Photo: James St. John, CC BY 2.0 · source

Syrup · From Bladwijzer

Maple syrup

Updated on 10 October 2026

• Makes: ± 500 ml from 20 litres of sap
• Time: a whole day
• From: Sugar maple

Ingredients

• 20 litres fresh sugar maple sap
• a sugar thermometer
• a wool felt filter or a double layer of fine cloth

Method

1. Strain the sap through a clean cloth. Bring a small pan of water to the boil and measure its boiling point with the thermometer: you will need it at the end.
2. Boil the sap outdoors in a wide pan without a lid, on a gas burner or a fire. Keep it at a rolling boil and top up with fresh sap as it reduces.
3. When about 2 litres are left and it turns pale golden, carry on indoors in a smaller, tall pan under the extractor hood, over a lower heat. Stay with it and stir now and then: at this stage it easily boils over and catches.
4. The syrup is ready when it reaches 4 °C above the boiling point of water, at about 104 °C, and runs a little syrupy from the spoon.
5. Pour the hot syrup through the filter: the gritty deposit, the ‘sugar sand’, stays behind. Fill hot, clean bottles with the hot syrup and seal at once.

Storing: Unopened, a year in a cool, dark place; once opened, in the fridge. Throw the syrup away if it goes mouldy. Over pancakes, waffles, yoghurt or roast squash.