Pickle Buckets

[Ahnohta]

We were given a bunch of 2 gallon pickle buckets.

They still smell after being left outside part of early winter. The fresh maple sap taste like pickles. We threw the sap out and pulled the buckets off the trees.

Is there a sure fire way to get rid of the pickle smell and taste??? Hate to give up strudy buckets and have a chance of getting a bunch more this coming summer.

Any and all advise appreciated.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have been using 5 gallon pickle buckets from Chick-fil-a for aprox 12 to 13 years. They had a pickle smell for years and maybe still do to some extent but never gave any flavor to syrup or sap. I just washed good with Dawn detergent as that is what I wash everything with and rinsed good and used them. Might try soaking them with water and baking soda a few days.

[maplehound]

I myself would be a little scared of the pickle smell. When I first got started in the syrup business I bought a blue barrel that had been used for apple juice. WE cut a hole in the side the size of a 5 gallon bucket and then put a bucket in the hole with the bottom cut out of the bucket. We used this for hauing sap for one season. some of the syrup did have a slight apple flavor so we decided not to use it again.
If you do need some buckets my sugestion is to go to your local grocery store bakery and ask for the buckets that they get icing in. The icing comes right out with hot water and leaves no odor or taste.

[Flatfoot95]

Like Maplehound says check local bakeries for icing and filing buckets. I have a Dunkin Donuts district bakery near by and get all of my buckets from them. They just throw them away. I get 5 gallon icing buckets and 3 1/2 gallon glaze buckets. They work great for temporary storage of syrup too.

[Fred Henderson]

Put a small platic bag liner in them.

[Russell Lampron]

The plastic bag liner works great. I used some of them in my leaky sap buckets and had no problem. My wife who does most of the gathering at my house likes them too. I am going to get more for next season so I don't have to wash the buckets after the season.

Russ

[Johnny Cuervo]

I just left them out side for the summer. They would fill with rain water, empty and wash out, smell was gone.

[markcasper]

Absolutely DO NOT put finished syrup in pickle buckets! Sap maybe. Syrup-no, if you do, you will be sorry you did.

[HanginAround]

Check your local dairy bar.... alot of dairies use plastic (2 1/2 Imp gl here) tubs now for bulk ice cream. I never really noticed any smell in them and they have snap on lids.

[MaplePancakeMan]

if you have a local college or one not too far away you can go see if they have extra buckets, i got 150 from one school. They order tofu in 4.5 gallon square pails so i took all i could get. THey didn't have lids but i just used scrap ply wood they also had buckets where they have fruid inthem in 6 gallon pails with lids.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I hot pack all my syrup in my pickle buckets and seal them tight and finish/can the syrup a couple of weeks later. I have done it for years and never had a problem. Not disagreeing with you Mark, just what I have done.

[Ahnohta]

Thanx to all for input

I guess if we can taste pickle juice in the sap, then its time to find new buckets or the liner method. We will try running the bakeries and the local college for some more NO cost buckets.



Hope you all had at least a satisfactory year. We were at about 80% of last year w/ off taste on the last boil/batch.

[markcasper]

You are fortunate to only have off flavor on the LAST batch.

[adamsmithnny]

An ol'timer told me the other day all you have to do is place the pail upside down and place a stone on the top. leave it all summer and in the fall it will be ready to wash and get ready for use. I guess between the hot sun and cool earth draws out all of the "impurities" in the pail and you will never know what was in them before.

[Haynes Forest Products]

So let me get this strait you go out and collect 200 gallons of sap and then you take extreme care and boil it down till you have 5 gallons of pure Maple syrup. then you filter it and huddle around and admire it. Then you filter it thru all sorts of things to get it as clear as possible. THEN you go out and get any piece of crap bucket you wouldn't put bait fish or chum in and put your hard earned liquid gold in it........................SAD SAD SAD:cry: I will send you the $5.99 so you can go to Walmart to get a new bucket with lid that only smells like a NON UNION WORKER:lol::lol:

[3rdgen.maple]

im with you haynes i just dont get it either.

[Bucket Head]

We used bakery pails for years to collect sap. They had filling/fruit filling in them and cleaned up nicely. No odors and no "tainted sap". There's a lot of free, or at least "very reasonable" containers out there. Nobody should be chancing their sap and syrup to questionable containers. Think of the cost of new buckets and/or 5gal. bulk jugs as cheap insurance against a ruined finished product.

Steve