{"id":132,"date":"2010-04-29T01:17:49","date_gmt":"2010-04-29T08:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=132"},"modified":"2013-06-20T22:23:38","modified_gmt":"2013-06-21T05:23:38","slug":"how-maple-syrup-is-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2010\/04\/how-maple-syrup-is-made\/","title":{"rendered":"How Maple Syrup is Made"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pf-content\"><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Maple_Syrup_Bottles.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-147\" title=\"Maple Syrup Bottles\" alt=\"Maple Syrup Bottles\" src=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Maple_Syrup_Bottles.jpg\" width=\"330\" height=\"220\" \/><\/a><a href='http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com' title='Interesting Facts'>Today I found out<\/a> how to make maple syrup.\u00a0 Ever find yourself sitting there enjoying a stack of pancakes dripping with melted butter and maple syrup (getting hungry aren\u2019t you?) and find yourself wondering, \u201cI wonder how maple syrup is made?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ya me neither.\u00a0 However, on the off chance you\u2019re out of maple syrup and the apocalypse comes tomorrow and you find yourself sitting down to a nice hot plate of delectable pancakes while your better half fends off the zombie\u2019s trying to get at your brains, you might find yourself wanting some maple syrup.\u00a0 Fear not, after reading this, you\u2019ll not have to go maple syrup-less for the rest of your short life (let\u2019s face it, the zombies will get you eventually; most likely when you split up to go collect the syrup buckets you put out attached to the maple trees).<strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Equipment Needed<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>bucket or other collector<\/li>\n<li>drill and drill bit<\/li>\n<li>spout<\/li>\n<li>items for boiling sap (preferably outdoors)<\/li>\n<li>a syrup or candy thermometer or a syrup hydrometer (for testing to see when your syrup is done)<\/li>\n<li>(optional) wool or Orlon (for filtering)<\/li>\n<li>Maple Tree (for what kinds are best for making syrup, read on)<\/li>\n<li>Shotgun and a board with a nail in it for fending off the zombies while you are collecting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"ad-right\"><!-- wp_ad_camp_1 --><\/div>\n<p><strong>Step 1<\/strong>:\u00a0 Get a maple tree or if you don\u2019t have one in the case of an apocalypse, gather together a group of your closest allies and go an a pillaging spree until you find some place that has maple trees.\u00a0 Kill off any local populace and erect a fence to keep out the zombies and neighboring groups from your precious maple forest.\u00a0 At this point, it might be best to also poison the water supply for your local group, thereby killing all them off and keeping all the future mapley goodness for yourself.\u00a0 If you are male, consider keeping a few females around for producing children who can be used as cheep labor to help produce more maple syrup (and a good sacrifice to the zombies or maple tree gods if needed).\u00a0 If female, extract the semen of as many of the villagers as you can and freeze it, before killing them off or shortly after killing them.\u00a0 Thereby fulfilling the same goal as with the male, except without the inevitable nagging and obligatory cuddle time that comes with actually having a mate.<\/p>\n<p>The best kind of maple trees for making maple syrup are Sugar Maples (has a high sugar content, if you couldn\u2019t guess).\u00a0 Lacking Sugar Maples some other types that produce tasty sap are Red Maple, Silver Maple, Black Maple (seriously, who named these things: sugar, red, silver, black;\u00a0 how inventive)\u00a0 and Boxelder (wow talk about your red headed step child).\u00a0 Sugar Maples are generally preferred due to the extra sweetness of their sticky innards.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 2<\/strong>: Tap that fine piece of wood.\u00a0 Before tapping make sure the tree is old enough.\u00a0 It\u2019s just not a good idea to tap an underage piece of wood; that\u2019s true with a variety of things, not just with maple trees.\u00a0 The tree should be at least 10 inches in diameter and measure at least 4-5 feet tall.\u00a0 Trees under 20 inches in diameter should only have one tap made per tree.\u00a0 Trees above 20 inches in diameter can be tapped 2 to 3 times at once (wow, that\u2019s hot).\u00a0 Any more than that and it\u2019s just not healthy for the tree, again so true for a variety of things.<\/p>\n<p>To tap the tree, drill a hole in the tree with a slight upward angle (so the sap can flow downwards through the hole).\u00a0 The hole should have a diameter of around 7\/16 an inch or around 11 millimeters for you non-Americans out there. \u00a0\u00a0Try not to rough up the wood any when drilling.\u00a0 You want a clean smooth hole so the sap can flow freely.\u00a0 Scrapes and things along the wood inside the hole can hinder output.\u00a0 If you are using a sharp bit and have a steady hand, you shouldn\u2019t have a problem.<\/p>\n<p>The height to drill is simply whatever is easy for you and not too close to another drilled hole.\u00a0 The depth should be around 1.5 to 2 inches (you non-americans are just going to have to look that up; I\u2019m done being your non-metric crutch\u2026 seriously though, about 3 to 5 cm deep).\u00a0 Preferably, pick a place on the tree that has healthy looking bark.\u00a0 If you are going to be double or triple penetrating the tree (2 or 3 bores), don\u2019t put them too close together.\u00a0 You can vary it by height and a different spot along the circumference of the tree.\u00a0 Keep the holes around a couple feet (1\/2 meter) away height-wise from any other hole and around a half a foot (15 centimeters-ish) along the circumference.<\/p>\n<p>Now you want to put your spout into the hole you just drilled.\u00a0 STOP RIGHT THERE!\u00a0 PUT THE HAMMER DOWN!\u00a0 Slowly back away from the tree hole.\u00a0 Ok just joking, you can actually use a hammer if you want, but be very careful.\u00a0 You can easily split the tree if you pound the spout in too hard (nobody likes a jackhammer; slow and gentle is the best way for proper spout to hole insertion).\u00a0 What you are looking to do here is tap the spout in just enough so that it can\u2019t be pulled out by hand, but not so much as to split the tree, killing any chances of mapley goodness (just tap it in, tap tap tappy).\u00a0 Pick a warm day and be gentle and you shouldn\u2019t have too much trouble.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/maple-syrup-trees.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-134\" title=\"maple syrup trees\" alt=\"maple syrup trees\" src=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/maple-syrup-trees-e1263027695581.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><strong>Step 3<\/strong>:\u00a0 Now hang a bucket or container of some sort to be used to collect the sap.\u00a0 Make sure to cover the container well so you don\u2019t get any rain \/ bird poo \/ squirrel droppings \/ etc in there (unless you like that sort of thing; whatever lights your wick I guess).<\/p>\n<p>Typical yield from a maple tree bore hole will vary greatly based on a variety of factors (so not really typical then I guess).\u00a0 You can reasonably expect to get at least 15 gallons per year per bore hole though.\u00a0 In favorable weather conditions and if you tap that wood real nice and snuggle a little after, it might even produce for you as much as 80 gallons of sap in a year per bore hole.\u00a0 Now before you start dreaming of all the pancakes you will be able to cover with that sweet goo, you should know that it takes about 10 gallons or so of sap to produce 1 quart of syrup (no wonder real maple syrup is so expensive).<\/p>\n<p>You should also note that sap can go bad.\u00a0 Don\u2019t leave an accumulated amount of sap in the buckets for any length of time.\u00a0 Rather, go out and collect your sap regularly and store it in a freezer and boil it as soon as you\u2019ve collected enough to make a useful amount of syrup.\u00a0 This is particularly important in places where it is really hot out.\u00a0 Just like milk and red-headed people, sap doesn\u2019t do well if kept out in the sun for too long.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 4<\/strong>:\u00a0 Now you\u2019ve got your sap all stored away in your buckets and ready to pour on your nice fluffy pancakes or the love of your life, but wait!\u00a0 It\u2019s not quite ready yet.\u00a0 A little more preparation is needed.\u00a0 Get together a bunch of giant pots and get ready to do some boiling!<\/p>\n<p>If you have an extremely well ventilated kitchen, you can boil the sap in doors.\u00a0 However, this isn\u2019t really advisable as boiling sap produces a surprising amount of steam so doing it outside in nature is probably best (again, that\u2019s true about a lot of things).<\/p>\n<p>When boiling the sap, don\u2019t fill your pan too full or it will boil over.\u00a0\u00a0 Fill the pan up around 2\/3 full and start boiling away.\u00a0 From here you will continually need to add sap as the water evaporates out.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let the sap level get below a couple inches deep (4-5 cm) or you\u2019ll likely burn it.<\/p>\n<p>When the sap first starts to boil, be sure to take a temperature measurement as you\u2019ll need that for later.<\/p>\n<p>Keep going until your sap reaches approximately 66 percent sugar content at 7.1 degrees Fahrenheit over the boiling point temperature where you are (the temperature you read when the sap first started boiling).\u00a0 You can use a hydrometer to measure sugar content.\u00a0 Anything below 66 percent and your syrup will go bad pretty quickly.\u00a0 Anything above around 67 percent and you\u2019ll end up getting sugar crystals forming at the bottom of your containers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 5<\/strong>:\u00a0 Filter that sweet sticky wood goo.\u00a0 Once you\u2019ve got the syrup at the correct density and temperature, you\u2019ll want to filter it through some wool or Orlon while it is still hot.\u00a0 Lacking something suitable for filtering, you can always let it cool and let the sediment settle to the bottom and then carefully pour the clean syrup into another container.\u00a0 In this case, you will then want to heat the clean syrup back up to around boiling temperature before putting it in the final storage container.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 6<\/strong>:\u00a0 Pour the still hot syrup (170-180 degrees F, around 79 degrees C) into your sterilized canning jars until it is pretty much completely full (with as little air as possible) and then seal.\u00a0 Now place the jars on their sides as they cool to insure a great seal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 7<\/strong>:\u00a0 Store the jars on their side (preferably) in a cool, dry place.\u00a0 Once you\u2019ve opened a jar, it must then be refrigerated.\u00a0 You\u2019ll likely be able to tell if the syrup has gone bad before eating, the same way you can usually tell if bread has gone bad (hint: mold).<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s pretty much it.\u00a0 Cleanup of your collecting buckets should never be done with soaps or detergents as this will very likely result in off-tasting maple syrup.\u00a0 Instead just use hot water and a scrub brush and if you must, mix in 1 part chlorine for every 25 parts water.\u00a0 Now go eat some pancakes!<\/p>\n<p>If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-brainfoodshow\/id1350586459\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/36xpXQMPVXhWJzMoCHPJKd\" target=\"_blank\">Spotify<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/playmusic.app.goo.gl\/?ibi=com.google.PlayMusic&#038;isi=691797987&#038;ius=googleplaymusic&#038;apn=com.google.android.music&#038;link=https:\/\/play.google.com\/music\/m\/Insimdi4g6puyyr4qbt6tup5b6m?t%3DThe_BrainFood_Show%26pcampaignid%3DMKT-na-all-co-pr-mu-pod-16\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Google Play Music<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/feed\/brainfood\/\" target=\"_blank\">Feed<\/a>), as well as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2010\/07\/sugar-does-not-make-kids-hyper\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sugar Does Not Make Kids Hyper<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2013\/06\/origin-of-the-canadian-flag\/\" target=\"_blank\">How the Canadian Flag Came to Be as It Is Today<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2013\/04\/urine-facts\/\" target=\"_blank\">How Urine Can be Used to Make Gunpowder and Other Stuff<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2012\/11\/how-to-remove-a-fresh-carpet-stain\/\" target=\"_blank\">How to Easily Remove a Fresh Carpet Stain<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<span class=\"collapseomatic \" id=\"id69ed6cc609fca\"  tabindex=\"0\" title=\"Expand for References\"    >Expand for References<\/span><div id=\"target-id69ed6cc609fca\" class=\"collapseomatic_content \">\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"How to Tap Maple Trees\" href=\"http:\/\/www.umext.maine.edu\/onlinepubs\/PDFpubs\/7036.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">How to Tap Maple Trees<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Make Your Own Maple Syrup\" href=\"http:\/\/www.massmaple.org\/myo.html\" target=\"_blank\">Make Your Own Maple Syrup<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"How to Make Maple Syrup\" href=\"http:\/\/www.howtomakemaplesyrup.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">How to Make Maple Syrup<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"All About Maple Syrup\" href=\"http:\/\/pittsburgh.about.com\/cs\/pennsylvania\/a\/maple_syrup.htm\" target=\"_blank\">All About Maple Syrup<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href='http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com' title='Interesting Facts'>Today I found out<\/a> how to make maple syrup.\u00a0 Ever find yourself sitting there enjoying a stack of pancakes dripping with melted butter and maple syrup (getting hungry aren\u2019t you?) and find yourself wondering, \u201cI wonder how maple syrup is made?\u201d Ya me neither.\u00a0 However, on the off chance you\u2019re out of maple syrup and the apocalypse comes tomorrow and [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11],"tags":[273,977,316,317,315],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-i-found-out","category-miscellaneous","tag-environment","tag-how-to","tag-maple","tag-nature","tag-syrup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}