CouesWhitetail Report post Posted November 9, 2013 One of the guys that worked for me this summer told us how to make mesquite syrup. My husband got all motivated this week and made a couple batches. Wow, I love it!! It's easy to make and tastes amazing. It's more of a dark caramel flavor than regular maple syrup. To make some, collect a bunch of ripe mesquite beans. Mesquite trees vary in their sweetness, so taste some of the beans to see if they taste good. If they do, use them. If not, find a better tree. This year our tree in the backyard made a large amount of beans and we didn't collect them until this past week. So they have been sitting on the ground since summer, which isn't a problem if you pick through them and get the best ones. If you see tiny holes in the beans, that's usually good because that means that the insect that can live in the beans has vacated the bean. So anyway, you can collect them ripe off the tree or off the ground a long time later. They will be good either way. However, don't collect wet beans and don't collect them during monsoon season (apparently there is a mold that can grow on wet beans and it has a toxin associated with it). Anyway, collect a bunch of very dry beans and put them in a pot and cover with water. You can break up the beans to expose more surface area, which should help get more sugars out, but you don't have to break them up. Boil for 15 minutes and then let them steep in the water for a couple hours. Some recipes online call for simmering them for 12 hours, but we haven't found this to be necessary. But do it whatever way you like best. After steeping, we remove the beans and then boil the water to reduce it down a lot. A full pot might reduce down in a couple hours of boiling to be a density that is very sweet. To know when it's done, just keep tasting it and when it gets to your liking, it's done! It has a complex flavor with an interesting and distinctive aftertaste. I have yet to figure out what to put in to thicken it up, but we don't really need it thick anyway. The kitchen smells great while it's boiling down! here is a pic of the syrup boiling down. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Curtis Reed Report post Posted November 9, 2013 Wow sounds great! I have a front yard full of beans every year... now I know what to do with them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted November 9, 2013 Wow sounds great! I have a front yard full of beans every year... now I know what to do with them. If you still have them around on the ground, you can still use them.......hopefully your tree is a sweet one. Velvet mesquite seems to be best. I am not sure how some of the non-native mesquites that many people have in their yards taste. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pixman Report post Posted November 9, 2013 Sounds very interesting Amanda but my brain keeps saying that won't taste good lol. I guess I will have to trust you. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Elkhunter1 Report post Posted November 10, 2013 I have yet to figure out what to put in to thicken it up, but we don't really need it thick anyway. Try Pectin that is what we use when my wife and I make jellies and jams. To make syrup just double the liquid to Pectin ratio. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted November 10, 2013 Thanks Stephen! I just can't get over how good this stuff is. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Elkhunter1 Report post Posted November 10, 2013 my pleasure, stuff sounds good I'm going to try some Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
StickFlicker Report post Posted November 16, 2013 So you don't add sugar or any other ingredients, it's just the beans? I would have never guessed they would be sweet. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
