smokey syrup

[mommaI]

I had to evaporate the sap differently this year (over an open fire) and the syrup has an overwhelming taste and smells of smoke. Is there anything I can do to get the smoke taste and smell out. or do I just throw it away

[optionguru]

DON'T throw it away...Make some maple nuts with it, probably go really well with the taste of smoked almonds. Just a thought.

[Cedar Eater]

My wife suggests using it for sweetener in things where a smokey flavor would be good, like homemade barbecue sauce. You could also add it to shine or whiskey.

[sugarwoodacres]

We had this problem when we were on an open fire. Cheap fix is build a basic arch of concrete block and force smoke out the end away from the pan you're using as evaporator. As far as removing smoke we never found a fix until we bought a used evap. Good Luck this season

[crazyjackcsa]

Dilution is the only way. Otherwise it's find different uses for it.

[1ruralmailman]

back in the day we used to have this problem,before we got our evaporator.my grandfather taught us how to get rid of it,the way he learned as a kid.take the syrup up to boiling temp,dump one cup of whole milk into it,let it come back up to syrup density again slowly heating it,as it will want to climb the pan.once there take it off,and filter it through cheese cloth.this will take several times as the milk will have scalded,and will be all curdeled,and brown.the smoke flavor will be trapped in it,and will be filtered out.good luck,i know this sounds crazy,but it does work.

[Troy D]

Is the smoke flavor really bad, I kind of like it that way several of the bottles of syrup I bought have the same "hint" of smoke. I really like it.

[mommaI]

thank all of you so much. I would have never known these things to do. this will save my batch. again thank you

[wildlifewarrior]

Mmmm, my favorite syrup ever made by us was the first year over the fire, it tasted VERY smokey and was great in all sorts of stuff, even over vanilla ice-cream. I like to think that this was the flavor of it 150 years ago on the farms, even though they refined most of it to sugar, I am sure the smokey flavor added to it. Who knows maybe there is a market for smoked syrup, hickory, cherry, maple….who knows!

Mike

[nth1208]

I created an account here just to say that while it does indeed sound crazy, this "milk trick" does work. We had boiled for a couple of days outside this year over an open fire and the sap had an ashy/smokey flavor. Researching the problem, I came across this post, and as the only other option seemed to be to throw the sap out, I was desperate enough to try this. Honestly, I thought there was a decent chance that this was a joke/hoax, but I figured it was worth a shot. Sure enough, the milk curdled and turned brown--it was easy to skim it out within seconds, the flavor was markedly improved, and the clarity was unaffected. We did it 2-3 times for that batch and it saved the syrup. If yours tastes smokey, give it a shot!