Boiling the Sap Down to Syrup in the House

As I mentioned in my Pails of Sap post sap has a sugar concentration of about 2% and before it can be syrup the concentration should be 66%. That is achieved by removing the water and you remove the water by boiling the sap! It takes approximately 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of water. It definitely is a time intensive process that takes a lot of patience!

Early in the season I often boil in the house just a couple words of caution

• As the water evaporates it creates a lot of water vapor and increases the humidity in the house . This is not a big deal if you are boiling small amounts during the heating season as long as you turn the humidifier off.
• It also creates heat. Also not a problem during the heating season.
• If you have a gas range then I would recommend having a carbon monoxide detector. I have never had a problem but definitely want everyone to be safe!

It can help to turn your furnace fan on to circulate air around the house that helps to move both the heat and the humidity to the entire house. It also helps to turn the hood fan on to take some of the heat and air outside!

As the season progresses and the amount of sap to boil accumulates I do the bulk of the boiling outside but I personally find it better to finish the boil inside. I find I can control the temperature better on the stove as this is the step where a boil over can occur. Nothing worse than losing half your syrup right at the end!

Steps

• Fill a stainless steel pan with sap a shallow pan is better than a deep pan as it allows more water to evaporate.
• Turn on the heat just hot enough to bring it to a boil - if it is too hot you will end up with sap splashing out of the pan! You can also burn your sap!
• As the sap level drops keep adding more sap. As you boil a white foam will form on top of the sap and you will skim this off and discard,
• The sap will fairly quickly begin to appear brown.
• If you taste test the sap you will find it keeps getting sweeter and sweeter