On maple

[jazzfish]

When I was young my mother put me and my sister on the Feingold Diet. This was an effort to control hyperactivity by removing various things from our diets: no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives, and no "natural salicylates." I'm neutral on whether it had any effect on me: I was ten, and not exactly the closest student of my own nature. It did have a number of negative social side effects ("oh, my kids can't have kool-aid / cokes / candy bars"), so that's shaped my opinion of the whole exercise.

It did have at least one positive effect: from about the age of eight, "syrup" to me has meant real maple syrup.

Mark Bittman, in the aptly-named How To Cook Everything, has this to say about maple syrup: "The difference between real maple syrup and the colored and flavored sugar syrup sold at most supermarkets is equivalent to the difference between butter and margarine: One is a natural, wholesome product, and the other is a nutritionally useless, not-very-good-tasting, unnatural substitute."

US maple syrup comes in four varieties: three levels of Grade A (light amber, medium amber, and dark amber), and Grade B (darker than any of the Grade A varieties). They're graded based on translucency: a darker syrup indicates a stronger flavor, and thus (as far as Bittman and I are concerned) a better syrup. Now, Grade B is inexplicably hard to find. The only reliable source I've found has been Trader Joe's, where they sell it in something like 30oz bottles. Unless you're me this will be enough syrup to last you for quite awhile.

When I first got here I thought Canadian maple syrup came in three varieties that get darker as you go down: two levels of #1 whose names I forget because honestly who even cares?, and #2 Amber. It wasn't until we were perusing one of the overpriced grocery stores (probably Urban Fare) that I found a large bottle of #3 Dark.

"O yes," I said, and immediately paid too much for a litre of maple syrup and brought it home, and tried it out on pancakes the next morning.

There is, it turns out, such a thing as too much maple. uilos has been known to describe gin as "chewing on Christmas trees." This was like chewing on maple trees: not exactly woody, and not exactly smoky, and still somewhat sweet, but... kind of like accidentally nibbling on a block of baker's unsweetened chocolate when you're expecting semisweet. We bought a bottle of #2 and combined them, and that cut the flavor down to where it was edible on pancakes and waffles.

I looked it up later. Turns out US Grade B is anything from 44% to 27% translucent. This is equivalent to Canadian #2; #3 is anything less than 27% translucent. (The US description of this grade is "Substandard," but what do they know?) So, you know, about twice as much maple as I'd been expecting. Yow.

On the bright side, the #3 does wonderfully in baking, or when mixed in with oatmeal for breakfast. So now we just buy two different (giant) bottles of maple syrup, and keep careful track of which is which when making pancakes.

Comments

[salzara-tirwen.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone with an inexplicable love of molasses and honey the color of molasses, that sounds absolutely amazing. *makes note to go on quest*

[jazzfish]

Ah. If you're into molasses you'll probably get on just fine with the #3, then. :) I've only found it in litre-sized bottles of "organic" which seems to be code for "we will charge you exorbitant amounts of money." (Seriously, $40 for a bottle of syrup.)

[jameshroberts.livejournal.com]

I'm convinced that the grading system in the US is a ploy by Vermont to keep the good stuff for themselves. The pale stuff is labeled Grade A to make the rest of the country _think_ that's the good stuff. It's like displaying a gilded box of fake jewels out in plain sight and stashing the real ones in a tin box in a junk drawer.

Also, I ate dinner less than two hours ago, and now I want pancakes.

[jazzfish]

heh. That makes a startling amount of sense.

Also, I ate dinner less than two hours ago, and now I want pancakes.

My work here is done.

[jameshroberts.livejournal.com]

I'm only half joking. A resident of Vermont once confided to me that this was _actually_ the case, but as she wasn't directly involved in the Maple Industry, I can't confirm this is actually true. But I'm going to go with it until I hear otherwise.

[wyrdone.livejournal.com]

I'd love to get my hands on some substandard/#3 grade for brewing some "Maple wine" which is a lot like Meade, but more....mapley.

[jazzfish]

Huh. That... could be either very good or very bad.

[pictsy.livejournal.com]

Neat info. I didn't know there were different types.

[tulip-tree.livejournal.com]

I wonder what factors go into producing the different grades... perhaps just natural variations in the sap itself? My understanding of how maple syrup is made is that you boil sap until the temperature at which it's boiling is 7 degrees above the temperature at which water boils.

I have no idea what grade of syrup we've been consuming since we moved here - we haven't bought much because we've been blessed with friends who have property with maple trees, a cabin, and a sugar shack. We've helped make syrup 3 of the 4 winters we've been here, and been sent home with a litre or two.

Perhaps syrup is processed a bit differently commercially, but my understanding is that boiling it longer results in maple cream/butter, not just different syrup. The 7 degrees thing is fun, though - it's 7 degrees above the boiling point of water in that place on that day, which can vary, so you have to boil a pot of water and check. For one day's batch, we had to do that twice because the barometric pressure changed so much midday that that temperature of the boiling sap appeared to drop (which is NOT normally how it works) and everyone was momentarily a little confused.

[jazzfish]

I have an idea that it's variations in the sap, but it's at least somewhat predictable: something like when you tap the tree, or whether it's from the beginning of the tapping versus at the end, or the outside temperature. I may have made that up.

We tried to go make maple syrup a year and a half ago (there's a place near McLean), but it was still too cold for the sap to run. I am duly envious! That sounds like an awful lot of fun. (And confusion. :)

[tulip-tree.livejournal.com]

That all makes good logical sense (whether or not you made it up :) ).

It was too cold for the sap to run the first time our friends invited us, too, but in this case it's also a nice weekend trip to a comfy little cottage on a beautiful lake with a family we really like, so that was not a problem at all. And they invited us back the next month, anyway, and we really made syrup that time.

It's a lot of fun, but I've never done it anywhere except with this family, and we've been to the cottage with them at other times and always love it, so I'm not sure how much is the syrup and how much is the rest of the "getting out of town with friends" package. Making syrup is basically hours of stoking the fire and waiting and then a big flurry of activity at the end - it's fun, but being in that particular environment is definitely a big part of the fun for me, too.

In any case, glad you are enjoying Canadian maple syrup!