I remember the pickles. The reason was what your blog link says, sugar-on-snow is good, but its really sweet, to the point that after a few bites your already feeling like your giving yourself diabetes. Chomp on a pickle, and it makes it easier to eat more without feeling like your ODing on sugar.
I always figured the dougnuts were just there for people who didn’t like sugar-on-snow, to give them something to eat so they didn’t feel left out.
Yup, it’s still done. Last time for me was at the 2009 Whitingham Maple Festival. Dessert at the “Sugar on Snow Ham Dinner” was hot maple syrup on snow, pickles and all. Don’t remember if there were doughnuts, though.
Yeah, the pickles are less common nowadays, from what I’ve seen, but they’re used for the contrast effect, and to cleanse the pallet. You taste so much sweetness, then you need to “reset” your taste buds in order for the next round to still taste as good as the first.
I just got back from a two week trip to the mid-west, and it just solidified my hatred for “pancake syrup” (ie, not maple syrup.) It was ok on my pancakes and waffles, but it was no good at all for the sausage and bacon. :mad:
I went to a Sugar on the Snow event in a small town in Vermont in July in probably 1990 or ‘91. Someone had saved snow in a freezer, and we were given a paper plate of it. They had a big pot of boiling syrup, which someone would ladle out onto your plate o’ snow in a thin scribble that solidified into a sort of taffy. And, yes, we were also given a cake doughnut and a dill pickle. Delicious and very strange to a Florida kid who’s never seen snow.