In making granules, cakes, or candied sugar, the syrup had to be cooked in addition to the syrup stage, and heated to 30-35 degrees above the boiling point. With no thermometers, indigenous cooks historically used age-old methods to determine the correct time to pour hot sugar. Pour the unripe, and never the sugar into the dry, glassy sugar. Pour it too late, and the sugar will burn for sure. Sugar making is an unforgiving activity, which is why learning the skills while growing up in a sugar producing culture is key to becoming an expert. It is difficult for a modern novice to duplicate such sugaring by an expert, especially without the use of thermometers. It is also difficult for an expert sugar maker to present the toys in terms of timidity and specificity. Making maple sugar in the historic native American fashion is really just a process that starts to jump in and should be embraced with passion.
I have demonstrated the historical process of Native American maple sugaring events and museum listening since 2008, and I have interpreted. historic-National American sugarcane since 2004. What follows is our process and method (WIEP*), based on the experience we have gained of renewing the sugarcane process in a strict historical-cultural framework;
Our juice was hung in iron casks over the roaring fire. Heat the fire hot enough to bring the pot to a rapid boil. As each hour passes, the juice becomes thicker and begins to show a golden-brown color. Each pot (4-5 in all) is reserved for stage juice during the evaporation process; the largest pot contains the freshest juice, and the smallest contains processed juice (usually syrup). In order for each mass to shrink by evaporation, it is then poured into the pot until the smallest part of the pot is filled with syrup.
This time we turn our attention to turning the mass of syrup into sugar. We usually use our copper and brass for this job, but we have also used iron pots for making sugar with great success. Although we aim for up to a quart per batch of syrup, as little as a quart will work just fine. The sugar must be made in small batches, and do not exceed one quarter. Each batch of syrup is placed in a pot that can hold about 3 times the size of the syrup. This is because hot sugar will swell when it cooks and needs a lot of room to grow. Don’t take this piece of information lightly, because it’s really surprising how much hot sugar expands, and how it overflows in just seconds (which is especially unfortunate when making maple sugar on the stove).
Popular precautions over boiling include dipping a wooden spoon into hot sugar, striking a cluster of pine needles across. boiling at the top, or applying oil to the edge of the pot. Our method of keeping a steady boil (and temperature), without over-boiling, is all around heat. Our cauldrons are suspended with a polished double hearth apparatus, which allows the cauldrons to migrate from directly over the burning coals to the sides of the flames. We took our derivation from an early 20th century photograph of an Ojibwa sugar camp, which shows this style of hearth, which allowed hanging pots in a way that allowed heavy pots to be stacked quickly and easily. The sugar must be kept at a rapid boil without boiling over, which must sometimes be adjusted with equal fingers while it is pre-heated. To remove the flame is not at all effective in making sugar, and also spoils the mass.
While we observe the steady boiling, we await the signs that are ready for the next step; that the sugar is cooked at a high enough temperature for a suitable period of time. Because we do not use a thermometer, we rely on the appearance and texture of the sugar during the hot season when it is best cooled. The hot, bubbling sugar should be twice the amount it was when it started, and there should be almost nothing through the foamy, bubbling sea. A shovel is taken, and the inside of the pot burns. If the hot sugar “foam” separates cleanly and slowly fills to the back, this is a positive sign that the sugar is at or near the fire to remove. Another sign we look for is a bag of hot sugar “foam”. This happens when the bottom gets a little warmer and as the coffee is picked up from the bottom of the pot and taken out, some brown “carmel” streaks bubble up to the top of the golden brown sugar. This sign is promised, but it can be easily burnt if left too long in the fire after such coloring, and this sign need not be present when it is time to pour. Although we do not rely too much on drip tests, we do prefer others. Drip tests include dripping sugar to see the string or drag it produces (juice, thick, thick, indicating dripping time), or dripping in the wind to look for a J formation (when the wind drops something); or wetting some shiny snow (if it stays and is playful at the same time, it is time). Since the hot sugar is ready to cool, it is probably the trickiest step to get down. It is a true “awareness” that the sugar maker must develop through experience.
When the hot sugar is ready to be turned into granulated sugar, we pour it into a wooden trough, where it cools down. An old time wooden mass channel and butter stick works well for this task. Be careful not to let any of us, as it has a strong burning capacity, receive the curved back of a wooden spoon, and push the cream sugar back and forth from the top of the channel to the other in a smooth motion. . As the sugar mass cools, it takes on a rock texture, and paddling with resistance becomes a little more difficult. hardening of sugar. We do not reduce the intensity of our paddling, and if necessary, we pass to another person to keep him strong and stable. the retardation in the pulse of the hot sugar shocks its consumption, producing huge masses of hard sugar instead of granulated sugar. Continued paddling eventually turns the peanut butter texture into a dry, granulated consistency. But we don’t stop paddling until the sugar has cooled to room temperature; Early closing can result in a cohesive glass sugar even after it has been separated. The fineness of granulated sugar can vary from runny to very fine grain, and most batches will yield different grain sizes. The sugar will vary in color from light cream to deep brown.
If hard maple sugar cakes or “candles” are desired, hot sugar is poured directly from the pot into greased wooden molds for cooling. Directly pouring sugar will result in candy in the dark usually with the slightest movement of light sugar. The texture of hard candy can be softened by hot sugar before being poured into molds briefly. After the sugar has solidified, the molds are removed and stored for consumption, cooking with, or for later use.
*WIEP: Wild Indian Educational-programs provides demonstrations of historic northern Native American ways of life at museums, reenactments and powwows.< /i>
