The purpose of this blog is to tap into something sweet at the Shabbat table. Please print and share.
How did everyone at your table do on last week's bottle test?
This week, a little magic.
If
you’ve ever tasted maple syrup then you know it is one of the most
amazing flavors in the world. (Maybe second only to chocolate.)
It's hard to believe, but I actually know someone who has never tasted real maple syrup. His entire life he has only known imitation.
First question for your table - what would you guess they make Log Cabin syrup from? Bear in mind that the bottle proclaims in giant letters, "NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP"
Answer: corn syrup. Just not "high fructose".
So let's go back to maple. Two more questions for your table:
2. Would you guess that it's good or bad for you?
3. How is it made?
It is of course the sap of the maple tree. But don’t think you could just drill a hole in a maple tree and enjoy the sap!
In this picture, you are looking at the Seinfeld family's first ever maple tap. It's hard to see in the photo, but the bottle is about half-full of a clear liquid.
So here's the lo-down.
All spring and summer trees and all plants are making sugar. Sunlight hitting those green leaves, good ol' fashioned photosynthesis.
But what do you do if you're a tree in a cold climate, where the winter freeze will destroy your leaves?
Easy - you drop the leaves when it gets cold and grow new ones when it warms up again.
But wait, you need energy to grow, and your energy comes from photosynthesis, and you've lost all your leaves!
Answer - all summer when you're making all that sugar, store some extra in your roots, kind of like a squirrel storing nuts. Then, in late winter, when it's still freezing at night but above freezing in the day, that temperature differential creates a pressure differential which starts pumping the sap up through those xylem.
For a magical week or two, that sap will contain a high concentration of sugar, and certain maple trees for some reason contain even more sugar than other trees. Maple sap also contains unusual amino acids which give the syrup that special maple flavor.
The tappers wait until the weather is just right – not too warm but not too cold – to drill a small hole into the tree and take some of the rising sap. Typically, this occurs in mid-to-late-February.
But if you would taste that sap, it would taste almost like water. To turn it into tasty syrup requires heating precisely to 7 degrees above boiling. It takes 40 or more gallons of watery sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.
In other words, even if we fill that bottle a couple times, we're not going to get much syrup.
Besides tasting amazing, maple syrup contains:
• Polyphenols, compounds that work as antioxidants
• Zinc, mangnesium, calcium and potassium
• Less sugar and calories than honey and agave syrup – even less than sugar!
When they tap the tree properly, it doesn’t harm the tree at all. The tap hole will heal and the same tree may be tapped for many years and live just as long. Tapping removes only about 10 percent of the tree’s sugar, not a problem for a healthy tree.
How about other trees? A new trend is to make birch syrup. Would you try it?
In addition to tapping our first maple tree this week, we also made our first maple candy. It's easier than I'd thought.
1. Pour an inch or two of maple syrup into a saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. When it has the color and consistency of creamy hand soap, pour into ice cube tray or other small molds (silicon is best). Or just dribble on a baking sheet.
The first time we tried it, we let it simmer too long: it was slightly burnt and the candies were rock-hard.
The second time we nailed it and now have an unparalleled melt-in-your-mouth treat for Shabbat.
Final two questions for your table:
4. There is a trend to tap and sap other trees, including birch and oak. Would you try birch or oak syrup?
5. If you don't agree that maple is the most amazing flavor in the world, what is and where does it come from?
How did everyone at your table do on last week's bottle test?This week, a little magic.
If
you’ve ever tasted maple syrup then you know it is one of the most
amazing flavors in the world. (Maybe second only to chocolate.)It's hard to believe, but I actually know someone who has never tasted real maple syrup. His entire life he has only known imitation.
First question for your table - what would you guess they make Log Cabin syrup from? Bear in mind that the bottle proclaims in giant letters, "NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP"
Answer: corn syrup. Just not "high fructose".
So let's go back to maple. Two more questions for your table:
2. Would you guess that it's good or bad for you?
3. How is it made?
It is of course the sap of the maple tree. But don’t think you could just drill a hole in a maple tree and enjoy the sap!
In this picture, you are looking at the Seinfeld family's first ever maple tap. It's hard to see in the photo, but the bottle is about half-full of a clear liquid.
So here's the lo-down.
All spring and summer trees and all plants are making sugar. Sunlight hitting those green leaves, good ol' fashioned photosynthesis.
But what do you do if you're a tree in a cold climate, where the winter freeze will destroy your leaves?
Easy - you drop the leaves when it gets cold and grow new ones when it warms up again.
But wait, you need energy to grow, and your energy comes from photosynthesis, and you've lost all your leaves!
Answer - all summer when you're making all that sugar, store some extra in your roots, kind of like a squirrel storing nuts. Then, in late winter, when it's still freezing at night but above freezing in the day, that temperature differential creates a pressure differential which starts pumping the sap up through those xylem.
For a magical week or two, that sap will contain a high concentration of sugar, and certain maple trees for some reason contain even more sugar than other trees. Maple sap also contains unusual amino acids which give the syrup that special maple flavor.
The tappers wait until the weather is just right – not too warm but not too cold – to drill a small hole into the tree and take some of the rising sap. Typically, this occurs in mid-to-late-February.
But if you would taste that sap, it would taste almost like water. To turn it into tasty syrup requires heating precisely to 7 degrees above boiling. It takes 40 or more gallons of watery sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.
In other words, even if we fill that bottle a couple times, we're not going to get much syrup.
Besides tasting amazing, maple syrup contains:
• Polyphenols, compounds that work as antioxidants
• Zinc, mangnesium, calcium and potassium
• Less sugar and calories than honey and agave syrup – even less than sugar!
When they tap the tree properly, it doesn’t harm the tree at all. The tap hole will heal and the same tree may be tapped for many years and live just as long. Tapping removes only about 10 percent of the tree’s sugar, not a problem for a healthy tree.
How about other trees? A new trend is to make birch syrup. Would you try it?
In addition to tapping our first maple tree this week, we also made our first maple candy. It's easier than I'd thought.
1. Pour an inch or two of maple syrup into a saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. When it has the color and consistency of creamy hand soap, pour into ice cube tray or other small molds (silicon is best). Or just dribble on a baking sheet.
The first time we tried it, we let it simmer too long: it was slightly burnt and the candies were rock-hard.
The second time we nailed it and now have an unparalleled melt-in-your-mouth treat for Shabbat.
Final two questions for your table:
4. There is a trend to tap and sap other trees, including birch and oak. Would you try birch or oak syrup?
5. If you don't agree that maple is the most amazing flavor in the world, what is and where does it come from?
Shabbat Shalom
PS - Photo credit: my amazing wife, who is even sweeter and better for me than maple syrup.
PPS - If you want to tap your own trees and don't have any Kedem grape juice bottles around, click on the photo for a complete kit.
PS - Photo credit: my amazing wife, who is even sweeter and better for me than maple syrup.
PPS - If you want to tap your own trees and don't have any Kedem grape juice bottles around, click on the photo for a complete kit.
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