ago. It was the best syrup I've ever tasted, and I'm a syrup snob. But the cooking down took forever. You do have to be patient.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:13 AM on May 25, 2017
posted by kevinbelt at 7:13 AM on May 25, 2017
Canada (and I think the US) has switched to a newer grading system is a bit different than the older A, B, C, and has four major grades: golden, amber, dark (robust) and dark (strong). Most of what you'll see sold as syrup is the first two, golden and amber. The darker ones are usually made into candies and the like. They all have the same sugar content more or less. The colour comes from the time of the run the sap comes from. The lighter grades usually happen in the earlier part of the season when sap just starts to run, the darker ones, later.
posted by bonehead at 7:22 AM on May 25, 2017
posted by bonehead at 7:22 AM on May 25, 2017
Yes, the US has switched to the new grading system, too. (All of the US, including Vermont, which used to have it's own system.) So things are pretty standardized now.
If you happen to have a lot of good, dark syrup lying around, I highly suggest trying to make it into mead. I make gallons of the stuff every year, and my oh my is it the easiest and tastiest wine there is. Despite sugaring season being in the early spring, nothing makes me feel like it's autumn more than a glass of maple wine on a cool evening. (And I do mean a lot—it takes about a gallon of syrup to make three gallons of wine. MeMail me if you are interested in trying this—I've got a lot of resources and information on the topic, but don't want to violate MeFi's rules about self-linking!)
Dark syrup is also my preference for baking and as a honey substitute. (I use it heavily because I'm allergic to honey.)
I can also confirm that, for whatever reason, homemade syrup tastes a lot better than even syrup from a local farm. I don't know why this is, since the process is the same. (Maybe small batches cook more evenly than large batches do?)
A lot of places in the Northeast are selling maple sap (like, actual maple sap that hasn't been boiled down to syrup) as a hipster-ish beverage, like coconut water. I think maple sap tastes like water (which it pretty much is), so I can't say I'm a fan.
All told, we go through probably 10 gallons of syrup a year. Luckily it's really cheap here in New York :)
posted by ragtag at 7:57 AM on May 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
If you happen to have a lot of good, dark syrup lying around, I highly suggest trying to make it into mead. I make gallons of the stuff every year, and my oh my is it the easiest and tastiest wine there is. Despite sugaring season being in the early spring, nothing makes me feel like it's autumn more than a glass of maple wine on a cool evening. (And I do mean a lot—it takes about a gallon of syrup to make three gallons of wine. MeMail me if you are interested in trying this—I've got a lot of resources and information on the topic, but don't want to violate MeFi's rules about self-linking!)
Dark syrup is also my preference for baking and as a honey substitute. (I use it heavily because I'm allergic to honey.)
I can also confirm that, for whatever reason, homemade syrup tastes a lot better than even syrup from a local farm. I don't know why this is, since the process is the same. (Maybe small batches cook more evenly than large batches do?)
A lot of places in the Northeast are selling maple sap (like, actual maple sap that hasn't been boiled down to syrup) as a hipster-ish beverage, like coconut water. I think maple sap tastes like water (which it pretty much is), so I can't say I'm a fan.
All told, we go through probably 10 gallons of syrup a year. Luckily it's really cheap here in New York :)
posted by ragtag at 7:57 AM on May 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
Canada (and I think the US) has switched to a newer grading system is a bit different than the older A, B, C, and has four major grades: golden, amber, dark (robust) and dark (strong).
There was a campaign by the International Maple Syrup Institute to standardise maple syrup grades internationally. Canada started the switchover at the end of 2014, with provinces switching over gradually. Quebec domestic producers still have until the end of this year to change to the new labelling. The new USDA version of the grades came out in 2015, with NH and NY completing transition in 2016, and VT at the start of 2017.
What this means for me is I no longer have to advocate the NY Maple grading system on MeFi.
You're still in my heart,
posted by zamboni at 8:09 AM on May 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
There was a campaign by the International Maple Syrup Institute to standardise maple syrup grades internationally. Canada started the switchover at the end of 2014, with provinces switching over gradually. Quebec domestic producers still have until the end of this year to change to the new labelling. The new USDA version of the grades came out in 2015, with NH and NY completing transition in 2016, and VT at the start of 2017.
What this means for me is I no longer have to advocate the NY Maple grading system on MeFi.
You're still in my heart,
Extra Dark for Cooking.
posted by zamboni at 8:09 AM on May 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
It does taste like water! You'd have to boil it down at least a little to get some flavor. 40:1 is too diluted to taste anything, but maybe 20:1 or 15:1 would be good. I didn't really taste it at that stage because it was boiling hot, but I could see it.
posted by kevinbelt at 8:09 AM on May 25, 2017
posted by kevinbelt at 8:09 AM on May 25, 2017
Luckily it's really cheap here in New York :)
How far upstate do I have to go to find cheap syrup? I can't even find very dark / strong locally, and it's like $65 a gallon, shipped, by mail.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:14 AM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
How far upstate do I have to go to find cheap syrup? I can't even find very dark / strong locally, and it's like $65 a gallon, shipped, by mail.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:14 AM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
A lot of places in the Northeast are selling maple sap (like, actual maple sap that hasn't been boiled down to syrup) as a hipster-ish beverage, like coconut water. I think maple sap tastes like water (which it pretty much is), so I can't say I'm a fan.
It's a traditional practice in South Korea, but as more of a health thing.
It's a traditional practice in South Korea, but as more of a health thing.
“The right way is to drink an entire mal” — 20 liters, or about 5 gallons — “at once,” said Yeo Manyong, a 72-year-old farmer in Hadong. “That’s what we do. And that’s what gorosoe lovers from the outside do when they visit our village.”posted by zamboni at 8:20 AM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
But how can you drink the equivalent of more than 50 beer cans of sap at one go?
“You and your family or friends get yourselves a room with a heated floor,” Mr. Yeo said, taking a break under a maple tree in Hadong, 180 miles south of Seoul. “You keep drinking while, let’s say, playing cards. Salty snacks like dried fish help because they make you thirsty. The idea is to sweat out all the bad stuff and replace it with sap.”
"The idea is to sweat out all the bad stuff and replace it with sap."
Do you want ents? Because this is how you get ents.
i want ents i need to find me 50 gallons of sap ASAP
posted by curious nu at 8:27 AM on May 25, 2017 [8 favorites]
Do you want ents? Because this is how you get ents.
i want ents i need to find me 50 gallons of sap ASAP
posted by curious nu at 8:27 AM on May 25, 2017 [8 favorites]
How far upstate do I have to go to find cheap syrup?
I can tell you that retail price at a health food store Albany is $50/gal and you can get this down a bit more (maybe as low as $40/gal, depending) if you go to into the hinterlands a little further and buy in bulk from a farm.
But the trick, as always, is to make friends with the farmers themselves. (I'll grant that this isn't simple if you're not a local.) If you live up here and have sugarbushes nearby, there isn't really a floor to the price. (I've gotten a gallon of syrup in exchange for a little labor before, and several folks have let me tap their trees for free.)
posted by ragtag at 9:10 AM on May 25, 2017
I can tell you that retail price at a health food store Albany is $50/gal and you can get this down a bit more (maybe as low as $40/gal, depending) if you go to into the hinterlands a little further and buy in bulk from a farm.
But the trick, as always, is to make friends with the farmers themselves. (I'll grant that this isn't simple if you're not a local.) If you live up here and have sugarbushes nearby, there isn't really a floor to the price. (I've gotten a gallon of syrup in exchange for a little labor before, and several folks have let me tap their trees for free.)
posted by ragtag at 9:10 AM on May 25, 2017
This video almost feels like an advertisement for Équipements Lapierre. It's a really nice setup, especially for a small operation (4000 trees isn't much). I guess they must offer tours of the facility.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 9:45 AM on May 25, 2017
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 9:45 AM on May 25, 2017
Pfft that is nothing on my super high end 3 bucket 2 tree setup.
My dad, who has been making syrup for 30 years, gave me the buckets a few years ago because he noticed I had two maples on my front lawn. Red maples, not sugar, so lower content / more watery sap but they start running fairly early and bud late, so I get a lot of sap. Last two years I ended up with ~80L, which boiled down to about 1L of decent syrup. It's quite nice to eat pancakes with syrup that came out of your own tree. Guests are often surprised that the ingredients in the syrup are sap and heat.
There is a downside though, in that it's time consuming and the fact that I went through like 3+ tanks of propane to boil it all down to the point I could bring it in and finish it on the stove...
posted by caution live frogs at 10:21 AM on May 25, 2017
My dad, who has been making syrup for 30 years, gave me the buckets a few years ago because he noticed I had two maples on my front lawn. Red maples, not sugar, so lower content / more watery sap but they start running fairly early and bud late, so I get a lot of sap. Last two years I ended up with ~80L, which boiled down to about 1L of decent syrup. It's quite nice to eat pancakes with syrup that came out of your own tree. Guests are often surprised that the ingredients in the syrup are sap and heat.
There is a downside though, in that it's time consuming and the fact that I went through like 3+ tanks of propane to boil it all down to the point I could bring it in and finish it on the stove...
posted by caution live frogs at 10:21 AM on May 25, 2017
I can *smell* the maple syrup in the air just thinking about it.
Elmira Ontario has a maple syrup festival every year, and when you go they will take you to a random local sugar bush/farm where you can see the tubes and the old 'traditional' tap & bucket system, and see the sap being boiled down, and taste the fresh sap if you like (its very, very, very slightly sweet water), and sample different grades to find which you like the best (I'm an amber girl; my grandfather liked the extra light stuff), and take home a liter or so right from the farm. There is often also kettle corn popping over a fire, and you can get it plain or maple.
It smells amazing.
posted by sandraregina at 10:28 AM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Elmira Ontario has a maple syrup festival every year, and when you go they will take you to a random local sugar bush/farm where you can see the tubes and the old 'traditional' tap & bucket system, and see the sap being boiled down, and taste the fresh sap if you like (its very, very, very slightly sweet water), and sample different grades to find which you like the best (I'm an amber girl; my grandfather liked the extra light stuff), and take home a liter or so right from the farm. There is often also kettle corn popping over a fire, and you can get it plain or maple.
It smells amazing.
posted by sandraregina at 10:28 AM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
It does taste like water! You'd have to boil it down at least a little to get some flavor. 40:1 is too diluted to taste anything, but maybe 20:1 or 15:1 would be good. I didn't really taste it at that stage because it was boiling hot, but I could see it.
No, see, it's homeopathic maple syrup. You have to dilute it MORE.
When I was young my mom read somewhere about birch syrup, so we tapped our birch trees. We managed to get about ten gallons of sap from our trees which we started to boil. And boil. And boilandboilandboil. By the time we got it boiled down to a usable syrup the house was like a sauna and the kitchen wallpaper was peeling. As I recall we got less than a quart, but it was delicious and less sweet than maple.
posted by Floydd at 2:01 PM on May 25, 2017
No, see, it's homeopathic maple syrup. You have to dilute it MORE.
When I was young my mom read somewhere about birch syrup, so we tapped our birch trees. We managed to get about ten gallons of sap from our trees which we started to boil. And boil. And boilandboilandboil. By the time we got it boiled down to a usable syrup the house was like a sauna and the kitchen wallpaper was peeling. As I recall we got less than a quart, but it was delicious and less sweet than maple.
posted by Floydd at 2:01 PM on May 25, 2017
I can't believe how clean everything was!
Sometimes when I'm in the store it seems like maple syrup costs too much. Now I don't think it costs enough!
posted by funkiwan at 3:01 PM on May 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
Sometimes when I'm in the store it seems like maple syrup costs too much. Now I don't think it costs enough!
posted by funkiwan at 3:01 PM on May 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
I guess they must offer tours of the facility.
I've just seen the storefront as they're not that far from my house. They're not a full on cabane à sucre. But I've never stopped either.
posted by bonehead at 3:33 PM on May 25, 2017
I've just seen the storefront as they're not that far from my house. They're not a full on cabane à sucre. But I've never stopped either.
posted by bonehead at 3:33 PM on May 25, 2017
How far upstate do I have to go to find cheap syrup?
You go to Elmira, Ontario and buy it from Mennonites along the side of the road in the spring.
So pretty far upstate I suppose.
posted by GuyZero at 3:59 PM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
You go to Elmira, Ontario and buy it from Mennonites along the side of the road in the spring.
So pretty far upstate I suppose.
posted by GuyZero at 3:59 PM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Man, this just brings a whole pile of memories spilling out.
My neighbors had a saphouse growing up in NH, and when I was a teenager I used to go down and help out when they were boiling. Usually I ended up helping keep the fire in the evaporator stoked; the nominal goal is to keep that boil going, but we were always hoping to get it hot enough to get flames licking out of the chimney. I had a scar on my arm for many years from hitting the edge of that thing. Got steamy as heck in there, sometimes you'd go out and stand in the snow to cool off.
Sometimes I'd help out with collection too, if I was around---there was maybe a dozen buckets on isolated trees, but mostly it was gravity-fed lines to central collection drums. To pull it from there, there'd be 55-gallon drums secured in a pickup or on a wagon behind a tractor, and we'd run a pump out of the collection drum to transport drums, and then pump it back out later to a tank at the saphouse. Never seen anything like that vacuum system, but then this was not a big commercial operation.
Of course then I left town for college and never came back. I go back home maybe once a year for Christmas (wrong season for sap, should be doing Feb/Mar). While southern California's nice and sunny and doesn't get two feet of snow every week for three months, sometimes all the dry scrubby mountains just look off, somehow. Those aerial shots of the forest and low shots of the sugarbush with the sap lines just look right, and maybe are making me miss it a bit.
My neighbors still give me syrup for Christmas, which is awfully damn nice and I treasure that stuff.
posted by Upton O'Good at 9:24 PM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
My neighbors had a saphouse growing up in NH, and when I was a teenager I used to go down and help out when they were boiling. Usually I ended up helping keep the fire in the evaporator stoked; the nominal goal is to keep that boil going, but we were always hoping to get it hot enough to get flames licking out of the chimney. I had a scar on my arm for many years from hitting the edge of that thing. Got steamy as heck in there, sometimes you'd go out and stand in the snow to cool off.
Sometimes I'd help out with collection too, if I was around---there was maybe a dozen buckets on isolated trees, but mostly it was gravity-fed lines to central collection drums. To pull it from there, there'd be 55-gallon drums secured in a pickup or on a wagon behind a tractor, and we'd run a pump out of the collection drum to transport drums, and then pump it back out later to a tank at the saphouse. Never seen anything like that vacuum system, but then this was not a big commercial operation.
Of course then I left town for college and never came back. I go back home maybe once a year for Christmas (wrong season for sap, should be doing Feb/Mar). While southern California's nice and sunny and doesn't get two feet of snow every week for three months, sometimes all the dry scrubby mountains just look off, somehow. Those aerial shots of the forest and low shots of the sugarbush with the sap lines just look right, and maybe are making me miss it a bit.
My neighbors still give me syrup for Christmas, which is awfully damn nice and I treasure that stuff.
posted by Upton O'Good at 9:24 PM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
I love the part about using the water by product for a superior clean! It's the little things in life....
posted by double bubble at 4:49 AM on May 26, 2017
posted by double bubble at 4:49 AM on May 26, 2017
They forgot to mention the other reason (other than the cosmetic reasons) that they get rid of the "sand" (that I've always called nitre) from the syrup. It is a very potent laxative. I think the only reason it isn't sold as an all natural and effective laxative is that it is probably a bit too effective. I was sugaring once and someone asked why the nitre was just being thrown away because although it was gritty it still tasted pretty good. He had eaten about three fingerswipes of the stuff and the owner of the shack just told him to get to the house as fast as possible and make sure the bathroom is free. The guy did make it, but he said it was close and he had never been so scared while sitting on a toilet before. He thought that he might actually die from pooping too much and turning inside out or something. So yes be sure to remove the nitre from your syrup.
I'm also surprised that they used hydrometers and not the usual method of looking at how it falls from a flat spoon. It should fall off in sheets and not drops when the syrup is ready. I would think that the hydrometer would be too sensitive to temperature effects (remember it is at 100+C when it comes off the biol) to give a stable reading as it is cooling. They must wait until it has cooled to a stable temperature before taking a reading, but then if it is too low they would need to heat it all back up again. I'm not used to using such fancy equipment to make syrup though. I'm more used throwing 4 foot lengths of wood under the burner every 10 minutes and collecting the sap from buckets and pouring it into a tank that is being pulled behind a tractor.
posted by koolkat at 5:31 AM on May 26, 2017 [4 favorites]
I'm also surprised that they used hydrometers and not the usual method of looking at how it falls from a flat spoon. It should fall off in sheets and not drops when the syrup is ready. I would think that the hydrometer would be too sensitive to temperature effects (remember it is at 100+C when it comes off the biol) to give a stable reading as it is cooling. They must wait until it has cooled to a stable temperature before taking a reading, but then if it is too low they would need to heat it all back up again. I'm not used to using such fancy equipment to make syrup though. I'm more used throwing 4 foot lengths of wood under the burner every 10 minutes and collecting the sap from buckets and pouring it into a tank that is being pulled behind a tractor.
posted by koolkat at 5:31 AM on May 26, 2017 [4 favorites]
would think that the hydrometer would be too sensitive to temperature effects (remember it is at 100+C when it comes off the biol) to give a stable reading as it is cooling. They must wait until it has cooled to a stable temperature before taking a reading, but then if it is too low they would need to heat it all back up again
This is why you use a syrup hydrometer with Cold Test and Hot Test calibrations. Cold Test is correct density at 60°F, Hot Test is correct density at 211°F, the average temp of boiling syrup once you get it into the test cylinder. I'm willing to spend $20 to avoid mucking around with subjective tests with spoons or whatever. Refractometers, however, are little too spendy for our backyard setup.
posted by zamboni at 8:08 AM on May 26, 2017
This is why you use a syrup hydrometer with Cold Test and Hot Test calibrations. Cold Test is correct density at 60°F, Hot Test is correct density at 211°F, the average temp of boiling syrup once you get it into the test cylinder. I'm willing to spend $20 to avoid mucking around with subjective tests with spoons or whatever. Refractometers, however, are little too spendy for our backyard setup.
posted by zamboni at 8:08 AM on May 26, 2017
The Silver Maple Tree
Will Fitzgerald, for Bess Fitzgerald
May, 2007
As I sit down in our pleasant garden
Beauty and joy all around I see,
But naught so fair and full of glory
As my delight in the silver maple tree.
The joys of spring are well regarded
The grass that grows, the flowers so fine
The maple sap flows clear as water
And yields a taste finer than wine.
The summer's sun is unrelenting--
Withers the flower and the grass's blade.
But I am cool and well-protected
As I stand in the maple's shade.
The maple's leaves turn multicolored,
Blazing her beauty in the fall.
The falling leaves portend of winter,
Yet spring will come; I fear not at all.
For fifty years you have been living,
For thirty years you have loved me,
You are my life, my silver maple,
And I delight in the silver maple tree.
posted by willF at 2:44 PM on May 26, 2017
Will Fitzgerald, for Bess Fitzgerald
May, 2007
As I sit down in our pleasant garden
Beauty and joy all around I see,
But naught so fair and full of glory
As my delight in the silver maple tree.
The joys of spring are well regarded
The grass that grows, the flowers so fine
The maple sap flows clear as water
And yields a taste finer than wine.
The summer's sun is unrelenting--
Withers the flower and the grass's blade.
But I am cool and well-protected
As I stand in the maple's shade.
The maple's leaves turn multicolored,
Blazing her beauty in the fall.
The falling leaves portend of winter,
Yet spring will come; I fear not at all.
For fifty years you have been living,
For thirty years you have loved me,
You are my life, my silver maple,
And I delight in the silver maple tree.
posted by willF at 2:44 PM on May 26, 2017
Cool to learn that they've started using reverse osmosis before boiling the sap. Every time I hear about maple syrup I wonder about the energy efficiency of boiling off that much water.
posted by d. z. wang at 3:45 PM on May 28, 2017
posted by d. z. wang at 3:45 PM on May 28, 2017
At any mention of maple trees, I'm reminded of the NPR story from, wow is it 2005? A nice short video from 2012 offers a recap.
posted by ElGuapo at 10:10 AM on June 1, 2017
posted by ElGuapo at 10:10 AM on June 1, 2017
I wonder about the energy efficiency of boiling off that much water.
At least for the sugar shack that I am most familiar with the energy is pretty carbon neutral. They have enough land so with a carefully managed sugarbush at a woodlot they only burn wood that they have grown and chopped down. It grows back by the time it would need chopping down again. IIRC they even heat their house with their own wood so while it is horribly inefficient it at least isn't carbon inefficient as they are essentially burning condensed carbon dioxide anyways.
posted by koolkat at 5:58 AM on June 2, 2017
At least for the sugar shack that I am most familiar with the energy is pretty carbon neutral. They have enough land so with a carefully managed sugarbush at a woodlot they only burn wood that they have grown and chopped down. It grows back by the time it would need chopping down again. IIRC they even heat their house with their own wood so while it is horribly inefficient it at least isn't carbon inefficient as they are essentially burning condensed carbon dioxide anyways.
posted by koolkat at 5:58 AM on June 2, 2017
« Older When Corporations Make History | I like mine with a side of sliced choma and some... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
That's a kinda high end setup. Around here there's a wide range of setups, from fairly expensive to 1-pan operations in the driveway, even lower tech than this.
Or you can use a file cabinet.
I'm into Grade B.
posted by MtDewd at 6:32 AM on May 25, 2017