They say confession cleanses the soul...so I suppose I'll see how it works for cleansng the pan. I'm brand new to this hobby and have done lots of reading both here and other sites. After a week of collecting practically nothing from 22 taps Saturday we finally collected 11 gallons from 17 taps Saturday night. Sunday we took the opportunity to visit a couple of Sugarbush here in Northern lower Michigan. Well I don't have my block fire arch finished but yesterday afternoon I wasn't about to let something as minor as an arch deter me from making my first quart or so of syrup so I hooked up my fish cooker burner and put one of my brand new 12x24x8" steam pans on and proceeded with my first boil. Pre-heating on the cook stove inside it went along very smoothly and much quicker than I had thought/feared. So smoothly it went that by the time I poured in the last of the sap I thought I deserved a break for dinner and a couple of home brews.
I had what I thought was well over a gallon in the pan yet my thermometer indicated there was a good ways to go for it to be syrup. First mistake! So with a big self pat on the back I kicked back and enjoyed a wonderful dinner my wife prepared and even complimented myself on what an accomplished brewmaster I had become. Second mistake!
And finally, since I'm fairly recently retired I'm all about convenience. I set up the fish cooker and boiling operation right outside the front door so it would be easy to tote the pre-warmed sap out to keep the boil going. Third mistake!
Well, when I finally decided to get up off my happy arse to go bring in what I knew would be the finest almost maple syrup I had ever made...well I could see the flames roaring. When I got the burner and propane bottle shut down and with the help of a couple of thick hot pads my wife had made I got the still flaming pan moved away from the house and door and with the comfort of a few expletives I stood and watched how well and thorough sugar reduces itself to ashes and carbon given a little help of heat.
I've had to chuckle at myself this morning while I'm once again boiling down in yet another new pan, the 16 gallons we collected last evening...all with the benefit of lesson learned freshly implanted in the front of my brain.
Now to check the effectiveness of conffessionary pan cleaning
