Sugar sand ok to eat?

[Jaredd91]

Ok so my second real try at syrup went down last night i think i did preety good. I filtered through cheesecloth when transferring from evap pot to finishing pot but when it came to finish filter with coffee filters it just didnt work out it would hardly flow through. The color and thickness came out perfect in my opinion but im thinking i let it boil to long because im left with a bunch of sugar sand or niter on the bottom. My question is iis it ok to just mix it up and eat it i mean is it really just people wanting the most clear beautiful finish product or is it like actually unsafe to eat the stuff that settles to the bottom???19898 cant seem to post a picture without it being upside down

[buck3m]

Ok so my second real try at syrup went down last night i think i did preety good. I filtered through cheesecloth when transferring from evap pot to finishing pot but when it came to finish filter with coffee filters it just didnt work out it would hardly flow through. The color and thickness came out perfect in my opinion but im thinking i let it boil to long because im left with a bunch of sugar sand or niter on the bottom. My question is iis it ok to just mix it up and eat it i mean is it really just people wanting the most clear beautiful finish product or is it like actually unsafe to eat the stuff that settles to the bottom???19898 cant seem to post a picture without it being upside down

Back in the day with lead solder in the pans and buckets and whatnot, lead tended to accumulate in the sugar sand, so it wasn't a good idea to eat it.

For selling commercially, there are regs against visible sugar sand settling out.

But in my opinion, for family use, or for friends, the easiest way to handle sugar sand that sneaks by is to not worry about it. I just tell them what it is, sugar sand, which is minerals settling out. They are all delighted with their syrup.

[jrm]

I didn't worry about it my two years where I had some mixed in my bottles.

Once the niter settles to the bottom, don't try to mix it in, just pour off the top. And, if you wish, you could pour into new jars, but if you're storing shelf stable, you would want to reheat the poured off syrup to 185-190 -- at that temp no new niter will form. Pour into your clean, hot bottles, place your new lids, tip for half a minute and put right side up to cool.

[RC Maple]

You didn't say how you knew it was syrup. Unless you used a hydrometer, it could be that like you said - it was boiled too long. If that is the case, it may be sugar settling out and not necessarily sugar sand. If that's the issue you can heat the syrup in the jars to get the sugar back into solution and then add sap or near syrup until a hydrometer say its right.