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Maple syrup
Also called pure maple syrup
The boiled sap of sugar maple, graded by colour — not a pancake-bottle of corn syrup with maple flavour. Butter tarts and a glaze want the real thing; the cheap plastic bottle tastes of vanilla and sugar, not wood.
Origin
Northeastern North America — Indigenous practice long before colonial sugar camps. Canada still sets the grocery standard.
Flavour
Caramel and wood, with more smoke and treacle in darker grades. Light amber disappears in a tart. Fake syrup tastes of butter-flavouring.
How it is made
Late-winter sap is boiled until most of the water is gone — roughly forty litres of sap for one litre of syrup. Nothing else belongs in a pure bottle.
How to use it
Use a dark, robust grade for baking so it survives butter and pastry. In butter tarts it should be tasted, not guessed. Warm it to loosen; do not boil a glaze to candy unless you meant to. Honey is floral; golden syrup is buttery; neither is maple. A pinch of salt stops a glaze tasting flat.
Storage
Fridge after opening — real syrup can ferment once the vacuum is gone. Crystallised syrup warms back in a water bath. Surface mould means the jar is finished.
Recipes using it
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