Depth of catering pans

[pauliwalnutz]

I have been boiling my sap in turkey pots over an open fire for the past couple of years but would like to increase my evaporation rate. This year I'm thinking of using some catering/steam table pans and building a brick arch. I was wondering if I should go with a 4" deep or 6" deep pan? I have 50 taps on my 2 acres near North Bay, Ontario.

Any issues with boiling sap, leaving it sit overnight and continuing a boil the next day?

Thanks for your feedback.

[brass maple]

If you have the wood it's a great idea. 6 inch pans would be best because then when it is boiling hard you won't have as much splashing out out of the pans.
as far as leaving it over night, you want to make sure your fire is almost out so you dont go out the next day and find a charred mess and cover the pans to keep out undesirable things

[Helicopter Seeds]

That is my plan this year too. I bought the 6 inch deep for the same reason. each holds 21 qt to the brim, which means I will probably only put 2 to 3 gallons in at a time. But I have three, and each one has more surface area above the fire, and more surface area at the water level. considering I only boiled max 5 gallons in the turkey pot as well, I should cut my time down considerably.
Thinking first boil is Friday night or Saturday. I am outside still, so rain (Saturday forecast) becomes a factor.
Good luck!

[TreeTapper2]

I would get 6-7 gph on 4 pans. 3 I boiled in and 1 for warming. Buy some stainless steel cabinet handles and attach to the pans. It makes moving them a lot easier.

[pauliwalnutz]

Thanks for the info.

[Maplesapper]

We had four hotel pans that were hanging down into a cider block arch.
We found you needed to keep the sap level fairly high or the sides of the pan would scorch and darken the syrup quickly.
Every few minutes we would ladle from one pan to the other etc etc, rather than cooking four individual batches.
Labourious but fun.

[Helicopter Seeds]

First boil done on Friday on the new brick arch/ pan setup. Started slow in case there was moisture in the brick, and not knowing how fast it would boil. By mid evening I cranked her up, and also find that with the wide pan, you can fill pretty near to the top without boil over, whereas the turkey pot could not be more than half full last year. I also stopped twice for errands (Taxi cab Dad), so can't say what the rate was, but tons of steam, and once going, low smoke, and none in my eyes (or ash in the syrup).

Will post pictures in the gallery.

[maplestudent]

the less sap you can keep in the pans, the less heat it takes to keep it boiling (or, given the same amount of heat you can get a more rapid boil with less sap .....more rapid boil = quicker evaporation). I have 4" deep pans and I try to keep a minimum of 1" and a max of 2" in them.

I don't worry about sap burning on the sides.....it really isn't an issue for me.

Best of luck on your season!

[Groves]

With traditional pans, the advice to keep the level shallow is spot on. All things being equal, it takes less energy to keep the boil going in a pan running shallow.


But


With steam table pans like you are describing, that's not good advice.

The steam table pans (you run 4, I run 8) act in essence like drop/raised flue pans. The heated sides of the pan are a tremendous source of boil initiation. They make your pans "act" larger for the same reason drop/raised flue pans do...larger surface area of heated metal.

To take advantage of the screaming hot sides of your steam table pans (and to prevent warping) I would run your pans as full as they can get without splash-out. A few inches from the top, I've found. It will definitely increase your GPH evaporation rate.