anyone make "nutty" syrup?

[deerslammer]

Just finished up about 4 gallons of sap and ended up with a little over a cup of fantastic syrup. I have 4 maples tapped in my yard started boil on the wood stove and finished with gas stove. One thing i noticed or love is the syrup has a wonderful nutty taste and smell to it. anyone else notice or experience this?
dave in s.e Pa

[happy thoughts]

I can't say I have but I think there's some movement toward differentiating tastes between syrups like fine wine. And peoples tastes are different. That said, my syrup this year seems to have a taste of vanilla and is a lot lighter than the syrup I made from the same trees last year. As for your nutty flavor, what kind of wood did you burn? If it was an open fire is there a chance that smoke from say nut or fruit trees may have helped flavor it?

[C.Wilcox]

You sure you tapped maples? :-)

[Greyfox]

MAPLES eh?....That's an idea. I just usually tap phone poles and make creosote.

Joking aside, mine has been coming in light with a vanilla taste which is particularly delightful. Now if I could just make more......

[jluckay]

yah, we made several batches that had a very nutty or buttery smell this year.

[deerslammer]

The trees are maples although i'm not sure of the exact kind of maple tree. The wood stove is closed and mostly burning oak and ash this year. The color is a darker amber and thick as far as maple syrup goes. I will try to post a pic. I tapped the same trees last year and didn't have this "nutty" flavor.
dave

[deerslammer]

hope the pic comes through.5540

[happy thoughts]

Your pics came through. Yup! Tastes nutty to me, too:o

All kidding aside, its the variation from year to year that keeps this hobby interesting to me. Enjoy your bounty and may you have many more sugaring years to come:)

[Clarkfield Farms]

Although I'll be selling my sap (from only 50 taps, sadly :( ) this year, I have been boiling the sap from the couple of maples in my front yard. We're extremely pleased - even though it's been finishing with very little color it has tremendous flavor. I usually prefer dark syrup, maybe even commercial grade for the heavy flavors it has, but this stuff has been WOW. Very very light amber, rich with butter and caramel flavors. These yard trees produced similar flavors last year though nowhere near this rich, and last year's syrup was dark amber. The only thing I can tell you for sure that makes them different from the hillside trees on our property about 9 miles from here (the 50 taps) is that the hillside (woods, heavy old hedgerows) sap tested about 2.2% whereas these yard trees, obviously having more light, last year tested about 4% and the two times I tested this year the first was about about 3.8% and the second was 4.2%, both times I applied temperature corrections. I do recall, though, that last year was a hint of nuttiness along the lines of hazlenut.

I know, there are too many variables to even begin to address all the complexities. The previous year's weather conditions, the genes of the particular tree, when you tap, maybe even WHERE on the tree you tap, tubing or buckets or sacks, timing of the season, late or early beginning of the season, how long the sap sits before the boil, how and for how long you boil, whether or not two chipmunks were dancing on a north-facing slope while 6 or more skwerlee tree rats were gnawing on your laterals (that may not have come out right...:o Anyways. Yes, enjoy it; viva la diference!

[maplematt]

I am definately looking forward to tasting this year's batch. Last year we used mostly box elders, and this year we are doing almost all true maples. Very excited to taste the difference. Boxelder has a slightly fruity taste, almost a cross between honey and syrup! Putting on our taps this weekend!

[Luneyburg]

Well spent some time helping a friend tap this year and realized my wood stove is going 24/7 with a kettle of water on it to help humidify, then it dawned on me why not throw a couple of pots of sap on the stove instead . Well sure am glad I did as I did not have the funds to sugar this year again but should have a gallon to enjoy .

So far everything has been very light with the exception of when i fell asleep with sap almost done and woke up to near molasses(added sap and finished it) . Whats strange is it takes days to boil down a enough for a pint but its some of the best syrup I've had even when i use to sugar . No complaints here, if i had to give it a taste I think vanilla kind of almond taste Butter as well . Good stuff.
fellaSleep stuff on the right and its excellent as well !


http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f205/wrathlon/syrup2012.jpg

[happy thoughts]

Here's a maple syrup flavor wheel I found on the net that was developed by the Canadian Dept. of Agriculture and Agri-Food. 91 flavors are identified including nutty. So deeraslammer, you are not nuts :)

http://www4.agr.gc.ca/AAFC-AAC/display-afficher.do?id=1231367338440&lang=eng

I read elsewhere that some of the organic compounds contained in syrup may include vanillin and hydroxybutanone. Hydroxybutanone is one of the compounds that give butter it's taste and is sometimes used to flavor margarine.

I think the research on maple flavor is kinda cool. I also think we've got some pretty discriminating tastebuds here, as well:cool:

[deerslammer]

We have a cold snap coming this weekend and i think with the great taste of this years syrup i'm going to tap several more trees. Hopefully i will get a good flow and be able to can some syrup for a treat later in the year. The saps not flowing very well now guess its been too warm.
dave

[Snowy Pass Maple]

Well spent some time helping a friend tap this year and realized my wood stove is going 24/7 with a kettle of water on it to help humidify, then it dawned on me why not throw a couple of pots of sap on the stove instead . Well sure am glad I did as I did not have the funds to sugar this year again but should have a gallon to enjoy .

So far everything has been very light with the exception of when i fell asleep with sap almost done and woke up to near molasses(added sap and finished it) . Whats strange is it takes days to boil down a enough for a pint but its some of the best syrup I've had even when i use to sugar . No complaints here, if i had to give it a taste I think vanilla kind of almond taste Butter as well . Good stuff.
fellaSleep stuff on the right and its excellent as well !



This is my primary way of making syrup - I started a few years ago with the same thought - instead of pouring a gallon or two of water in the stovepot, I could be making syrup! We have a soapstone stove so it never gets hot enough to boil - or cause excessive humidity or all the other problems associated with indoor boiling. It's slow, but over the season, you can make a nice bit of syrup and it'll always come out lighter than any grade a / fancy. I also notice the buttery taste you mention anytime I make it this way.

Of course I started wanting more - so then I started freeze concentrating my sap before throwing it onto the stove. That worked well, but it's a lot of work.

This year I'm using a homemade RO system and now this stovetop system is keeping up with a lot more taps.

I'd definitely suggest this method to anyone that heats with wood - so many people who do already have a kettle going, and this is a great way to get a couple gallons of really high grade syrup in the process!

[Luneyburg]

Snowy Pass its the same for myself, no serious boils just slow and steady which really has me baffled . Always had believed and experienced that the sooner you went from boil to syrup the lighter the finished product, excluding so many other factors that play a role . Seems that cleanliness is key as it is really easy to manage such a small and slow process as we do with just cooking sap on the wood stove .
My wood stove has a blower so there are air channels between the fire and top plate of the stove resulting in a slow boil similar to your soapstone. It seems any steam dissipates or evaporates from the heat of the stove before making it to anything in the house. Not sure if it would be the same with a standard wood stove, but if so I would second your recommendation for others to give it a try. Whats to loose

At any rate it nice to gain a little more use out of heating with firewood and certainly a nice surprise to produce some of the best tasting syrup I have ever made.

[sapsuckers]

This is our 1st year doing this and our very first batch we did on our wood burning stove in the livingroom. It took him 30 hrs. to cook down which was way too long for Mr. Antsypants so he set up shop outside in the bonfire pit and has been there since.
Anyway the very first batch tasted almost like caramel a very nutty, buttery flavor best stuff i've ever had. But, all the batches since (which have been done on the bonfire) still have the flavor but not nearly as rich.
So thanks for your post I'm gonna try another batch in the house and see what happens.

[deerslammer]

Good luck with the sap. I put out 4 more taps for a total of 8 really hoping the sap flows these couple of days with the cold nights and warmer days. This years syrup was exceptional and i'm hoping to get a little more.

[Luneyburg]

An Idea for you sapsucker that helped me with duration, if you are not already doing it :) Put two pots on the stove and if one is better than the other as far as boiling quicker then make it your finishing pot. Never add fresh (cold sap) to that pot only the other pot so that it always maintains a boil without any cool down. While your other pot will boil off some it will always heat sap for your finishing pot allowing it to boil continuous . Worked for me give it a try .