THIS spring I have made maple-sugar of a much finer colour and grain
than any I have yet seen; and have been assured by many old settlers it
was the best, or nearly the best, they had ever met with: which
commendation induces me to give the plan I pursued in manufacturing it.
The sap having been boiled down in the sugar-bush from about sixteen
pailsful to two, I first passed it through a thin flannel bag, after the
manner of a jelly-bag, to strain it from the first impurities, which are
great. I then passed the liquor through another thicker flannel into the
iron pot, in which I purposed boiling down the sugar, and while yet
cold, or at best but lukewarm, beat up the white of one egg to a froth,
and spread it gently over the surface of the liquor, watching the pot
carefully after the fire began to heat it, that I might not suffer the
scum to boil into the sugar. A few minutes before it comes to a boil,
the scum must be carefully removed with a skimmer, or ladle,--the former
is best. I consider that on the care taken to remove every particle of
scum depends, in a great measure, the brightness and clearness of the
sugar. The best rule I can give as to the sugaring-off, as it is termed,
is to let the liquid continue at a fast boil: only be careful to keep it
from coming over by keeping a little of the liquid in your stirring-
ladle, and when it boils up to the top, or you see it rising too fast,
throw in a little from time to time to keep it down; or if you boil on a
cooking-stove, throwing open one or all the doors will prevent boiling
over. Those that sugar-off outside the house have a wooden crane fixed
against a stump, the fire being lighted against the stump, and the
kettle suspended on the crane: by this simple contrivance, (for any
bush-boy can fix a crane of the kind,) the sugar need never rise over if
common attention be paid to the boiling; but it does require constant
watching: one idle glance may waste much of the precious fluid. I had
only a small cooking-stove to boil my sugar on, the pots of which were
thought too small, and not well shaped, so that at first my fears were
that I must relinquish the trial; but I persevered, and experience
convinces me a stove is an excellent furnace for the purpose; as you can
regulate the heat as you like.
One of the most anxious periods in the boiling I found to be when the
liquor began first to assume a yellowish frothy appearance, and cast up
so great a volume of steam from its surface as to obscure the contents
of the pot; as it may then rise over almost unperceived by the most
vigilant eye. As the liquor thickens into molasses, it becomes a fine
yellow, and seems nothing but thick froth. When it is getting pretty
well boiled down, the drops begin to fall clear and ropy from the ladle;
and if you see little bright grainy-looking bubbles in it, drop some on
a cold plate, and continue to stir or rub it till it is quite cold: if
it is ready to granulate, you will find it gritty, and turn whitish or
pale straw colour; and stiff. The sugar may then safely be poured off
into a tin dish, pail, basin, or any other utensil. I tried two
different methods after taking the sugar from the fire, but could find
little difference in the look of the sugar, except that in one the
quantity was broken up more completely; in the other the sugar remained
in large lumps, but equally pure and sparkling. In the first I kept
stirring the sugar till it began to cool and form a whitish thick
substance, and the grains were well crystallised; in the other process,
--which I think preferable, as being the least troublesome,--I waited
till the mass was hardened into sugar, and then, piercing the crust in
many places, I turned the mass into a cullender, and placed the
cullender over a vessel to receive the molasses that drained from the
sugar. In the course of the day or two, I frequently stirred the sugar,
which thus became perfectly free from moisture, and had acquired a fine
sparkling grain, tasting exactly like sugar-candy, free from any taste
of the maple-sap, and fit for any purpose.
I observed that in general maple-sugar, as it is commonly made, is hard
and compact, showing little grain, and weighing very heavy in proportion
to its bulk. Exactly the reverse is the case with that I made, it being
extremely light for its bulk, all the heavy molasses having been
separated, instead of dried into the sugar. Had the present season been
at all a favourable one, which it was not, we should have made a good
quantity of excellent sugar.