Food grade buckets $3 donation

[Crooked Cellars Farm]

I thought I would share this with the group as some may be able to use them. Today I went into Firehouse Subs for lunch. They had 5 gal food grade buckets with lids that they used for their pickles that they were "selling" for $3/ea. I'm not sure if this sub place is everywhere or not but we have them around here in NE Ohio. This $3 was more of a donation where the money is actually going towards firemen's/firewomens lifesaving equipment and other items they need. I thought that was pretty cool.

[Z/MAN]

I don't think you can get the pickle smell, taste out of the buckets. Some flavors just will not go away.

[Russell Lampron]

I've gotten pickle buckets before and the smell is permanent. After several cleanings and letting air out the smell is still there. They can be used for temporary transport of sap, like gathering, but not for storage. I use mine for sand and cold ashes. When I had buckets I also used them when I gathered. The sap wasn't in them long enough to soak up any of the pickle taste.

[Big_Eddy]

I worked for a whitewater rafting company. We used pickle buckets as bailers. After a full summer of continuous pressure washing they still smelled of pickles. Leave them there.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Ed R]

I have about 10 firehouse buckets that I use for gathering and to transport sap from my 10 taps in town at my office. The tops work good to snap down. No smell after a month or 2, still I would not use them directly on trees or to store syrup in.

[Andy VT]

Picking up on this topic again since I just found the motherlode of 5 gallon food grade pails, but they contained pickles and BBQ sauce. And the vinegar smell can still be detected after industrial dishwashing two times.
I want to poke at this a little more.
I've only heard two answers on pickle buckets:
1) "I use them for sap storage and it doesn't affect the syrup flavor even though the smell is still in the buckets."
2) "Never use them; you can never get the smell to go away."

But what I've never heard is:
3) "I tried using them and it did actually affect the syrup flavor."

Is there anyone in this last category?
is there anyone in that first category?

[Pdiamond]

This is what I can tell you. We use vinegar and water to clean the evaporator and pans and rinse well. It's a different vinegar only in that it does not contain spices. i have used a five gallon pail that was washed several times, and allowed to air dry for 6 months, then washed again. It is still being used to collect sap from trees with no effect on the sap. The BBQ buckets will be easier to clean out, but may always have a reddish orangeish tint to them. In my opinion, and others may not agree, if you think they will work and you can spend the time cleaning them, go for it.

[Andy VT]

Thanks for that Pdiamond!
Anyone else have actual experience using "savory" buckets? To be clear, the intended use is tubing drops into the buckets at the trees.
The buckets are extremely clean and look like new, but I'm still getting cold feet already... but also thinking this might be a good experiment for the good of all backyarders, as well as all landfills that are filling up with single-use 5-gallon pails.

For the experiment, I'm imagining I could do 100% "sweet" buckets for the season, but then for one or two runs, switch to the "savory" buckets, and see if anyone can tell the difference in syrup flavor. And it only counts if Mark Isselhardt can be one of the tasters.

[DrTimPerkins]

One of my techs yrs ago got ahold of a bunch of Jalapeño pepper buckets. He cleaned them multiple times with a really strong soap used in science labs and rinsed them really well. Made some interesting (accidentally) Jalapeño flavored beer. He couldn’t stand the thought of tossing out beer so he drank it all (I didn’t make it past one sip).

Occasionally syrup gets submitted for contests in reused jars. Usually not difficult to tell what was originally in them. :(

My recommendation…skip the pickle buckets.

[Andy VT]

Awesome, OK, I've heard all I need to hear to stay away from the pickle buckets!
So far, I've heard a lot of positive reviews and never a negative review on using plastic food grade buckets that originally contained cake frosting/icing.
Is this the general consensus?
These are more work to obtain but are obtainable for free around here.

So far I've only used brand new buckets but they sure do add up if adding some taps to the operation!

[Sugar Bear]

Awesome, OK, I've heard all I need to hear to stay away from the pickle buckets!
So far, I've heard a lot of positive reviews and never a negative review on using plastic food grade buckets that originally contained cake frosting/icing.
Is this the general consensus?
These are more work to obtain but are obtainable for free around here.

So far I've only used brand new buckets but they sure do add up if adding some taps to the operation!

I have used 5 gallon pickle buckets as well and had your concern. I don't think it had any impact on syrup flavor.

A ways back I got to some thinking about this kind of thing.

Smell detection does not really mean you will be able to taste anything from the smells source. However, we by nature think that we will, mostly because it often does.

Taste buds are designed to work off much larger/substantial/sizable amounts of substance. Your nose is designed to work off MUCH smaller particles.

You do not taste with your nose, you taste with your tung a much different organ.

When I was suspicious of my green pickle buckets that still smelled of pickles, and after washing them well they still smelled, I went after the source with my tung and buds, so I stuck my head up inside the bucket and licked the side of the bucket to see if I could taste pickles.

I could not, so I trusted in my taste buds over my nose and used a few.

Now .... only a small percentage of my collection was done with pickles pails so my test scenario is NOT solid.

Additionally, if you are going to stow/stew for any considerable time sap/syrup in polymers with a preexisting smell, all money and bets are off the table for me.

Also, if your pickle pails are green like mine are, they will warm your sap measurably faster than white buckets will.

[TheNamelessPoet]

I have a couple that had bakery stuff. BUT I only use them in an emergency. I DO have one that i always full of permeate water in case the pan is about to burn if I don't have concentrate nearby. I also have one full of permeate water that if I need to rinse off any of my stuff (like the scoop for foam, or any other minimal stuff) I have one for garbage too.

I am not touting my syrup as better than anyone's, let me preface with that. But I have had WAY too much syrup that I bought from other sugar houses over the last 5-10 years, that had off flavor. I am PARANOID about that.

I have a few people that I have convinced to give me HONEST answers, even if they think it will hurt my feelings. THAT is the most important thing. I have put aside a gallon of syrup before because I thought it was off flavor even when no one else did (thats a lot considering last year I only made 6 gallons... THIS I think is the most important thing, having honest reactions to the syrup. I am hoping to be comfortable enough with it this year to sell it. I wanted to get to a good quality before I started selling it.

Made amazing candy however and I bet the sugar I am going to make with the rest will be amazing also!

TLDR, make a batch completely separate if at all possible and try it yourself, and get some friends/enemies to test it and give you an honest answer.

Interesting point made in the yearly preseason meeting this year. Submit it to local fair/contests as a test. Most local fairs cost nothing or under $10.
#1 it is pretty much free.
#2 most of the time they are looking hard at flavor, and they give you notes. If you submit to 3-4 and 1 says it is an off flavor, take it with a grain of salt. If 3 of the 4 say it, you may have an issue.

[Andy VT]

Well, I did not use the pickle buckets, but I still had them in my possession until a few days ago. They were run through the cafeteria industrial dishwashing machine twice in the cafeteria from which they came and seemed very clean, though the pickles could be faintly smelled even then. But after having been stacked together from February until now, the pickle smell was stronger than ever, even from a few feet away, when I unstacked them recently. There will never be a question on pickle buckets again! Will not use!
I was able to give them away however, even with a warning on their pickle heritage. They will certainly be fine for just about any yard or garden use.

I _did_, for better or for worse, use frosting buckets almost exclusively. The jury is out on whether this had any impact on flavor versus brand new food grade plastic. I definitely intend to get judges opinions at the Champlain Valley Fair at the very least. I did have other potential variables on flavor such as outdoor propane heat, extreme slow boil (a strong simmer really) until the final kitchen boil which was strong, one case of an extremely large batch to see if I could darken the syrup, and probably other variables as well.

[220 maple]

The blue syrup bucket that the dealers sell in my opinion take on a foul smell if not rinsed for fermentation because of leaving a little syrup in them,the only way I’ve found to combat that problem is fill them with permeate, usually the first time I RO some sap for the season; let them soak for a couple weeks, permeate the great cleaner soaking up the fermentation smell!
Mark220maple

[johnallin]

The blue syrup bucket that the dealers sell in my opinion take on a foul smell if not rinsed for fermentation because of leaving a little syrup in them,the only way I’ve found to combat that problem is fill them with permeate, usually the first time I RO some sap for the season; let them soak for a couple weeks, permeate the great cleaner soaking up the fermentation smell!
Mark220maple

Best buckets I've ever had came from the local donut shop...contained fillings of various flavors - mostly sugar? - and clean out easily with no lingering smell at all.

Used to use them for collecting sap and never had an issue. I use them now exclusively in the sugar house for holding permeate and/or distillate off the steam hood, for cleaning evaporator pans and equipment.

Marked them all with big letters - Syrup Use Only! - so no one tries to grab one for car or floor washing.