Vacuum Bagging

[GeneralStark]

Does anyone have any experience vacuum bagging maple candy? I am thinking more about packing larger quantities for storage or even freezing, and then retail packaging it later as needed.

[red maples]

I tried and it doesn't work if you vac too tight. Although it be very little there is a very minute amount of suspended syrup in candy and if you put it under vacuum it will squeeze that suspended syrup out just making a mess. But apparently you can freeze it but I haven't tried that yet.

[morningstarfarm]

I tried it with poor results...much better to put it in a ziplock bag and then freeze it...

[grimmreaper]

I tried and failed horriablily...fisrti put about 5 lbs in a Tupperware dish and put the vacuum seal bag over it and sealed(surprise ,I ended up with a brick of maple).I saved maybe a dozen leafs............

[BreezyHill]

The trick will be to not totally evacuate the container.

In the 1960's farm forage experiment with Cornell U was to use vacuum to pack/compress and store silage for farm animals. A 30' tall pile was compress to only 4-5' tall after vacuumed to 17.5" was accomplished. The pressure on the surface was in excess of 1500# per square inch due to atmospherical pressure, provided I recall the figures correctly. That much pressure on a maple leaf will cause some contortion at best.

Partial or low level vac will remove the air but not cause damage to form or the candy or make it hard.