Cooking oil filters work for syrup?

[SevenCreeksSap]

I was in a Gander mountain and looking at the cooking stuff. They have paper cone filters that are labeled for filtering oil after using it. They're a fine paper type filter in a funnel, and the whole setup with about 15 filters was about 20 bucks. Would that work for syrup? seems like cooking oil is a similar density/ viscosity as syrup. The thing for me is that GM is close, and the nearest maple dealer I know of is a 3 hr drive. I used cheesecloth last year and definitely need something better.

[GramaCindy]

I'm still a newbie here, but I am going to risk answering you. I would bet that the filters aren't dense enough to filter out the VERY small particles. Microns I think they're called. PPM, maybe. The holder for the filter may work, not sure. You can order filters reasonably enough through Bascoms, Andersons, many other dealers online. I personally use flat filters in a stainless basket contraption that I bought at Andersons. Works great! and the filters are easy to rinse. WATER ONLY. From top to bottom, so as not to push the sediments back into the filter.

[Toblerone]

I use these filters all the time as a pre-filter when drawing off near-syrup before it goes into the kitchen for final finishing. GramaCindy is right, they will not filter all of the fine particles. You should buy some of those orlon cone filters for filtering the final syrup into your bottler. They work great and are reusable. Just rinse them out in very hot water and use them again.

I also use the oil filters for filtering sap: I just tie one on to the discharge hose of my pump.

[SevenCreeksSap]

Just remembered I started this thread. So It sounds like I need to filter coming out of the draw off into the draw off pail. Then filter with the better filters into the canner. Sound right? I don't have it all set up yet. I'm really hoping to have finished syrup coming out of the draw off on the divided syrup pan.

I'm looking at a stainless turkey fryer -30 qt tall pan- that has a spigot built in. Its about 75 bucks. That will be over a gas flame for a finisher/ canner. I already have a 100 gal. propane bottle for the flame there. should last all season.

Would I be better off just getting the best filters and drawing off into the finisher/ canner pan?

[Toblerone]

So this is what I do, it might be overkill though. I draw off the evaporator as soon as I see it just start to sheet and clump up when coming off a ladle and I stop drawing when it no longer does this. I filter it as it comes off the evaporator into a holding pot using the cooking-oil filters. Then, I store it in the cooler until I get enough for around 4-5 gallons or finished syrup. Then, I bring it in the kitchen, cook to the correct density, and pour it into the canner through one of those made-to-fit pre-filters that's placed inside the final Orlon filter. Then I bottle directly into pre-heated 12oz glass bottles. I've not had trouble with sediment, mold, or crystallization since I started using this method.

If you're drawing off syrup right from the pan, then you ought to be able to use the Orlon filters right into your canner, but if you do a lot of syrup then you may have trouble keeping the filter from plugging up.

Oh, and I usually draw off before it's syrup since I am boiling in a dimly-lit 3-walled structure outdoors and it's much nicer to do the final finishing indoors where it's bright and warm. I also think pre-filtering before it's syrup gets most of the niter out before finishing. (And I think less niter is left in the evaporator too). From the NAMPM: "[using a separate finishing pan] permits filtering the concentrated sap as it is being transferred from the evaporator to the finishing pan. Syrup at this density (45° to 60° Brix) has essentially all of its sugar sand precipitated but has a viscosity (fluidity) only slightly higher than water, and is filtered much more readily than finished syrup."

Also, collecting draw-offs until I get enough to make about 4-5 gallons of syrup makes getting to the correct density much easier. Things don't happen so quickly and you don't overshoot the mark. So, for me, this means that the Orlon filter needs to be able to handle that much syrup without plugging up, and the only way to do that is if it's been pre-filtered at least once.

Also, I don't know how it works to finish in the same pot you bottle from. If you filter into there but end up needing to adjust density, cooking it will produce niter that will need to be filtered out, and probably the pot will need to be cleaned as well. I don't have any experience in doing that, so I am not really sure. Others will know more.

[SevenCreeksSap]

Good thoughts. Thanks.

I got an Orlon filter today so I'm one step closer. I have a 2x6 divided flat pan as a sap pan, then a 2x2- 3 compartment syrup pan. Havent used it yet. I am planning to get a thermometer that screws into the pan at the draw off. I'm making the assumption that with this setup I should get basically finished syrup at the draw off at 219 deg. At least I hope so.

so if that's the case, I should be able to draw off through the first paper filters to get the niter out, then finish over gas in one pan. I'm kind of in the same boat as Toblerone because I don't have elec in the sap shack yet. I may end up bringing it 4 miles home to finish.

Does it sound like with my pan setup that my filtering ideas will work? am I still missing something?
( besides a filter press, canner /bottler, ect )

[Toblerone]

I have only a 2x6 divided flat pan with no separate syrup pan and I have a very hard time getting it to make syrup in the pan. I can get close but it's really difficult. So, in order to prevent long cooking times, I have to draw off before it makes it all the way to syrup. With a 2x2 you should be able to get to syrup easily.

Also, because of this, I've sworn off using a thermometer at all. You have to add 7.1 degrees F to the current boiling point which changes with weather. Also different parts of the pan will have different temperatures. And, for some reason, 7.1 over never seems to be dense enough. I probably just have crappy (i.e. cheap) thermometers. So I just go by how it looks. When I finish inside, I always use a hydrometer to get to the correct density.

Definitely get a hydrometer.

It sounds like your filtering ideas will work, my main advice would be to get it mostly filtered before it ever reaches the Orlon. It's very difficult to move bags of hot syrup around from a plugged filter to a new one in an effort to get it to go through.

My only other concern would be finishing/cooking in the same pot that you intend to bottle from. If you filter into the canner and then cook it in the canner at all, you'll have to filter it again and probably clean the canner before bottling.

[Brent]

" I'm looking at a stainless turkey fryer -30 qt tall pan- that has a spigot built in. Its about 75 bucks. That will be over a gas flame for a finisher/ canner. I already have a 100 gal. propane bottle for the flame there. should last all season."

Here's a thing that will save you some disappointment with this set up. Every time your syrup goes up to 195 or higher, it will start to make more nitre ... that will settle out and look ugly if you use bottles. Your plan for a canner over an open flame will heat the syrup that is on the bottom too hot to avoid making more nitre. The best canners are double wall with a water jacket. To get the effect of this on a smaller budget, you need to work up a sort of double boiler. Heat the water without boiling it. Have the canner separated by 1/2" or so from the bottom. Lots of us have started with perfectly filtered syrup, heated it in a canner on an direct flame, and two weeks later stand and look at all the bottles with a white scum on bottom, and wondered what the *&^% went wrong.