Overboiled

[bluefinn]

Last batch was underboiled. Let this one go to long. Next year I'll have a hydometer. Anyway I have Quart mason jar with hardened maple sugar. Can I put the jar in a pot of boiling water to melt it, pour it out & then add water to thin it out to syrup? Thanks for any help.

[Galena]

I take it you mean you've got sugar crystals, and yes your batch can be salvaged. This is what I do, and it seems to work! Last year I produced a batch that I called *apricot jam* cause that's what it looked like, cloudy and grainy!

Anyhoo Dump the syrup into a nice clean pot. If you happen to have any fresh sap left you can use it instead of tap water, but if not, tap water will do. To speed things along you can warm it up slightly. You probably only have crystals in the bottom and partly on the sides, so put a lid on and swirl around the sap/water till the crystals have dissolved. Dump it back out into the pot, bring to temp (do you have a candy thermometer? approx 7 degrees over the boiling point in your area) and as soon as it hits that number, pour it off, you probably won't have to refilter it if it's clear. If it's cloudy then you have nitre too. and should refilter.

Hope this helps!

Hope

[Big_Eddy]

Hard crystals or soft sugar?
If hard - DON'T put water in it and microwave it. Guaranteed cracked jar. Don't put it in a pan of boiling water - guaranteed cracked jar. Sugar crystal have a different co-efficient of expansion than glass. If you heat too much, then the crystals will expand and push out the sides of the jar mixing broken glass with your sugar. :( Pour what you can out of the jar and add hot (not boiling water) to just cover the crystals. Let sit in a warm place for a few days, shaking or stirring regularly. Pour out and warm up the liquid until hot and repeat over and over. Patience is the solution. You may be able to chip some of the crystals out with a knife and dissolve them in hot syrup.

If soft crystals - scrape them out into a pan, add a couple of tablespoons of water, heat to boiling stirring continuously, add water to thin until the correct density or boiling point is reached and refilter.
Or spoon them onto your toast, pancakes, waffles or tongue and enjoy.

[bluefinn]

There's no liquid at all but it's soft enough to dig out with a knife. Thanks for the replies & I'll put it back in a pot with a little water & heat it up & hopefully I'll have syrup.

[Galena]

Yep, sounds like kissing cousin to my apricot jam batch, all grainy soft sugar and no liquid or barely any. But I'd listen to Big Eddy if it were indeed the hard sugar crystals. Good luck, let us know how it goes!

[bluefinn]

Scooped it all out & put a few inches of water in the jar & microwaved it. Poured the hot water in pot with the rest & brought it up to a boil. Came out perfect. Next season I'll have a hydrometer, NO MORE GUESSING. Thanks to everyone that's helped me out the last couple years. I'm getting more friends to start tapping their trees to.

[Galena]

Glad it worked out! Very happy for you :-)

[woodsmith]

I never use a hygrometer. All I do is when I know I am close to syrup judging by the temperature I dip a flat edge scoop in the syrup pan and hold it up. If the syrup aprons on the edge it is done and I then begin the draw-off. Works great once you have the feel for it.

[Galena]

I never use a hygrometer. All I do is when I know I am close to syrup judging by the temperature I dip a flat edge scoop in the syrup pan and hold it up. If the syrup aprons on the edge it is done and I then begin the draw-off. Works great once you have the feel for it.

+1, I spent some time watching a hired hand at the local sugarshack draw off a batch and he showed me how to watch for the apron (he called it a window but still the same thing). I use a wooden spoon and watch to see how many drips in before the apron starts to form, and then how big it gets. Must work, only one batch of the 7 I made has crystals. *and none have nitre, yay!!*