How to Make Sugar Cane Syrup on the Kettle
Everthing you need to know to make this delicious treat
How-to:
Sugar cane syrup is made by evaporating cane juice to concentrate the sugar content of the juice. This requires a continuous boiling process of from three to four hours at about 210 degrees Fahrenheit. The juice must be skimmed and clarified throughout the procedure.
During the first minutes of cooking impurities will begin to rise and form as a thick dreggy foam on top of the juice. Only when the juice begins to bubble through this foam should the heat be reduced and the dregs removed. This is the first time that skimming should be done, though dregs from this point on should be skimmed as they accumulate. The inner ring should now be put in place and the heat increased immediately after the initial skimming.
The heat should be increased to a point where the juice flows (bubbles) evenly over the inner ring. The boiling action of the juice will force the dregs over the inner ring. The dregs will then collect between the inner ring and outside rim of the kettle, these are to be removed as they accumulate. The boiling height of the liquid must be maintained to keep the juice flowing evenly over the inner ring. This is the second most important step in producing clean syrup-next only to the initial skimming. If for any reason this flowing process fails (the dregs moving over the inner ring) the juice should be skimmed of dregs until the boiling height of the liquid can be reestablished—by increasing the heat/adding a small amount of baking soda.
There are procedures that can be followed after the inner ring is put in place that will facilitate cooking and refining the syrup. Several gallons of water should be added to juice from cane that has been cut down for several weeks before cooking as well as to drought stressed cane. A teaspoon of baking soda, or several at different intervals, can be added (dissolved in a small ladle of water) to help bring the dregs over the inner ring. The baking soda can be used to raise the boiling height of the juice should it drop while cooking. A small cup or so of lemon juice can be added to the cane juice to prevent a salty taste/retard crystalization especially useful for cane grown with ammonia nitrate.
The juice will darken and begin jumping when nearing syrup. Strips of coker sacks can be placed next to the inner ring to prevent impurities from going back into the kettle. The amount of heat is reduced as the syrup nears the proper thickness (32 to 33 degrees on the syrup hydrometer). The last few degrees should be cooked slowly to prevent burning the syrup and causing heat coagulation which appears as a dark settlement in the bottled syrup.
The thickness of the syrup can also be checked in the final stages of cooking by allowing some syrup to flake off the skimmer. Some syrup can be put in a jar and cooled in water to check for thickness. The syrup should be cooked to about 32 to 33 degrees on the syrup hydrometer. Syrup cooked beyond 34 degrees will probably sugar.
When the proper degree of thickness is reached, the heat is cut off and the dampener opened to cool the syrup quickly since the syrup will continue to cook as long as it remains in the heated kettle. Occasionally, during the cooling process a dreggy foam may form on top of the syrup which should be skimmed off. When the syrup begins to bubble through the foam, it should be taken up and strained through a clean coker sack/cloth baby diaper or flannel while still hot.
Notes:
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Cane juice can be left in the kettle overnight if the initial skimming is completed before leaving for the night. Juice can sour overnight in the kettle if not skimmed, as well as in the holding tank, if the weather is too warm. Juice that is too sour must be discarded. However, juice that is slightly sour is easier to cook and produces a clearer syrup; dregs tend to rise easier in juice that is slightly sour. In fact, cane is usually cut down after the first frost for this reason.
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