We have collected a total of 10 gallons of sap from 3 trees over the course of 5 days, so we decided to begin boiling it down today. We have an outside propane burner that we use for brewing beer, so set that up and starting boiling. Unfortunately the day is very windy, and the flame burned out numerous times.
The sap itself was clear and colorless, and had a slightly sweet, slightly musty? or woody? flavor initially. After boiling to reduce to half the original volume, it was definitely sweet and the musty flavor was gone completely. It was kind of scummy and cloudy looking (top photo). When it was reduced to about 1/8 the original volume, we filtered it and it was crystal clear and slightly tan in color. We are cooking it the rest of the way down in the house (although we have been continually adding sap from the outside burner. Hope we get it all done today!
Hey, how did that end up tasting?
ReplyDeleteIt was very sweet, but oddly not that flavorful! There were no off flavors, it just seemed like a mild honey.
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