Scorching temp?

[325abn]

What is the scorching temp of syrup?

[maple flats]

If you do not have an uncontrolled foaming up in the pans you will never scorch any syrup. Scorching only happens if you have a heavy foam layer over all or part of the rapidly boiling syrup, which insulates the syrup, does not let it evaporate properly and then the syrup super heats under the foam. This is most often encountered if you have a pan off level and the boiling sap is too shallow in part of the pan. It can also happen with a level pan if you have a feed problem and do not correct it soon enough. As for temperature I do not have a number but it is often not a uniform temp. thruout the pan when you have a scorching occurance, so therefor it may not read on the thermometer. If conditions happen to threaten a scorch do not take the time to look at the temp because that might be too late, but rather get more sap in the pan immediately. You should always keep a pot or pail of sap (or water) handy if this happens. After you dump the sap or water in you can address the foaming issue and check to find the cause of too low a level in the pan. Might be out of sap, a stuck float valve, a frozen feed line, a level setting that is too shallow for your experience level, or any number of other things. This is why you never leave an unattended boil, if you need to leave and have no one to take over, let the fire die a little, add a little extra sap and don't be gone too long.
I only scorched a pan once, and that was a hung up float valve, and the scorch was confined to one small corner where the partition meets the bach of the syrup pan. I was talking to visitors and my wife was watching the pan, she immediately yelled out and I opened a ball valve in less than a second (so it seemed) but I still had to clean the syrup pan before my next boil and I sold that syrup batch in bulk because I could faintly tast the burnt flavor. Might be aunt Jamima had a drop of it that she put in to say "with real maple added".

[325abn]

Thanks for the explaination!

A better question may have been how hot is to hot or when does syrup "burn"?

Last night I had the temp shoot to 240 in my syrup pan beforw I got it under controll with a flood of cold sap into the syrup pan. After this things went back to normal.

[maplehound]

you where just real close to candy stage. If you pulled some off and let it cool a little then you would be able to stir it and make candy. It shouldn't burn as long as there is enough depth.