The sap's running! Yay!! :-) - DPChallenge Forums

03/01/2013 04:23:36 PM · #76

Originally posted by Spork99:

Originally posted by Cory:

Originally posted by Spork99:

Originally posted by RayEthier:

Originally posted by JH:

Originally posted by RayEthier:
Getting back to maple syrup, I brought some with me during my last trip to Australia and seems it was quite the hit... so much so that I have been asked to ship some over.

Surprised you managed to get through the airport. Security here usually classify foodstuffs up there with rocket launchers and grenades.

No problems whatsoever. Mind you it was contained in a sealed can like This one. I do tend to shy away from most food stuff, since they truly have a keen eye for that.

Ray

Reminds me of one time I came back from Italy. On the way to Customs Inspection I saw a guy sitting on the floor devouring a large salami. He said, "It's so delicious and those bastards will just waste it."

Wonder how long it was before he had that massive heart attack? Ya know, given the egregious nutritional qualities of salami.

Real salami isn't cooked, it's fermented.

I don't expect that this improves the nutritional quality much.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

03/01/2013 04:30:21 PM · #77

Originally posted by Cory:

Originally posted by Spork99:
Real salami isn't cooked, it's fermented.

I don't expect that this improves the nutritional quality much.

I don't know about salami, but fermentation usually effects a profound change in the nutritional composition of foods (a can of Pepsi and a can of Bud are essentially the same except for the action of some yeast cells).

03/01/2013 04:45:28 PM · #78

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by Strikeslip:

Originally posted by Spork99:

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by Spork99:
Reminds me of one time I came back from Italy. On the way to Customs Inspection I saw a guy sitting on the floor devouring a large salami. He said, "It's so delicious and those bastards will just waste it."

When I was a kid, I remember we were stopped at the border (re-entering California from Baja) with many bottles of alcoholic beverages, but the above referenced disposal technique was not available ... :-(

(Turns out it was perfectly legal to bring in 1 gallon/person, unless you were a California resident!)

We got stopped at the CA/AZ border when we were driving back to Los Angeles and they confiscated all of our fruit.

The next trip, my dad made sure we were all eating apples when we got stopped...

There are checkpoints at state lines?!?!?!?!

"Agricultural Inspection Stations" please ... yes, it is illegal to enter California with fresh produce, in an attempt to prevent importation of pests such as the Mediterranean Fruit Fly; California provides an inordinate percentage of the country's fresh fruits and vegetables.

Produce, or any live plants.

They also had an aerial pesticide spraying program. They would tell you to go indoors while they sprayed neighborhoods with malathion.

Nice huh?

03/01/2013 05:08:29 PM · #79

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by Cory:

Originally posted by Spork99:
Real salami isn't cooked, it's fermented.

I don't expect that this improves the nutritional quality much.

I don't know about salami, but fermentation usually effects a profound change in the nutritional composition of foods (a can of Pepsi and a can of Bud are essentially the same except for the action of some yeast cells).

Ick. Pepsi and Bud are both disgusting, so I'll agree that it's probable they are essentially the same. However, there's a rather large difference between normal beer and soda. ;)

Although I do agree that fermentation usually does effect "profound changes" in many foods, but I don't think it has the ability to modify the problems in sausages like this - saturated fats and sodium. Hell, those are what keeps this stuff edible for years - nothing can actually live on the stuff other than a bit of mold - and I've often suspected that it's just living on whatever the hell floated by and stuck to the grease on the salami.

(and to be clear, I absolutely LOVE this horrible stuff)

03/01/2013 05:16:09 PM · #80

Originally posted by Spork99:

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by Strikeslip:

Originally posted by Spork99:

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by Spork99:
Reminds me of one time I came back from Italy. On the way to Customs Inspection I saw a guy sitting on the floor devouring a large salami. He said, "It's so delicious and those bastards will just waste it."

When I was a kid, I remember we were stopped at the border (re-entering California from Baja) with many bottles of alcoholic beverages, but the above referenced disposal technique was not available ... :-(

(Turns out it was perfectly legal to bring in 1 gallon/person, unless you were a California resident!)

We got stopped at the CA/AZ border when we were driving back to Los Angeles and they confiscated all of our fruit.

The next trip, my dad made sure we were all eating apples when we got stopped...

There are checkpoints at state lines?!?!?!?!

"Agricultural Inspection Stations" please ... yes, it is illegal to enter California with fresh produce, in an attempt to prevent importation of pests such as the Mediterranean Fruit Fly; California provides an inordinate percentage of the country's fresh fruits and vegetables.

Produce, or any live plants.

They also had an aerial pesticide spraying program. They would tell you to go indoors while they sprayed neighborhoods with malathion.

Nice huh?

My Great-grandfather accidentally took a big drink of malathion one day, mistaking the quart jar for his moonshine jar. He apparently was quite close to death, and they were rather surprised he lived. In fact, he lived for another 10 or 15 years after that incident.

He used to make the BEST Rocky Mountain wildberry wine. He really did just gather a ton of fruit and make wine out of it - stuff had to be 18%abv, but it was delicious.

His moonshine? I think the malathion may have been a bit easier to drink. ;)
Actually, that's a joke - it was darn good too, just strong - in truth he was a bootlegger during the 20's, and apparently ran quite the operation. :)

Message edited by author 2013-03-01 17:16:53.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

03/01/2013 05:59:55 PM · #81

Blue Cheese:

by Frank Luke

It's a mold that makes blue cheese veins blue.
Those who love this cheese aren't a mere few.
It's tasty though smelly,
Puts smiles in my belly,
Though for others, it's toe-jam. PU!

03/03/2013 07:09:59 AM · #82

Boiled down my first batch yesterday, 3.5 gallons (Imperial) to approx 500ml. Lovely pale gold syrup though I may still reduce it a bit more as it's a little thin.

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

03/07/2013 07:45:22 PM · #83

It's been a quiet week as the weather didn't go above 0 degrees during the day for 4 days straight and has barely been above that since. *sigh* However we are meant to get a veritable heat wave this coming week.

Rather than post images ad nauseum, I am simply dumping them in this folder and will update it as progress is made.

//www.dpchallenge.com/portfolio_mgr.php?collection_id=41003

Gordon_1

Nikon D800

03/07/2013 09:22:25 PM · #84

Originally posted by snaffles:

Boiled down my first batch yesterday, 3.5 gallons (Imperial) to approx 500ml. Lovely pale gold syrup though I may still reduce it a bit more as it's a little thin.

Where,s the pancakes sound yummy:)

03/08/2013 01:09:30 AM · #85

Originally posted by snaffles:

This collection is not browseable.

Neato.

03/08/2013 08:27:25 AM · #86

Wha....muzzerfekkaire...I'll go put it in portfolio instead. Dang it.

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

03/08/2013 08:35:55 AM · #87

OK this should work, let me know if it doesn't...

Maple Gallery

Message edited by author 2013-03-08 08:37:08.

Apple iPhone 5

03/08/2013 10:10:53 AM · #88

It works - thanks!

03/08/2013 01:13:38 PM · #89

Pretty stuff. I'm impressed.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

03/08/2013 01:51:49 PM · #90

Do you know if anyone has made syrup by evaporating the excess water under a partial- or high vacuum, allowing it to "boil" at a (perhaps much) lower temperature? I wonder how much of the flavor is intrinsic, and how much is due to the heat of the boiling process.

03/08/2013 02:06:50 PM · #91

Vacuum boiling equipment is not cheap and as a result it's only used by larger commercial operations. There is likely some carmelization of the sugars in the sap that contributes to the color/flavor profile, but since the vacuum boilers also use a fair amount of heat, it wouldn't be totally absent.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

03/08/2013 02:11:06 PM · #92

Originally posted by Spork99:

Vacuum boiling equipment is not cheap ... the vacuum boilers also use a fair amount of heat, it wouldn't be totally absent.

What about freeze-drying equipment? I think there are home models that cost in the hundreds ...

How much caramelization contributes to the flavor is is one of the things I was wondering about, but we'd need a sample made another way for comparison.

Message edited by author 2013-03-08 14:12:45.

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

03/08/2013 02:34:26 PM · #93

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Commercial producers commonly use a vacuum process. Apparently the yield is much higher as well.

ETA: turns out that's for sap extraction, from the tree, not the evaporation process.

Message edited by author 2013-03-08 14:36:04.

03/08/2013 02:40:25 PM · #94

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by Spork99:
Vacuum boiling equipment is not cheap ... the vacuum boilers also use a fair amount of heat, it wouldn't be totally absent.

What about freeze-drying equipment? I think there are home models that cost in the hundreds ...

How much caramelization contributes to the flavor is is one of the things I was wondering about, but we'd need a sample made another way for comparison.

Maybe you've confused the cost for a food dehydrator with the cost of a freeze dryer.

It's as expensive or more so that vacuum boiling equipment. With freeze drying the food is quickly frozen to a temp in the neighborhood of -55F then put under a low pressure with just enough heat to where the ice crystals are sublimated to vapor and removed to a condenser for removal (if it gets into the vacuum pump, it will quickly be time for a new vacuum pump). This goes on for quite some time, usually for days. Then the food is heated and the pressure lowered even further to remove the last bits of water that was still frozen in the food after the first drying step. All of this requires precise process, temperature, and pressure control and is expensive. I've seen some benchtop freeze dryers in the $10-20k range when I was looking into making my own dehydrated backpacking meals, but the capacity was pretty low. I decided to stick with the food dehydrator.

03/08/2013 02:41:44 PM · #95

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

Originally posted by GeneralE:
Do you know if anyone has made syrup by evaporating the excess water under a partial- or high vacuum, allowing it to "boil" at a (perhaps much) lower temperature? I wonder how much of the flavor is intrinsic, and how much is due to the heat of the boiling process.

Commercial producers commonly use a vacuum process. Apparently the yield is much higher as well.

ETA: turns out that's for sap extraction, from the tree, not the evaporation process.

Vacuum boiling is also done, it's just not as common as using a vacuum to suck the sap out of the trees.

03/08/2013 02:47:50 PM · #96

Originally posted by Spork99:

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

Originally posted by GeneralE:
Do you know if anyone has made syrup by evaporating the excess water under a partial- or high vacuum, allowing it to "boil" at a (perhaps much) lower temperature? I wonder how much of the flavor is intrinsic, and how much is due to the heat of the boiling process.

Commercial producers commonly use a vacuum process. Apparently the yield is much higher as well.

ETA: turns out that's for sap extraction, from the tree, not the evaporation process.

Vacuum boiling is also done, it's just not as common as using a vacuum to suck the sap out of the trees.

Mapletrader.com will answer all you guys' questions...and yeah I am not overly fond of the thought of vacuuming sap out of trees. Which is why I don't, and won't, do it.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

03/08/2013 03:47:04 PM · #97

I'm not suggesting vacuuming the sap from the trees, rather "boiling" away the excess water under extremely low pressure and at a low temperature in the processing stage.

03/08/2013 04:22:56 PM · #98

Originally posted by GeneralE:

I'm not suggesting vacuuming the sap from the trees, rather "boiling" away the excess water under extremely low pressure and at a low temperature in the processing stage.

Actually they DO vacuum the sap, the big operations do. Not a fan.

Anyway I put my filtered sap into a 4' deep hotel pan, set it atop the woodstove and let it quietly evaporate, then just keep topping it up until I get the itch to boil, usually around 5 gallons. Then I put it in a smaller pot, boil it (oh yeah, that's a lot of fun - NEVER turn your back on a pot of boiling syrup!!!) until it's ready, then pull it off the heat and pour into glass jars.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

03/08/2013 05:02:45 PM · #99

I've seen a small commercial operation in action in Vermont about 30 years ago -- in their "shack" they had a couple of (I think gas-fired) evaporative basins maybe 6x12 feet and a foot deep, with about 4 inches of liquid boiling away when I was there. Yum. :-)