Maple volcano

[ecolbeck]

I was making granulated sugar with the light syrup I produced today. After boiling it down I had poured it into the mixer and started mixing when a minute later the whole thing started foaming over the lip of the bowl and all over the counter. I know that the crystallization process releases heat but I was surprised at the voracity of it. Nobody got burned and most of it was saved. Has this happened to anybody else?

[NhShaun]

This is why I'm still a little hesitant to try making maple candy or granulated sugar. Hope you didn't waste too much syrup with the mishap.

[lew]

Yes. All the time. And from my experience, the lower the invert sugar the more "volcanic" it will be.

[tcross]

this happened to me just before Christmas! however I wasn't so lucky. I got 3rd degree burns on my hands trying to put the pot in the sink. left a **** spoon in the sink and when I put the pot of syrup/sugar in the sink it hit the spoon and tipped the pot... pouring molted sugar on my left hand. not fun! a trip to the emergency room 2 hours later was the only thing I could do to stop the burning!

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

It happens more often than not. As soon as it starts to foam up pull it off the stove for a minute and stir then put it back on. Might have to do this 2-3 times but eventually it will settle down and give you a nice steady boil up to 260. You need to keep stirring lightly though to keep it under control.

[ecolbeck]

This happened in the mixing bowl not in the pot. Low invert sugars are good for granulated, right? I used my first batch of syrup for this purpose.

[lew]

Low invert makes it much easier to granulated. High invert can be difficult to get to granulated and definitely takes a lot more stirring.

[GeneralStark]

This is why it is a good idea to use a mixing pot that is considerably larger than the quantity of syrup you are trying to granulate. What are you mixing with?