Rhubarb Syrup

The rhubarb trimmings that were shading my peas have been made into syrup.

I chopped up the rhubarb and covered it with water.  I cooked the rhubarb for about 15 minutes or so, until it was pretty much boiled mush.  Then I strained it a few times through some cheesecloth to get a nice pink juice.

I ended up with 13 cups of juice.  Into the pot with 6 1/2 cups of sugar (I make my syrup with a 2:1 ratio of juice to sugar).  I cooked it down for quite awhile (about 45 minutes).  The pre-sugared juice was low in natural sugar so it took longer.  I used my candy thermometer and cooked it until it reached 218ºF (or pretty close to it).  Somewhere between 215ºF-220ºF is where I like to cook it, anything past that starts to get too close to jelly stage.  I then processed it in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

I ended up with 8 250-ml jars of a nice dark pink syrup that has a tart undertone.  Yum!