Otherwise, pour the syrup into glass mason jars, leaving one inch at the top to account for expansion. If it’s in a small plastic jug, you can freeze as-is. In fact, it can be stored in the freezer indefinitely. Yes! Freezing maple syrup doesn’t have any negative impact, making it a great way to store it long term, Powsner says. (Maybe my family wasn’t wrong after all!) But if the bottle doesn't specifically say that you can store at room temperature, then it’s best to just refrigerate it. Pancake syrups, on the other hand, are often made with preservatives, meaning they can be stored at room temperature even after they’re opened. These rules are the same regardless of grade (Golden, Amber, Dark, or Very Dark). At this point it’s still perfectly good for cooking or baking. Opaque plastic doesn’t have as strong of an air barrier, so the syrup might start picking up flavors of other things in the fridge after about six months. When kept in the fridge with the cap screwed on tightly (which prevents crystallization), syrup packaged in glass or translucent plastic will last about two years before its quality starts to decline, Thomas says. To salvage the syrup, you can skim off the mold or strain the syrup, then reheat it to restore its flavor, Powsner says. This thin film of mold isn’t as dangerous as it is unappetizing. The concentrated sap is then boiled until sweetened to 67 percent sugar. It takes a lot of sap to produce a relatively tiny amount of syrup: At Baird Farm in Vermont, 90 percent of the water is removed in the first step of the process. Pure maple syrup is a one-ingredient sweetener made from boiled maple tree sap. But was this out of preference or safety? And does it matter whether it’s the pure maple stuff or a maple-flavored proxy? I spoke to a few experts to find out. While my family kept the opened bottle of Log Cabin in the pantry, after years of working in test kitchens (and developing several pancake recipes), I learned most cooks keep theirs in the fridge. How to store maple syrup, it turns out, was a big one.

What other kitchen habits did I need to rethink? So when I learned this wasn’t the case, I started questioning everything. I assumed everyone ate their chili over elbow noodles, put ice cubes in their milk, and kept their peanut butter in the refrigerator. As a kid I never questioned my family’s way of doing things.

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