The miracle of evaporation. A crucial step for the maple producer,
during boiling, the maple sap condenses little by little and becomes a syrup, taffy,
soft sugar or at the end a hard sugar. The maple flavor develops by a chemical reaction
between the sugar and amino acids, and by the effect of the heat.
Boiling
The boiling technologies have advanced a lot which makes the evaporation more and more rapid.
The caramelization of the sugar in the sap is weaker; this gives a syrup that is not
as dark with a more subtle aroma.
To make one liter of syrup, you need between 30 and 40 liters of sap; but depending on
the initial concentration of the sugar, you may need up to 60 liters. Strict cleanliness is
important at each step: boiling, filtering the syrup, pouring the syrup into the barrels or
the cans or making more refined products such as taffy on snow or in jars, soft maple sugar,
granulated or hard maple sugar.
In the very beginning, the evaporation was done outside in the fresh air, without a sugar camp..
A big cast iron pot was hung on a tree and was exposed to all the elements,
then it was dug into the soil. After a few hours of boiling, the pot of sap would became a
dark syrup. If the boiling is continued, this syrup would become a sugar paste that when
put into a mold will make loaves or blocks of hard sugar that can be conserved all year.
Later on, they made the bar longer to be able to hang many pots on it. At the turn
of the century, the pot was raised onto a masonry construction, which made the job of
watching the syrup a lot easier.
Before the general use of the thermometer, they would use homemade methods
to know if the syrup was ready. They would dip the paddle in the
syrup, lift it out and let it drip.. They would drip the third drop on
their nail and if it stayed there it meant that the syrup was ready.
Often, helpers would watch the bubbles on the surface of the liquid,
bubbles that were called belly buttons (navels).
Another instrument that was used was called a wooden hoe.
It consisted of a paddle with a hole in the middle. This instrument was used
to see if the syrup was ready to make sugar..They would dip the wooden
hoe in the syrup and they would blow in the hole. If the drops
that fell became small crystals, the sugar was ready.
Sugar molds were used a lot in the beginning of the colony, because they made
mostly maple sugar, it was easier to store and to transport. In the beginning,
they used cones made out of birch bark but these could be used only once because
they had to be broken to remove the sugar.
It was only around 1900 that they began to make reusable molds, made
out of soft wood. Later on it was metal molds and then rubber ones.
Many molds represented objects, buildings or religious monuments.
Many of the first maple producers associated the sugaring season with religion.
( During the lent period or Easter.)
We could see many molds representing, churches, missals, cathedrals.
In modern times
To ensure the evaporation process, they built more and more imposing "champions",
according to the size of the exploitation. These champions had
siphons that sent the sap to the "finishing", were the syrup was
pored into the barrels.
Electronic thermometer
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Most often they use thermometers, densimeters, colorimeters: First
quality syrup, which is paler, has a more refined taste, this is also
the same for taffy, sugar, jelly and maple butter. To obtain a good product,
you must rapidly boil the maple sap every day; cleanliness and rapidness
become essential.. When the sap comes out of the taphole it has fresh qualities
and clarity that tone down at the contact of the intensils and the ambient air
temperature.
A well nourished fire, made by mixing soft and hard wood supplies an abundant
flamme that licks the bottom of the pans, in this way the evaporation
is done rapidly like it has been suggested since 1915.
Make a fire that has a flame not coals, only open one door of the
furnice at a time, to prevent as much as possible, the cold air
not to flow under the pans, which will slow up the boiling and will make the
syrup darker.
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There are many differnet types of evaporators on the market.
Sometimes the large reservoir is in front of the fire and the finishing pans
are close to the chimney; most often, the cooking is finished in
front closer to the heating doors; in this way the sap comes in
near the chimney and flows to the front where the operation is finished.
Today, the larger evaporators are made out of stainless steel.
The main reservoir is covered with a semi-circular cover; tubes
make the maple sap circulate inside and the vapor condenses into hot water.
Seeing that less heat is lost, this system saves energy.
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Evaporator
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Certain very modern installations use a centrifuge force to eliminate a large part of the water;
so that what is left is very concentrated and needs less heat to produce syrup. This
expensive proceedure diminishes the need of heating; the quantity of liquid is highly
decreased after the centrifuge operation.
Eventually, maple producers abandonned the old ways of verifing the cooking degrees.
They now have mercury themometers and densimeters. In the last decades, there also
existes, an appliance called the automatic controler "Cholette" that assures that the
syrup comes out at the exact degree.
The fuel has also evolved. For a long time we counted on wood that was recuperated in
the maple grove. Little by little we added coal and sometimes even old tires.
Then came the oil burners and propane gas. Exploiting the maple grove became a
small industry.
The buckets gave way to the plastic tubing by which we extracted the sap from
the maple trees with a compressor. Nearly all operations are done automaticly up
to the pouring of the syrup that is of superieur quality because of the care that
is taken with the utensils and the handling of the sap.
Reverse osmosis unit
An instrument that concentrates the sap by reverse osmosis.
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Colorimeter
This instrument is used to grade the maple syrup by its color.
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