A Syrup Oops.

Last week did not go at all the way I wanted it to go.  The turkey fryer was not working properly, and I thought as a back up I might finally cobble together a 'real' evaporator out of cement blocks and disposable foil pans.  Then it occurred to me that DH was not going to want his cinder blocks to have black soot marks on them when he did get around to building something with them. And, the weather wasn't all that conducive to boiling sap outside without getting rained and/or sleeted and/or snowed on.  Which wasn't going to make boiling the water portion out of the sap go any  faster.

So, I didn't scam DH's stash of leftover cinder blocks.  And I didn't boil any sap.

Until Friday evening, when DH "only" worked a 9 hour day and surprised me by taking a look at that malfunctioning turkey fryer.  Within a few minutes, he had it going, blue flames as tall as my sap pot.  We were sugaring off!

Since the sap pot had sat all week, with slightly less than 5 gallons in it, in a garage,I didn't want to add the rest of the sap to it; the sap that hadn't been heated yet.  However,  that almost 5 gallons of sap never rose above refrigerator temperature, so technically was still good and I didn't want to throw it out.  What I decided to do was boil down just that pot as my first batch of the year.

It went well.  Really well.  Whatever DH had done to the turkey fryer, it was heating like it was powered by rocket fuel. Usually I get a boil off rate of one gallon per hour.  So, that five gallons should have taken roughly five hours to evaporate off all the water until only syrup was left.  That day, however, I was getting better than a gallon per hour.

Slightly more than three hours later, it really started to decrease in volume.  I started checking the level every fifteen minutes.  Things were going great.

Until. . . .

I went out to check the sap, and found that it had hit the syruping point and exceeded that temperature.  My syrup was quite dark, and smelled like it was starting to  burn.  Quickly, I grabbed my stirring spoon in one hand and began stirring the syrup while trying frantically to turn off the burner with the other hand.  I was hoping that by stirring it, I could keep the temperature from rising any higher, and losing any usefulness from that batch of sap.  I knew that in order to make maple sugar you heated the sap beyond the syruping point.  However, you have to heat it very carefully, to keep it from burning and the flavor being ruined.  I hadn't heated carefully enough, not with leaving it unattended just as it came to the syruping point.

DH came to my rescue, and carried the pot into the house, while I walked with him, stirring like mad all the while.  As the temperature quickly dropped (ambient temperature in the garage was forty-ish), the syrup began to thicken and crystallize in the pot.

In the house, I grabbed a 2 cup glass bowl and poured the syrup into that.  It was my hope that I would have something useable once the syrup cooled.

I let the syrup sit, uncovered, all night.  The next morning, the top was hardened, and the sugar crystals visible.  Once that crust was broken by a spoon, there were sludgy crystals underneath, and in the very bottom of the bowl, extremely thick syrup.

The flavor was slightly scorched, but not so much as to be unpalatable.  Rather, it was a roasty flavor, reminiscent of, but not quite like, coffee.  In my opinion, still usable, just not as syrup.

As an experiment, later on Saturday, I scooped out a couple of spoonfuls of the crystallized stuff, and slowly reheated it until the crystals melted.  Then I drizzled it over vanilla ice cream and served that as dessert.  It went over really well. Mental note: one of these days, when I actually get around to making homemade ice cream, try making maple flavored ice cream.

So, one use for my failed syrup had been found.

Getting online, to my favorite homesteading forum, I asked a question of the more experienced syrup makers there.  They responded that they had had similar experiences in their past, and that the substance I had, no longer syrup and not exactly maple sugar (because of it's slightly scorched state and not having been fully taken to the sugar stage), was good for ice cream topping as I had discovered, as well as baking with and flavoring coffee.

DH says I should use it in no-bake cookies rather than the regular sugar the recipe calls for.  I kind of like one of the suggestions I got online, which is to use it in cinnamon rolls.  I don't think I have enough to do both, though.  Perhaps I'll do the no-bake recipe 50/50 maple sugar and regular granulated sugar, and use the rest in cinnamon rolls.  When I do, I'll be sure to give a report on how it worked.  Just in case any readers ever happen to have their own batch of syrup get away from them.  ;0)