Re: Maple syrup questions/maple sugar

[Guest guest]

Cheryl,

I just made some maple sugar from maple syrup. It was surprisingly

easy to do on a small scale. I used the recipe from this site:

<http://buffummaple.com/howto.html>

You don't actually need a candy thermometer. When the syrup got close

to 255 F (only 250 on my thermometer) it got thick like cooked

oatmeal. Beating that with an electric hand mixer incorporated air so

that the sugar granulated instead of turning into maple concrete. I

got 7 cups of sugar and 1-1/2 cups of granules & lumps from 1/2 gallon

(8 cups) of syrup. There was also quite a bit of hard stuff I couldn't

get out of the pot or off the spoon. It took about an hour because I

let it heat slowly. The last step went very quickly. I was extremely

glad that I used a large pot. The syrup got very foamy while it was

heating, and at one point I'd guess it was 2-3 times the original

volume of the syrup. Adding butter slowed the foaming at first, but

once it got really hot (over 220 F), adding a little butter didn't do

anything.

Thanks for your info. I think I will use a hot water bath on some of

the syrup, so I don't have to refrigerate it.

All the best,

Jan

> We used to have maple trees and collected the sap, then we boiled it

down outside

> in a vat over a camp fire, until it reached 108° and strained it

into canning jars.

> Then they processed the canning jars in a hot water bath.

>

> I'm not sure that you could boil it down enough to make maple sugar.

>

>

> Cheryl C-Ky

[Guest guest]

Cheryl,

I just made some maple sugar from maple syrup. It was surprisingly

easy to do on a small scale. I used the recipe from this site:

<http://buffummaple.com/howto.html>

All the best,

Jan

Thanks Jan,

Sounds delicious!

I guess I was thinking as we did it outside, that the heat would be hard to

control,

thus ending up in burning.

Looking back, everything we did, no matter if butchering, canning or what ever

seemed like it was in massive quantities because my moms sisters and brothers

always helped and took some home.

I actually miss those days. No one seems to do that anymore. Our family has

grown

and moved away, but I do need to get with some of them and gather some recipes.

Cheryl C-Ky

ADHD http://comfort4adhd.tripod.com/

CountyKyFreeCycle/

Dom's Kefir in-site for information:

http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html

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