Sunday, October 8, 2006

Kottke on cleaning up Maple Syrup spills

Last year, Jason Kottke had a maple syrup spill and requested advice from his readers. Here is a quick summary of some of the (mostly serious) suggestions on how to clean Maple Syrup:

  • pour a bunch of salt all over the spill (kosher or table, whatever you have), then leave it for a minute or so. the salt will soak up most of spill, keep it from spreading and make it much more manageable for cleanup.
  • pour a bag of flour onto it and walk away for a while. come back with the dustpan and a spatula
  • take a wet dish cloth, put it on the syrup and use an iron on the dish towel
  • find two hard, flat items (i.e. a dough scraper and a spatula) and put them at opposite 45 degree angles, sweeping together until they are flush. voila, syrup squeegee
  • Place a large piece of wax paper directly on top of the puddle of syrup so you get a good stick. With a spatula or paint scraper or whatever you've got handy, begin to flip the wax paper over by spooning the syrup onto it. Pretty soon you will have transfered all the syrup onto the wax paper and you can dispose of it quickly *and* easily.
  • Liquid nitrogen, and a chisel. Quickness depends on wether you keep liquid nitrogen around. Easy depends on how brittle the floor is.
  • pour some diet coke on it - the carbonation cuts right through and is a great cleaning aid, a can yields less fizz than from a bottle.
  • take out some ice cube trays, or drop a bunch of cubes into a metal container along the lines of an 8x8 cake pan, then cover the pan with a dish towel to insulate. come back in an hour, and the syrup, while not frozen, should be much more manageable.

Go read the full entry ... the real thing is much funnier than this summary.

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