Maple syrup...

GG Mora · July 23, 2004

I use Fancy grade for everything, because my relatives in Vermont own whatever you call the piece of agricultural property that makes maple syrup.
A forrest?

A sugar bush or a sugar lot. Might be many acres of sugar maples, might be the four trees lining your driveway. The little house with the evaporator and the giant stacks of firewood and the trademark vented cupola is either a sugar house or a sugar shack (take your pick). See here.

Foodie_Penguin · July 23, 2004

I like Grade B syrup, but agree with Steven about the pure flavour of A syrup.
Maple syrup is just one of those things I absolutely love to eat. I can drink the stuff.
I have a 1L jug of No. 1 MediumGrade A in my fridge at the moment (which is almost gone). It's my standby. And I've discovered that in the UK, it marks my nationality more than anything else. Almost all of my British friends had never had real maple syrup until I forced it upon them, thereby ruining their pleasure in anything served with "maple syrup" in restaurants here.
The only time I've ever had No. 1 Extra Light was in Lac Megantic, PQ. It's such delicate, almost floral stuff I think I'd want to save it for very particular applications.
Such as drinking it as shots, for example.

I'm British and I've been consuming Canadian maple syrup for donkeys years. However, I've never asked any British friends if they like it or have consumed maple syrup.

I put it in my porridge! :smile:

Squeat Mungry · July 23, 2004

I buy Grade B, but have never seen Grade C -- I bet I'd love it!

I drizzle it over shaved parmigiano reggiano. Very, very good!

Squeat

jgarner53 · July 23, 2004

Maple syrup goes very well with peanut butter on waffles.

There's someone else out there who eats peanut butter and maple syrup on waffles?! :blink: I thought Mr. Garner was the only one! (and I thought he was plum crazy, too)

I just bought my first bottle of Grade B and can't wait for Sunday to try it on pancakes or waffles or French toast.

jetsie · July 23, 2004

I prefer the stronger flavor of grade B. My Vermonter grandma used to keep some really powerful stuff on hand. I loved maple cream and maple sugar candy as a kid. (Still do.) Whole Foods used to carry jars of maple sugar chunks, which were way too tempting as a snack. Lately I've gotten pretty good grade B syrup at Trader Joe's.

Right now the kids and I are on a waffle/maple syrup kick. Someone :rolleyes: actually licked her buttery, syrupy plate clean the other morning.

scott123 · July 26, 2004

It has been really tough to cut the maple syrup out of my diet since I started low carbing. The sugar free maple syrups are pretty vile. I'm hoping to get my hands on a decent sugar free maple extract so I can make my own.

**andiesenji** · July 26, 2004

The best maple syrup I have tried is from this place in New Hampshire.

They have a "Cooking" maple syrup which has wonderful deep flavor and the price at $34.00 for a gallon is pretty good.

I also buy their granulated maple sugar which is better than the products I have bought from other sources.

One of my friends lived near this place and she sent me some of the cooking syrup a few years back and I was hooked.

torakris · December 17, 2004

I have just scanned over the past three pages.....

What I am looking for is savory dishes using maple sryup. I would always see recipes using maple sryup and then skip by them because it was too expensive here in Japan, but I bought a large jug on my last trip to the US and now I can't seem to find any recipes... :blink:

what are some of your favorite non-dessert uses of maple sryup?

memesuze · December 18, 2004

carrots glazed in maple syrup

and Squeat Mungry's shave parmesan intrigues me

foodie52 · December 19, 2004

Sweet potatoes with maple syrup. Can you get sweet potatoes? Yams?

Pork tenderloin, brushed with a mixture of maple syrup and wasabi. Or pork chops.

Jaymes · December 19, 2004

I used to make stuffed rock cornish game hens which, for the last fifteen minutes or so of their roasting, I basted with maple syrup. Pretty damn yummy. Need to make those again.

**andiesenji** · December 19, 2004

I roast a ham in maple syrup. Any kind of ham will do, but it really does a wonderful job on the cheap "loss-leader" hams sold in markets at this time of the year (or sometimes free with a certain dollar amount purchase).

These are always very salty and practically inedible (for those who savor really good ham) but my method has the effect of pulling a lot of the salt out of the ham and the maple syrup not only improves its flavor but also makes it more tender.

I don't know how available ham is in Japan or if you have the very salty ones.

Following is the method for this "recipe"

Following is a copy of the post with the recipe on 10/1/04

I should add that I did an 18 pound ham a while back and cooked it for almost 5 hours at this low temperature. It was almost like ham candy. Even people who don't like ham went back for seconds.

All About Ham, Ham goodness

Oct 1 2004, 05:26 PM

Post #4

I grew up eating home cured ham and nothing has ever tasted as good. Occasionally my relatives who still live on the farm send me a ham for the holidays. These are really big hams, nothing like the little ones in the market.

No dye to color the ham pink. It is more a dark red.

I have developed a "recipe" or method for turning a barely edible "loss-leader" supermarket BONE-IN ham into something quite acceptable. However it involves finding some inexpensive maple syrup - I buy the jugs of the stuff at Costco but Trader Joes sometimes has a sale on the "B" syrup which has more flavor.

You need a lot of it because the ham has to be covered at least half way with the liquid.

First you take your ham and trim off as much of the outside fat as possible. Then you take your trusty chef's fork or if you don't have one use an ice pick, and stab the thing all over, stab deep, right down to the bone. If you have a shank end and the shank is quite long, saw it off so you have something that will be easier to turn.

Then rub the ham well with dry mustard, use gloves and really massage it into the surface. Then

put it into a pot that is not too much larger in diameter than the ham but leaves you enough room so that you can lift the ham out easily when you need to turn it over. Start it with the shank end up, don't lay it on a side.

Add the maple syrup until it comes up well past half way on the ham, if you have enough, cover it.

put it in a slow oven, keep the temperature around 275, certainly not over 300.

At the end of an hour turn it over and put it back in for another hour.

Repeat until the ham has been in the oven a total of 4 hours.

lift it out of the pot and put it on a wire rack over a sheet pan or in the sink so the excess liquid can drip off. Then transfer to a dry roasting pan, turn the oven up to 350 and put it back in the over 30 minutes to brown.

When the syrup is cool, strain it and store it in the freezer, you can use it for another ham.

You can do this with a spiral sliced ham, one of the cheap ones that are usually way too salty, but you have to have it tied fairly tightly so the slices won't separate during the cooking.

torakris · December 19, 2004

no sweet potatoes, cornish hens or ham in Japan...... :blink: :sad:

keep the ideas coming though... :biggrin:

EdS · December 19, 2004

I'm thinking soy-maple bulgogi.

CaliPoutine · March 31, 2006

*BUMP*

My spouse just brought me home 2( 1L) jugs of Canadian grade 3( so I'm assuming its very dark) syrup.

Id love to do some baking with it. Anyone have any good recipes?

Aphra · April 2, 2006

All this talk about honey has gotten me feeling a little defensive about my maple syrup. I love it-- on my buttered toast (I adore the way it saturates; honey is regrettably more well-behaved and merely pussyfoots), in my tea, baked into desserts, whipped with butter and slathered onto muffins or biscuits, stirred into yogurt.
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I love Maple syrup, although it's fairly pricey in Australia, and you're more likely to get the "maple flavoured" stuff at cafes. The organic stuff is around $13 for 250ml, and ordinary CAMP brand, which is available at supermarkets is about half that price for the same quantity.

I've actually toyed with the idea of planting sugar Maples for myself, since I live in a frost and snow prone area, but I don't think I'll be up to caring about syrup after the forty years it takes to mature some trees. :blink:

Thanks to Verjuice for her idea about Maple syrup and yoghurt. Last week I bought a tub of "Greek-style" yoghurt which had some caramel syrup added, which was nice, but the caramel was pretty ordinary and commercial tasting. A nice idea, I thought, but could have been better done.

But now I have a better idea! Yesterday I bought myself a big tub of sheep's milk yoghurt, so I think lunch tomorrow will be yoghurt with a big drizzle of maple syrup. Yum.

Pan · April 2, 2006

no sweet potatoes, cornish hens or ham in Japan......
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Kris, what about using satsuma imo instead of sweet potatoes, and a small chicken instead of a Cornish hen? Those would seem like good substitutes to me.

JCD · April 8, 2006

Use it in a marinade instead of hoisin or other sweet additions.

We made our own years ago and did some raku beads and pottery in the fire (not about food but, well, sorry, you have to keep the fire going for SO long you have to figure out something else to do as well....)

melonpan · April 8, 2006

somewhere upthread, a kind poster gave <a href="http://www.nhgold.com/maple%20syrup.htm">this link to new hampshire gold</a> maple syrup.

are there any other places that people can vouch for as being good?

i have never had maple syrup. only the fake kind (maple flavoured syrup). id like to buy some online since apparently grocery stuff isnt in the same league (apparently?)... or is the difference only apparent to connoisseurs?

help...

jmcgrath · April 8, 2006

somewhere upthread, a kind poster gave <a href="http://www.nhgold.com/maple%20syrup.htm">this link to new hampshire gold</a> maple syrup.
are there any other places that people can vouch for as being good?
i have never had maple syrup. only the fake kind (maple flavoured syrup). id like to buy some online since apparently grocery stuff isnt in the same league (apparently?)... or is the difference only apparent to connoisseurs?
help...
←

It's not so much the source as it is the grade. A lot of people prefer medium-amber even though the lighter grades are more expensive. The sap gets progressively darker over the course of the season's run. Syrup from places that use wood-fired evaporators may have a slightly different taste, but that is most likely only available locally.

Jim

jayt90 · April 8, 2006

There is a glut of maple syrup in Quebec, because of poor marketing and an imposed control board.

This has meant a constant price of $10/litre in Costco, over the last 8 years that I have been a member. It is grade B, and recently (two weeks ago) topped the list in a Toronto Star taste test. All the other brands were inferior and two or three times as costly.

jayt90 · April 8, 2006

somewhere upthread, a kind poster gave <a href="http://www.nhgold.com/maple%20syrup.htm">this link to new hampshire gold</a> maple syrup.
are there any other places that people can vouch for as being good?
i have never had maple syrup. only the fake kind (maple flavoured syrup). id like to buy some online since apparently grocery stuff isnt in the same league (apparently?)... or is the difference only apparent to connoisseurs?
help...
←
It's not so much the source as it is the grade. A lot of people prefer medium-amber even though the lighter grades are more expensive. The sap gets progressively darker over the course of the season's run. Syrup from places that use wood-fired evaporators may have a slightly different taste, but that is most likely only available locally.
Jim
←

Gas fired is the norm now. If there are still some small operations using wood, the smoke could drift into the pan or kettle but they would try to avoid this, as there would be a slight smell, and a few sparks or debris in the syrup.

baophac · June 21, 2007

While testing the preparation of the Arpege egg for an ucomping party, I stumbled on the maple syrup egg salad. Ok it's more a dessert but the preparation is similar.

Start with a hard boiled egg, take the yolk, cool it down and mix in unsalted butter and maply syrup. Fold in fresh whipped cream and pipe it into the egg white halves.

blue_dolphin · March 16, 2020

It's been a while since this thread has seen any action. A friend shared this 1969 booklet of maple recipes from the Miner Institute in northern NY and it being sugaring season and all, I thought I'd pass them on.

I can't speak to having tried any of them. The cornflake cookies interest me but the maple salad dressing for fruit salads is a bit of a curiosity.