ADKX-tra Credit
ADKX-tra Credit
The Science of Syrup
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Do you like maple syrup? Here in the Adirondacks, maple syrup is more than just a sweet treat. It’s a major industry and a big piece of New York state history. Listen in to learn about the science behind maple sugaring, and about how Abbott Augustus Low pioneered new syrup making technologies around the turn of the 20th century.
The Science of Syrup
Intro:
What do history, science, and breakfast food have in common? Maple syrup! Maple syrup making has been a major industry in the Adirondacks for a very long time. A lot of people also know about VT maple syrup, and have strong opinions about whether NY or VT syrup is better, but I like any syrup! Both NY and VT are syrup producing states, and often share resources. It might seem like getting this sweet golden syrup from trees is magic, it's actually science!
TRANSITION - ADKX Podcast Intro - Ready to earn some extra credit? You are listening to ADKX-tra Credit, a podcast for students about the history of the Adirondack Mountains and the people that have lived, worked, and played here. The Adirondack Experience, the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, is located in the heart of the Adirondack Park of New York State.
Content
Today we are going to focus on the science of maple syrup, and next year in March, we’ll talk more about the history of maple syrup in the Adirondacks.
Let's start with what exactly maple syrup is, and how it's made. Maple syrup is made from the Sap of the sugar maple tree. Sap is the liquid that carries nutrients inside all plants. Have you ever picked a dandelion and gotten sticky white goo on your hands? That's the sap of the dandelion! The sap of sugar maple trees is clear and watery, and very slightly sweet. There are lots of different kinds of maple trees, but we mostly make syrup from the sap of the sugar maple, because it is the sweetest.
Even though the sugar maple sap is the sweetest, the amount of sucrose, or sugar, is still very small straight from the tree. Only about 2 to 2.5 percent of raw sap is sucrose. This means that raw sap has only a very slightly sweet taste. But maple syrup is so sweet some recipes use it instead of normal sugar! How does that happen?
98% of the water has to be removed from the raw sap to make maple syrup, that's so much water, that it takes about 40-50 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of maple syrup. The water is removed from the sap using evaporation. Evaporation is the process that turns a liquid, like water, into a gas, like steam. The sap gets boiled for a long time, so that most of the water can evaporate and return to the environment, leaving the remaining sap with a much higher content of sucrose.
The boiling point of water, that is, the temperature water has to be to start boiling, is 212* fahrenheit, but the boiling point of finished maple syrup, 7 degrees higher, or 219*! This is because of the higher sugar content in maple syrup.
Sap officially becomes syrup when it reaches a 66 or 67 on the brix scale. The brix scale is used to measure the concentration of sugar in a solution like syrup or honey. In other words, sap becomes syrup when it has a concentration of 66-67% sucrose, way more than the 2-2.5% in raw sap! At lower concentrations of sugar, 65% or less, microbes can grow in the syrup, and cause it to spoil(EWWWWW). At higher concentrations, 68% or more, the sugar will start to crystalize, instead of staying liquid. Have you ever found sugar crystals in your maple syrup? I have! I like to take them out and eat them as a treat, like maple rock candy!
Transition:
Because syrup is such a profitable industry, people have been working to make collecting sap and turning it into syrup the most efficient process possible. This has led to many innovations and inventions.
An Adirondack business man was one of the first people to create and use this new more efficient technology. His name was Abbot Agustus Low, or A. A. Low for short, and he was a successful entrepreneur and inventor in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He made and sold lots and lots of syrup, and used an innovative system of pipes and tubes connected to the trees to move the sap from tree to boiler without using buckets. This was faster and required fewer workers than the old way of collecting sap in buckets, then dumping each of those buckets into a large vat on a sled, and pulling that vat all the way to the sugar shack to be boiled.
Let's listen to how the president of A. A. Low’s company described his sugar operation, which was located near Tupper Lake:
New voice:
Horseshoe Forestry Company had about fourteen miles of railroad which came in handy. Much of the sap was transported in tanks mounted on railroad flat cars. Where possible the sap was piped directly to the evaporators. Some of the sap was also transported in tanks mounted onto horse drawn sleds. Horseshoe Forestry Company tapped 50 thousand trees. They operated 3 different sugar bushes. One at maple valley which had five steam evaporators, one at wake robin which also had five evaporators, and one at grass river which was a smaller unit. The sugar house at maple valley was ultra modern. The flow of sap was controlled from the receiving tanks to the evaporators by means of float valves and baffles. It was a continuous operation.
The sap would enter at one end and come out at the other as syrup. This was very much like a modern assembly plant. At the lower end of the evaporators there was always a supply of barrels, which were filled with syrup and stored at Horseshoe until bottled or made into sugar.
Transition:
Maple syrup is still a major industry here in the Adirondacks. Many different kinds of people make syrup, from grandpas with hobby sugar bushes to big companies that sell their syrup all over the country, Maple syrup is an important cash crop for Adirondackers. Smaller sugar bushes often use the old way of collecting sap. Using individual spouts and buckets that get collected daily. While bigger sugar operations usually use a more modern version of the same pipe and tube system A. A. Low used! Today sap tubing is made from flexible plastic tubing and is often blue or white, if you have ever seen blue or white tubing snaking between trees in the forest in late winter or early spring, you probably have seen a sugar bush!
Isn’t maple syrup an amazing thing? We got to learn about chemistry, food history, adirondack business, and one of my favorite sweeteners! Next year our march episode will explore the history of maple syrup. I can’t wait to learn more about this amazing food. Boy, all this talk of maple syrup is making me hungry! Maybe I’ll have pancakes for supper…
TRANSITION - ADKX Podcast conclusion - Thank you for joining us for an episode of ADKX-tra Credit. Ask us a question, or tell us what you thought by clicking the link above the episode description. This podcast is brought to you by Adirondack Experience, the museum on Blue Mountain Lake. Our mission is to expand understanding of Adirondack history and the relationship between people and the Adirondack wilderness, fostering informed choices for the future. If you want to learn more fun Adirondack history visit our website theadkx.org