(Top left) Yankee Americana is symbolized by steam rolling out of the cupola of the sugar house; (top right) In order to boil high volumes of sap, the fire needs to be stoked every 10 minutes, using five cords of wood in one month; (bottom left) A hydrometer is one of four ways to test if the maple syrup is done; (bottom middle) Although your text book may say water boils at 212ºF, both weather and altitude influence the boiling point, so they must be monitored constantly; (bottom right) It takes about 43 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of syrup. Photos by Kevin Harkins.
The nightly routine described in ‘A Taste of Sugar on Turtle Lane‘ is only one of several critical steps in this quintessentially New England activity. After Paul Boulanger collects the sap it must be filtered, heated, reduced, boiled, and analyzed in order to make maple syrup. Heat it to a different temperature and he can make maple sugar candy; yet another temperature (and add the snow cone machine) and the result is sugar on snow, a candylike confection that Paul’s fiancée, Kathy Gallagher, likens to taffy. While it sounds complex—and it’s definitely not something you can do at home—the process is similar to making a reduction sauce, says Kathy.
“You start with sap, which contains about 2 percent sugar. The filtered sap flows into a sap pan, where the wood-fired evaporator boils away the water,” explains Paul. “As the sap is heated and travels through the sap pan, the sugar becomes more concentrated, so by the time it reaches the back of the pan it’s about 8 to 10 percent sugar. Then it flows into a syrup pan, where it reduces further. By the time we draw off the sap from the syrup pan, it’s about 50 to 55 percent sugar.”
Next stop—a 10-foot area for finishing and filtering, where Kathy monitors the syrup until it’s 67 percent sugar. A few more stops, a little more heat, and it’s ready for tasting or bottling in one of Turtle Lane’s maple sugar leaf-shaped bottles. The result: pure heaven, whether you’re pouring it on pancakes, waffles, or snow.
The Process of Making Maple Syrup – March / April 2008
(Top left) Yankee Americana is symbolized by steam rolling out of the cupola of the sugar house; (top right) In order to boil high volumes of sap, the fire needs to be stoked every 10 minutes, using five cords of wood in one month; (bottom left) A hydrometer is one of four ways to test if the maple syrup is done; (bottom middle) Although your text book may say water boils at 212ºF, both weather and altitude influence the boiling point, so they must be monitored constantly; (bottom right) It takes about 43 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of syrup. Photos by Kevin Harkins.
The nightly routine described in ‘A Taste of Sugar on Turtle Lane‘ is only one of several critical steps in this quintessentially New England activity. After Paul Boulanger collects the sap it must be filtered, heated, reduced, boiled, and analyzed in order to make maple syrup. Heat it to a different temperature and he can make maple sugar candy; yet another temperature (and add the snow cone machine) and the result is sugar on snow, a candylike confection that Paul’s fiancée, Kathy Gallagher, likens to taffy. While it sounds complex—and it’s definitely not something you can do at home—the process is similar to making a reduction sauce, says Kathy.
“You start with sap, which contains about 2 percent sugar. The filtered sap flows into a sap pan, where the wood-fired evaporator boils away the water,” explains Paul. “As the sap is heated and travels through the sap pan, the sugar becomes more concentrated, so by the time it reaches the back of the pan it’s about 8 to 10 percent sugar. Then it flows into a syrup pan, where it reduces further. By the time we draw off the sap from the syrup pan, it’s about 50 to 55 percent sugar.”
Next stop—a 10-foot area for finishing and filtering, where Kathy monitors the syrup until it’s 67 percent sugar. A few more stops, a little more heat, and it’s ready for tasting or bottling in one of Turtle Lane’s maple sugar leaf-shaped bottles. The result: pure heaven, whether you’re pouring it on pancakes, waffles, or snow.