Haha! Admittedly, a lot of the conventional corn syrup brands are about as viscous as Aeroshell W100. Too thick for my liking!
Confession - Never had real maple syrup...
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David Megginson
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What's funny about that?
deonb
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Generally when you ask an American to name any strategic reserve, they will name the Strategic Oil Reserve. It's vitally important to us for national defense, economic stability, protection against worldwide catastrophes etc.
So when Canada names something a Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve, we find it amusing.
David Megginson
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I was experimenting with being ironic sans emojis. I'll chalk that one up as a failed experiment.
The party place in Kandahar was the Canadians' tent. They had all the good stuff. Horton's coffee and doughnuts and beer.
They all had maple syrup, sent from Grandma or Crazy Uncle Joe. That stuff was concentrated as hell and dominated anything it was poured on. Nothing like it anywhere (other than Canada)!
They all had maple syrup, sent from Grandma or Crazy Uncle Joe. That stuff was concentrated as hell and dominated anything it was poured on. Nothing like it anywhere (other than Canada)!
NoHeat
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Well, it's not necessarily something to brag about, that Americans have a history of insecurity with oil that required the establishment of the oil reserve. Canadians have not been in such a position of insecurity. (They've got way more oil than their population requires, so that they're the world's third largest exporter of oil.) Given that they're in such a good position with oil, if they want to have a Strategic Reserve of syrup, or beer, or fuzzy slippers, or whatever, well, good on them.
3393RP
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This is exactly our experience. We spent two weeks in Vermont several years ago, and brought a quart of syrup home with us. Since then it's all we use, and the Costco stuff is pretty good. Vermont is a beautiful state with nice people.
David Megginson
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I wonder if you ever ran into my brother-in-law there: big guy, senior Canadian NCO in signals with an interest in wines (now retired, and I won't post his name publicly here for reasons you'll understand).
David Megginson
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Vermont maple syrup is like Australian wine -- good enough, if you can't get it from the real place.
David Megginson
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Also, here's a hot tip for maple syrup: if you're making hot cocoa/hot chocolate, sweeten in with dark maple syrup instead of sugar. The hot chocolate still won't taste like maple (so don't worry), but it will have a richer, almost-smokey flavour. You won't go back once you've tried it.
Here's my recipe for quick hot chocolate after you get back from a cold day at the airport (and you're in too much of a rush to slow-simmer in a pot):
Here's my recipe for quick hot chocolate after you get back from a cold day at the airport (and you're in too much of a rush to slow-simmer in a pot):
- Almost fill a coffee mug with milk, and microwave for 1:45 (2:00 if you want it very hot).
- Add a heaping spoon of powdered cocoa and stir in thoroughly.
- Stir in a glop of dark maple syrup (the size of the "glop" depends on your sweet tooth).
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Bro do you even lift
I prefer my hot chocolate with a splash of rumpleminze. once you try THAT you won't go back. mostly because you won't remember how to get back, but regardless it's tasty!
GaryM
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Yep, that stuff is...substantial. I don't think I'd like it on pancakes, but I have a few BBQ marinades that require it, as does the old Durgin Park Indian pudding recipe. You can often find it in grocery stores; I've not tried the locally-produced options (none are really local to me).
Ha! My dad had a relative in middle Tennessee who ran a sorghum mill several years ago and we’d get a jar or two on occasion to use on toast and cornbread. That stuff nearly solidifies at room temperature in our pantry and usually has to go in a pot of boiling water just to get it loosened up!
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Snorting his way across the USA
Pardon my ignorance, but isn't native maple syrup normally boiled down to form a thicker stock?
Dan Thomas
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The sap from the maple tree is boiled down to remove water and concentrate the good stuff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_syrup
Eric Brunelle
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I don't care for the real stuff either. Too sweet, and as pointed out above, not viscous enough. There is no accounting for taste - and I'm from Canuck heritage. As my wife would say - that explains a lot.
SAC, the modern maple syrup makers save energy with a reverse osmosis water treatment system. Pure water comes out the proper place, and the "dregs" comes out the other valve, and is then boiled down to syrup. The "concentrate" must be boiled to get the caramelized flavor, not to thicken the syrup, and when in an open vat, receives the smoky flavor desired by some customers.
The place in Virginia where they were using this process had all the trees tapped with plastic tubing, to larger lines, and by gravity to the reverse osmosis machine. Not much labor during the season.
Delicious, light amber, and slightly smoky, hickory and walnut.
He hinted that his machine could remove the water from other products, off season, profitably. Will reverse osmosis separate alcohol from water?
The place in Virginia where they were using this process had all the trees tapped with plastic tubing, to larger lines, and by gravity to the reverse osmosis machine. Not much labor during the season.
Delicious, light amber, and slightly smoky, hickory and walnut.
He hinted that his machine could remove the water from other products, off season, profitably. Will reverse osmosis separate alcohol from water?
Acerglyn
There's a Netflix episode of "Dirty Money" about the syrup heist. Serious stuff, indeed!
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I have no experience separating alcohol from water, but apparently RO is used to make alcohol free beers and reduce wine alcohol content (like why would you want to do that??) so I would assume so. How efficiently it does that I don't know.
Some people don't metabolize alcohol very quickly, so they get to drink the reduced alcohol wine and beer (1 or 2%).
flyingcheesehead
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There is definitely nothing like the real thing. I grew up on Log Cabin thanks to frugal parents, but we're also on the apparently-long list of people that always have a bottle of the Costco maple syrup in the house.
I've also tried some of the ones where they age the syrup in bourbon barrels, which gives it a stronger flavor. Really good, but so expensive that I went back to the standard Costco stuff.
There are many things you can dump in hot chocolate in the winter that are all very tasty. In addition to the above, butterscotch schnapps is a favorite of mine.
I've also tried some of the ones where they age the syrup in bourbon barrels, which gives it a stronger flavor. Really good, but so expensive that I went back to the standard Costco stuff.
There are many things you can dump in hot chocolate in the winter that are all very tasty. In addition to the above, butterscotch schnapps is a favorite of mine.