Maple syrup

“ Even the bricks of maple sugar are not wholly trustworthy, though, as a rule, a better quality of syrup can be obtained by making it at home from the bricks. The ordinary adulterants cannot so readily be added to a crystallized as to a liquid product, though promising maple bricks are often made of brown sugar flavored with a little maple syrup. ”

“ With the increased supply of cane sugar there is little doubt that maple sugar would have almost ceased to be a commodity on the market but for its peculiar flavor, which, while objectionable for general purposes, created a special demand. Thus, while the cheaper and unflavored cane product has almost displaced maple sugar as an article of food, the demand for maple syrup and sugar as luxuries and flavoring materials not only keeps the industry alive, but calls for a continually increasing supply. ”

“ If you use maple syrup instead of maple sugar, allow two pounds of syrup for every pound of sugar desired. You will find this cream very sticky, and it takes longer to cream it up than the other, but it makes a delicious chocolate cream. Do not get discouraged and think it is not going to cream for you, for if you cooked it to the right degree, it will never fail to cream. ”

“ The girls and boys inspect the flowing of the sap, form a merry escort around the sledge that conveys the sap to the sugar-house, hang about the golden syrup boiling and bubbling in the big evaporator, and it is a noisy and jubilant crowd that gathers around the tin pans filled with snow, upon which is poured the smoking syrup that is, by contact with the snow, transformed into that delicious compound, "maple wax." ”

“ After a man has failed in one business, it is no sign he will fail in every other. Sometimes cane syrup is mixed with the maple syrup, which reduces the value of the product. It means hard and diligent work to study Latin, but it strengthens our brain or at least it gives it good exercise. ”

“ The above quotations will illustrate sufficiently well the processes of manufacturers and dealers in adulterating maple syrup. It is evident from this testimony that if the pure article be obtained when purchased at random it is by accident rather than by intention. Whatever may be the condition of the products when they leave the manufacturers in Vermont, New York, Ohio, or Canada, it is evident that all that part which goes into general commerce is subject to extensive adulterations. ”

“ By keeping up the work for a thousand years or so trees might be developed that would produce "real, old-fashioned" maple syrup direct from the spile without all this troublesome work of "boiling-in." Somehow on a day like this such an idea does not seem half so absurd as it will probably look in type. Canada is a young nation, with all the future before it. We are now laying the foundations of all the great things that are to be, so why should not something be done to develop the maple sugar industry? ”

“ One layer of wheat bread sliced thin, 1 layer of sliced apples, put on another layer of bread and apples and so on alternately until the dish is full; flavor with lemon, pour over all two teaspoons water; cover and bake one-half hour. To be eaten with maple syrup.
Berry Pudding.
1 pint flour, 1 teaspoonful cream of tartar, 1⁄2 teaspoon of soda, milk enough to make a little thinner than biscuit, add 1 pint of berries; boil 1 hour.
The sauce (served hot) : 1 cup of maple sugar, 2⁄3 of cup of hot water, 1 tablespoonful of flour, butter size of an egg. ”

“ As if I would dream of marrying, especially a foreigner. But for all that, pancakes and maple syrup are delicious. I've had them every day since for breakfast, after finishing a great orange four times the natural size, which isn't really an orange, because it's a grape fruit. You have it on your plate cut in two halves, with ice in each, and you scoop the inside out of a lot of tiny pockets, with a teaspoon. You think when you first see it, that you can't eat more than half; but instead, you eat every bit, and sometimes if the morning is hot, you even wish you could have more ”

“ The best syrup is made from it when first collected and it will spoil if the delay before boiling is too long. Often the fires roar and the sap boils for the greater part of the twenty-four hours. It may be one or even three o’clock in the morning during a good run before the man at the pan can let his fire go out [174] and snatch a few hours’ sleep. If the night has been warm gathering may begin again soon after sunrise and again he must be at his fires.
It is at the sugar house that the business of making maple sugar has lost much of the romance of old days. ”

“ No State has given to the nation more sturdy, dependable, keenly vitalized, strong-souled men and women than this, from the days of Ethan Allen down, and it may be that deep draughts from the potent purity distilled by the rough-barked, rock-rooted maples has more to do with it than we know. Maple syrup ought to be recommended to the schools. ”

“ Spouts like these were made and used by settlers of upper New York about 1800 to gather the maple sap after the trees had been tapped. Gift of Frank E. Olmstead, Potsdam, New York.
84. Cedar Sap Spouts, about 1800. USNM 194893; 1952. Sap spouts for maple tree tapping, about 15 inches long and made of cedar. The maple syrup and sugar industry provided some income for frontier farms, as well as providing sugar for domestic use. Although maple syrup often sold at high prices, the industry never achieved major importance even in the localities where it flourished. ”

“ A syrup is made from the sap, which is very delicate, and is much used for buckwheat-cakes. A large quantity of maple-sugar is made every year in the northern part of the United States, and in Canada. But it cannot be made so as to compete with the sugar of the sugar-cane in cheapness. ”

“ By a brisk and continual fire, the syrup is further reduced in volume to a degree of consistence best taught by a little experience, when it is either put into moulds to become hard as it is cooled, or stirred until it shall be grained into sugar. The right point of time to take it away from the fire may be ascertained by cooling and graining a small quantity. The sediment is strained off and boiled down to make molasses.
The following is from a Massachusetts paper:—
The maple produces the best sugar that we have from any plant. ”

“ It is best when freshly made, and unless put in cans and sealed while still hot it gradually loses its Flavor. Syrup made of dissolved maple sugar is often used, but it is less delicately flavored than that which is made at once from the sap. ”

“ Indeed, constant care and attention is required to produce a first-rate article: for though sugar may be made in almost any way where the sap can be procured, yet unless the strictest care is observed in the processes, in gathering and boiling the sap, clarifying the syrup, and in converting the syrup to sugar, a dirty inferior article will be made, instead of the beautiful and delicious sweet which the maple, properly treated, is sure to yield. ”

“ Along with the maize and tobacco, maple sugar had its origin among the Indians. For time unknown before the white man came to this continent the aborigines drew the sap of the maple tree and distilled therefrom a sweet syrup. The various tribes of Canada, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan all knew of this art. Where ever the white people came in contact with the Indians in a region where the maple tree grew they found them making this delicious sweet, and it was from them the white man learned the process. ”

“ The syrup is used chiefly as a substitute for jam or preserved fruits, and the sugar is used in country homes for sweetening, for cooking purposes and for the making of confectionery. The processes of manufacture have been improved by the introduction of specially constructed evaporators, and quantities of maple sugar and syrup are annually exported. ”

“ The sap from them when boiled down furnishes us the most delicious syrup and sugar in the world. When we seek the sugar, however, it is from the variety known by that name. The manufacture of maple sugar is a leading industry during the spring months in many sections, especially in Vermont, and some parts of New York and other states. ”

“ Like the curled maple, it is used for inlaying mahogany. It is much prized for bedsteads, writing-desks, shoe-lasts, &c. The wood forms excellent fuel and charcoal, while the ashes are rich in alkaline principles, furnishing a large proportion of the potash exported from Boston and New York. Sugar is principally extracted from this species, the sap being boiled and the syrup when reduced to a proper consistence runs into moulds to form cakes. Trees growing in low and moist situations afford the most sap but least sugar. ”

“ In the case of maple sugar producers the first necessity is a market for high grade, unadulterated sugar and syrup. This they should be able to secure without much difficulty through responsible association, which can guarantee the quality of all the product bearing its name or stamp. ”

“ The fire under the boiling sap should be quick and hot, as the sooner it is reduced to syrup after it runs from the tree the better the product. As the sap begins to boil a scum of bubbles rises to the top, which must be constantly removed with a skimmer, and the man who tends the fires, skims the sap and draws off the syrup has a busy job. ”

“ MAXIMS FOR MAPLE SUGAR MAKERS.
Be in readiness to get the first run.
Have all utensils thoroughly cleansed and scalded.
Employ none but competent and experienced men to tap your trees.
Cut away the rough bark, only, before tapping, leaving bark sufficiently thick to hold the spout firmly to prevent leaking.
The finest flavor and lightest color will be obtained by shallow tapping.
Gather often, boil at once. Every delay in the process of evaporating sap will injure more or less the quality of the sugar.
Always strain your sap. Use felt strainers for syrup. Boil down to 11 pounds per gallon ”

“ Boilers (probably of metal, introduced by the French) were next set up in the camp over fires kept burning day and night, and the maple sap thus boiled became, by concentration, maple sugar.
The women attended to all the business of sugar manufacture, while the men cut wood and went out hunting and fishing to secure food for the community; though, as a matter of fact, sugar and syrup were their main sustenance during all this absence from home. "I have known Indians", wrote Henry, "to live for a time wholly on maple sugar and syrup and become fat." ”

“ An allowance of 1° for every 500 feet rise has been found to be about right; thus at an altitude of 1,000 feet a boiling temperature of 217°F. will give the 11 pounds syrup. Syrup is not however usually brought to the required density in the evaporating pan but is drawn off a little less than 11 pounds net, [Pg 13] and brought to a uniform standard in larger quantities than would be possible in the evaporating pan. ”

“ One cup thinly sliced sweet apples cooked until transparent (in one cup maple sugar, and water to make a good syrup) ; when cool, add 1 cup dry maple sugar, 2 eggs, 1 heaping teaspoonful mixed spices, 1⁄2 cup of butter, 1⁄2 cup cream, 1 teaspoonful soda, flour till the spoon will stand in the middle without falling. ”

“ When a flavor is weak it may be fortified by adding a small amount of flavoring extract, but under no condition should a syrup flavored entirely with an essence be handed out to the consumer as a fruit syrup, for there is really no great resemblance between the two. Fruit syrups may be dispensed solid by adding the syrup to the soda water and stirring with a spoon. Use nothing but the best ingredients in making syrups. ”

“ Never add flavoring extracts to hot syrup. It will cause them to evaporate, and weaken the flavor. Keep all the mixing utensils scrupulously clean. Never mix fruit syrups, nor let them stand in the same vessels in which sarsaparilla, ginger, and similar extract flavors are mixed and kept. If possible, always use distilled water in making syrup. Never allow a syrup containing acid to come in contact with any metal except pure block tin. Clean the syrup jars each time before refilling. ”

“ Among infants, and in the early years of life, soothing syrups are the cause of untold misery; for seeds are doubtlessly sown in infancy only to bear the most pernicious fruit in adult life. It is said that one of the best known soothing syrups contains from one to three grains of morphia to the ounce of syrup. I believe that stringent legal measures should immediately be taken to stop the sale of so-called soothing syrups containing opium, morphia or codeine. ”

“ Flavoured syrups are made by adding flavouring matter to a simple syrup. For instance, syrupus aromaticus is prepared by adding certain quantities of orange and cinnamon water to simple syrup. Similarly, medicated syrups are prepared by adding medicaments to, or dissolving them in, the simple syrup. Golden syrup is the uncrystallizable fluid drained off in the process of obtaining refined crystallized sugar. Treacle and molasses are syrups obtained in the earlier stages of refining. ”

“ The principal uses of glucose are for table sirups and confectionery. Pure glucose as an article of food lacks flavor; for this reason the usual method of manufacturing sirups is to mix glucose and some other form of sirup or molasses.
Sirups and molasses
The original sources of sirups, besides commercial glucose, are cane-sirup, made directly by evaporating the juice of the sugar-cane; maple-sirup, made from the pure maple-sap; sorghum-sirup, or molasses, from the juice of the sorghum-cane, which is grown extensively in the South and Central West ”