The baked beans thread mentions maple syrup. That got me to thinking about the stuff. I grew up with Log Cabin and Aunt Jemima and Mrs. Butterworth’s. But as a kid I preferred Boysenberry syrup. But this thread isn’t about Boysenberry syrup. Only maple.
The thing is, the three brands I mentioned aren’t maple syrup. They’re high-fructose corn syrup with ‘natural and unnatural flavouring’.
I eat pancakes maybe twice a year. Breakfast is usually coffee, or coffee and a bowl of oatmeal. But a coworker gave me a recipe for oatmeal pancakes, so I may be eating them sometime in the next couple of months if I remember to make them. And now, I must have real maple syrup.
Trader Joe’s has 100% pure Grade B maple syrup. I get it in the tall bottle, but they may have smaller ones. It’s gotta be Grade B. It has a stronger maple flavour than Grade A. And Trader Joe’s is very reasonably priced – though I eat pancakes so seldom that I don’t know what the current price is.
Hm… Too bad I have marinated ahi thawed in the fridge. Else, I could have pancakes and maple syrup for dinner.
When I first tasted real maple syrup, I thought it was an odd taste, and the consistency was too thin. Now that I’m used to it, I can’t stand the fake stuff anymore. And I loooove pancakes and maple syrup at night. Great comfort food.
I have never been able to stand those “fake” syrups. Well, they’ll do in a pinch, if there’s absolutely nothing else available, but really they’re kinda gross. So unpleasantly thick and somehow smarmy tasting. A proper pancake breakfast demands the thin and faintly smokey notes of pure maple syrup.
For me, though, it’s Grade A all the way. I tried some Grade B stuff once and didn’t like it at all; it didn’t seem to me like it was any stronger, just off somehow. I dunno, now that I think about it, I can’t really remember what it was about it that I didn’t like; it’s been a few years. Maybe I’ll have to pick some up and do a proper taste test.
My 88 yr old Dad has oatmeal for breakfast, every fricking morning, with two tablespoons of “real stuff.” He is a Vermonter. Every Spring, he and his wife drive from Florida back home, stay the summer, and “bootleg” about 10-15 gallons of maple syrup back to Florida for friends and family. they spend one night on the road, and his wife makes instant oatmeal in the motel room.
How do know this? because nearly every time I talk to him, he tells me his breakfast routine. A couple of years ago, a coffee grinder that my parents got as a wedding present back in 1946 finally shot craps. I thought he was going to cry when he told me that.
Me? I like the real maple syrup, as a treat only. I would not like it if I had it frequently. A pint is enough to last me for a year.
The open bottle I have (kept in the fridge) says ‘2006 Harvest’.
Funny you should mention syrup in oatmeal. That’s exactly what I have planned for tomorrow. And since I’m telecommuting tomorrow, I think I’ll make Irish oats.
I recently started dating a guy who is from Chardon, Ohio and apparently their thing there is that they make Real Maple Syrup.
Previous to dating him, I’d never tasted Real Maple Syrup before. Mom tells me she used to make her own syrup when we were poor as kids - Karo syrup and brown sugar or something. After that, I used Whatever Brand. And after THAT, I started using SUGAR FREE syrup because, well, why the hell not?
Anyway, Dude got me a bottle of Real Maple Syrup and it was indeed delish. But not “omg I will never use anything else again” delish. I don’t think I eat enough waffles or pancakes to notice.
This week I went shopping and got myself some waffles. I needed syrup (Dude has been slacking seriously on his Real Maple Syrup delivery). I was going to buy Mrs. Butterworth or Aunt Jemima, whatever. But I looked at the ingredients…you’re right, JLA - there’s not an ounce of Real Maple Anything in those syrups!
So, I caved and bought a $6/8oz bottle of Real Maple Syrup. From Canada but whatever. This morning I finally ate me some waffles. I think I used half the bottle - it’s no biggie when you are using store brand HFCS syrup, you know?
I ate my waffles, and they were good, and I promptly passed out asleep for 2 hours from the sugar rush. I think Real Maple Syrup means Really Fucking High In Carbs too.
If Dude doesn’t give me more syrup, I think I’ll just go back to the cheap stuff. Just don’t tell him.
I could pontificate madly on maple syrup (including grades, how to make it, when you harvest, how much sap makes a gallon of syrup,) but I think my location field speaks for itself.
I’ve always bought The Real Thing since we have a small family (though I like Aunt Jemima, too). When I was in my teens I spent time at a farm in Quebec where they tapped some maple trees and I was allowed to take sips of the maple sap right from the tin pail. Good times! Shocking how expensive it’s gotten, we used to routinely pick up a bottle at the State Fair, and this year it was in the double digits…I am so looking forward to oatmeal pancakes this winter, with maple syrup!
The odd weather has been playing havoc with the maple syrup industry here in Quebec. However, one of my brothers-in-law has a “cabane a sucre” and we usually get maple syrup from him every year. We go through quite a bit.
BTW, I sometimes pick some of the grade B stuff at the grocery store because I prefer it, I like my syrup with a “woodsy” taste.
Why not? Sugar maples will grow in Ohio, so there’s Ohio-made maple syrup. What would be truly bizarre would be people who had access to sugar maples, but refrained from making syrup from them.
And I’ve always found that the temperature of the syrup has much more impact on its viscosity than its variety, so I’ve never really noticed that the real stuff was runnier. I guess the bottom line is just that it’s less necessary to warm it up first.
Nope, they don’t. Aunt Jemima (at least, the “Original” flavor of it) used to contain a small amount of actual maple syrup (I worked on it back then), but they took that out in the mid-90s as a cost-cutting measure. They found that most people really didn’t seem to care – people who gave a darn about maple syrup weren’t buying AJ anyway.
I agree, my neighbor was from upstate NY and she’d go into Vermont and get actual true Vermont Grade A Syrup and it was very thin and not as powerful in the maple flavouring as the fake stuff.
I rarely use syrup, but when I do it’s gotta be the real thing. Several years ago I bought a 64-oz. jug at Costco, and I’m using it so slowly it’ll definitely outlive me. I should put it in my will.
I didn’t have maple syrup till I was about 10 or 11, and I thought it was gross: way too strongly flavored. I eventually got used to eating it on corn muffins, and I would practically soak them in the syrup and melted butter. At some point I got hooked on it, and now I can’t do artificial syrup.
When I was a kid we had both real maple syrup (Vermont Maid, mainly) and fake stuff (Log Cabin, which has a surprisingly long history, but, AFAIK, has always been “fake”). I never noticed the difference, but I knew I didn’t care for Mrs. Butterworth’s as soon as I tried it. Aunt Jemima didn’t have a syrup when I was a kid.
Now there are several brands of Real Maple syrup, which we always buy, even when it’s more expensive. The fake stuff always tastes, well, fake. I was surprised when I was living out West in Utah and a friend made me pancakes and had to “make” maple syrup – she added maple flavor to a sugar syrup.
Fortunately, we live in New England now, and there’s plenty of maple syrup around. They even do maple sugaring here in town.
This is how it goes for people who didn’t grow up with Maple Syrup from what I can tell. You start out with “meh, it’s too thin, and it’s really strong.” Then you keep eating it. And then, somewhere along the way, you become a convert and you can’t go back to normal syrup. At least that’s how it’s worked with Mr. Athena and a few other people I know.
Nope, same as plain ol’ table syrup. Once you get to “100% sugar”, you can’t go higher I don’t think
Shocking how expensive it’s gotten, we used to routinely pick up a bottle at the State Fair, and this year it was in the double digits…I am so looking forward to oatmeal pancakes this winter, with maple syrup!