I could not claim that before. I am, as the Maine expression says, "from away", a transplanted Marylander rooting for the Baltimore Orioles in the spring and the New England Patriots in the fall. But today, I made my first batch of maple syrup. Starting with two quarts of fresh maple sap from our friends' sugar maple trees and some advice on sugar content, I boiled two quarts of sap down to about two ounces of maple syrup. I feel like I belong.
Maple syruping has a long tradition pre-dating European settlers. It is a pretty simple process that has become more mechanized over the ages, with long lines of tubing replacing traditional taps and buckets and horses and sleds. Anyone living in New England owes themselves a visit to one of the many sugar houses dotting the New England countryside to watch the pros in action. In this post, I'll describe a simple way of making a few ounces of home-made maple syrup.
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| Four quart pot to boil two quarts of sap. |
I started with two quarts of maple sap in a four-quart pan. Leave plenty of room to prevent the sap from boiling over into the stove.
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| Calculating reduction |
The syrup is usually boiled to a 30:1 to 40:1 reduction. Our friends and a nearby sugar house both said the sap was very heavy with sugar this year, so I guessed that a 30:1 reduction would work. Professionals use the syrup's boiling point to indicate the syrup is ready. I started with 60mm of syrup in the four-quart pan. A 30:1 reduction leaves should leave about 2mm of syrup in the pan.
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| Maple sap boiling in a smaller container |
Boiling down to a depth of 2mm didn't seem practical, so at 10mm in the four-quart pan I transferred the sap to a smaller container. I had boiled to a 6:1 reduction, now I just needed a 5:1 reduction in the smaller pan. There was 49mm of syrup in the small pot, so a 5:1 reduction should give me about 10mm of syrup.
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| Maple syrup jug with tin foil funnel |
After boiling down to the 10mm mark, it's time to bottle. I have a small syrup container complete with a hand-made aluminum foil funnel and bowl to catch any stray syrup.
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| Liquid Gold! |
Finally, the finished product: a little over two ounces of maple syrup.
Today, I am a New Englander. Tomorrow, I eat pancakes and maple syrup!
