If you enjoy making simple syrup at home, you may be wondering if simple syrup needs refrigeration. This is a common question because many types of syrup don’t need to be refrigerated.
When preparing food at home, it’s important to understand how that food needs to be stored. Even when it comes to things that aren’t strictly food, like simple syrup.
Anything you prepare at home has a high chance of going bad before you’ve finished eating it. So it’s important to make sure you store it properly to prevent it from happening too quickly and causing cross-contamination.
Read on to find out if plain syrup needs to be refrigerated or if it can be kept at room temperature.
Plain syrup doesn’t need to be refrigerated
If you’ve made simple syrup at home, you might be wondering if it needs refrigeration. The good news is that plain syrup doesn’t need to be refrigerated as it can stay at room temperature without spoiling too quickly.
This is because simple syrup is primarily made from a large amount of sugar to make the syrup. Sugar is a preservative that has a relatively long shelf life when added in large amounts.
It’s important to note, however, that plain syrup has a longer shelf life when refrigerated. This isn’t necessary to prevent bacterial growth, but it will help your plain syrup stay fresher longer.
Eventually, bacteria will take hold of the simple syrup and spoil it, making it unfit for consumption. But refrigeration can help delay this longer than if you kept your plain syrup at room temperature.
So if you’ve made a large batch of simple syrup and can’t eat it in a short amount of time, it may be best to store it in the fridge. As this will help it stay good for a much longer period of time.
How long does plain syrup last?
Now that you know how to store your plain syrup, you might be wondering how long it will keep. This mainly depends on the type of recipe you used for your simple syrup and the amount of sugar in it.
A one-to-one ratio of sugar and water makes a simple syrup that will keep for up to a month without a problem. However, it can keep for up to two months if refrigerated throughout the process.
If you’ve made a simple syrup with a ratio of 2 parts sugar to 1 part water, that syrup will last up to six months. However, it can last many months longer if kept in the fridge all the time.
This is because sugar is a natural preservative and helps keep things fresher longer when large amounts of sugar are present. So a much higher concentration of sugar and your syrup will make it much more durable.
However, you should keep in mind that this will make it much sweeter and thicker. So you won’t be able to achieve a lighter and thinner syrup if you want your plain syrup to last up to six months.
How to tell if plain syrup is bad?
If you’re making simple syrup at home, it’s important to know what to look for when your syrup has gone bad. These syrups have a very good shelf life, eventually bacteria will enter them and spoil them.
When this happens you don’t want to eat syrup that has gone bad as it can make you sick. So you should be able to spot the signs and know when your syrup needs to be thrown away.
turbidity
It’s normal for plain syrup to get a little cloudy, especially if it’s crystallizing a bit. However, it should not become very cloudy and look almost slimy.
When this happens, it is a very good sign that the simple syrup has started to go bad and should no longer be consumed. You can also test this by pouring some out to see what consistency it is, if it’s slimy throw it out.
Strange smell
It can be difficult to tell when a plain syrup has gone bad by appearance alone. That way you can smell it too to see if the scent has changed and is smelling past you.
Your simple syrup shouldn’t smell like anything if it’s plain sugar syrup. If it’s made with other flavoring ingredients, it can be a little harder to figure out if the smell is different or not.
Any plain syrup should never smell foul, musty, or in any way indicate that it has gone bad.
color change
A clear simple syrup should not suddenly turn yellow or orange. Just like a red sugar syrup shouldn’t suddenly turn brown.
Color changes like this indicate the syrup has gone bad and should no longer be eaten. The color should stay mostly the same and not change unless the syrup has started to go bad.
Final Thoughts
If you enjoy making simple syrup, you may be wondering how to store it. The good news is that plain syrup can be kept in or out of the fridge, depending on how long you want it to stay fresh.
The refrigerated plain syrup lasts almost twice as long as syrup that isn’t in a cold environment.
