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  • From: "Jim Fruth" <jfruth@tds.net>
  • To: "NAFEX" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: Jackie Kuehn <jakuehn@verizon.net>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Maple sugaring.
  • Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2009 10:28:49 -0600

I forgot to mention.................about boiling maple syrup all day and into the night. The longer it cooks the blacker and stronger tasting it gets. Nowadays, Maple Syrup is graded as Light Amber, Medium Amber, Dark Amber and Commercial Grade. Alot of homemade syrup might be commercial grade. Then, if you have a big pot over an open pot, the sugar is constantly burning at the top edge and the fly-ash is going up, over and into the syrup and it takes on a characteristic flavor that some would have no other way.
Commercial grade is what the cereal et.al. companies buy as an additive. There is a cooking process that quadruples the maple flavor which is the reason why sugar syrup companies add it to their product.

Remember those cartoons about coffee so strong that you have to cut it with a scissors? Well, it is no joke when speaking about commercial grade maple syrup: If you don't empty your sap buckets in a timely manner (especially during warmer weather) it is inhabited by a bacterium referred to as "Ropey bacteria." If you get alot of it, especially prevalent near the end of the sap season, the syrup will become so stringy that it becomes difficult to pour. This may sound like fiction but it is true. Buyers of ropey/stringy syrup will usually buy it if the strings are 3' long or less. And the Food Industry buys it.
I have often wondered why some people don't like the taste of Maple Syrup. I stopped wondering when a woman came into our store with a jug of maple syrup that she wanted re-bottled into smaller containers. She said that a relative from Back East sends her a jug of it every year. It was a commercial grade; it was as black as tar and it smelled badly. I tasted it and it was the most gad-awful slop I ever put into my mouth. I gave her a half pint of my syrup informing her of what it is supposed to taste like.

Jim Fruth
Brambleberry Farm
Pequot Lakes, MN 56472
For jams, jellies, syrups and more:
www.jellygal.com
1-877-265-6856 (Toll Free)
1-218-831-7018 (My Cell)



  • [NAFEX] Maple sugaring., Jim Fruth, 02/01/2009

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