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Hickory bark syrup

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Loope:
I had tried to save the inner bark of a mockernut hickory tree that I cut for cordage or strips for weaving, but the bark was stuck tight.  It would not cooperate and had to be shaved off in pieces.  I had heard about making syrup from exfoliated shagbark hickory outer bark,  so I thought I would try with mockernut inner bark pieces since 8 to 10 inch inner bark chunks won't make a basket;)

The recipe is modified from a shagbark recipe I found online.

I took 1 pound of inner bark pieces, broke/cut them into 3 to 6 inch pieces.  I weighed it with a kitchen scale to get 1 pound.  Place these on a cookie sheet and toasted in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, being sure to watch regularly to keep from burning the ends... don't want burnt hickory ash syrup...

After 15 minutes in the oven, put the bark in a stock pot and cover with water.  I used 5 quarts of water.  Bring to a boil and turn down the heat to simmer.  I simmered for about 45 minutes.

Pull out the bark chunks and strain with a mesh strainer to get out the dust and small bits.  The I put coffee filters in the strainer basket and poured the tea through the coffee filters to strain it more.

I put the strained tea back in the pot and boiled it down some more.  I then measured how much tea I had, which was 7 1/2 cups.  So according to the recipe I found, I added 2 cups sugar for every cup of tea, so 15 cups sugar.  Bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar, and I continued to boil until a candy thermometer read about 219 or 220 degrees, which is the temperature I found for maple syrup.

Let it cool some and bottled while still somewhat hot.  It is fantastic!  You can taste the cane flavor from the sugar and definitely the hickory.  It is not like maple syrup in taste, but very good none the less.  I will definitely do this again.

So, when life hands you tight bark on your hickory stave, make hickory syrup!

Loope:
And the results... here is my haul from 1 pound of shavings...  This is really clear, looks kind of like maple syrup with a very slight reddish orange tint.

I figure most people on the site can find easy access to the makings of a wonderful syrup.  Total time for me, a few hours.

JW_Halverson:
Euell Gibbons said, "Many parts of a pine tree are edible!" in the infamous Grape Nuts commercials.  What he forgot to tell us is that it tastes like pine tree.   >:(

This sounds interesting, to say the least.  Problem is, I use less than a pint a syrup a year.  Maybe if my bees get busy this summer yet, I may get some honey and we can do a sweet trade!

Pat B:
...and John's honey is some of the best I've ever tasted!   8)

Loope:
JW, I don't do much syrup either.  Was given a pint of maple syrup for Christmas a year and a half ago, and still have some of it left... you wouldn't guess that from how much I just made :)  I do, however, have an incredible urge to make some pancakes...

I've never made syrups before... I am giving some to my family, and am going to pay close attention to what everyone thinks and also how well it holds up, that is, will it crystallize...?  If it seems the quality is acceptable, I would love to trade some tree juice for some bug juice!

Michael

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