Now THAT Looks Like Syrup....

Our new set up has produced much better results, for which we are quite pleased. The new brew kettle has almost solved the problem entirely. Instead of dumping boiling sap into another pot (much like you might drain pasta) to reduce further on the stovetop, we have been doing this.


Now, that catches a lot of the sugar sand as it has hopefully settled below the level of spigot. I believe we would have more settlement if we were to wait a period before siphoning it off, but we have so much sap to reduce it just seems like it would be taking too much non-boiling time. So, we have been filtering it as it comes out. Like this:


You can see how much gunk is caught by the filter. Which translates into less gunk for me to skim off the top of the syrup when it is just about finished/finished.


This is what it looks like in between the boilings: from raw sap to reduced sap before we put it on the stovetop in the kitchen to finish it off.


You can see a difference in the appearance: The first picture is our very first, sedimenty, batch. Cloudy, opaque and sedimenty. The second is our second batch that produced much better syrup. It is boiling clear, you can see the boil bubbles as they come up fromt he bottom of the pot, it just looks like boiling syrup, not boiling syrupy milky milk.



Which translates into this: first batch of syrup on the right, second batch on the left.


Look at the clarity! I feel like I am becoming a syrup nerd.......quite honestly, I don't even love maple syrup. There I said it. For me, I just wanted to learn how to do it and just try making it. I rarely order pancakes at a restaurant, preferring to go for the eggs and toast or omelet. I don't crave pancakes with loads of maple syrup. I detest maple flavoring, I never pick maple log doughnuts, I don't like maple in my breakfast sausages.....why am I doing this again? It is just one more thing in the learning hopper from which to draw. You know, if I am ever stranded on a deserted island and need something to do with my time.


It is just so pretty. So pretty.


Just to keep us humble, our third batch has some cloudiness, but not like the first. That's okay, as we will have to do something with the first batch anyway, what's one more jar??


I will share this with you: In the past, when people gave me homemade food gifts, my thoughts were, "Mm. Nice.", and then proceeded to mentally put my appreciation along with the jar and forget about it. After having made blueberry jam last summer, canned pesto, roasted the red peppers and dried the peppers, "helping" with the meat smoking, and now this syrup business....I don't think I can do that any more. I know how much work goes into these things. I am obliged to appreciate the fact that someone is sharing with me something that is precious to them as a result of the work and time that has gone into it. Unless, of course, it is like canned mushrooms. That's my line in the sand. Ew.