How to make the most of maple syrup season: Jasmine Mangalaseril
'Maple just pairs so well,' local chef says of using it in dishes
When sugar shacks get busy boiling maple sap into liquid gold, we know spring is around the corner.
The annual ritual has taken place for thousands of years, beginning with the Indigenous peoples who taught European settlers to do the same.
"We believe that [Indigenous people] were making maple syrup for 1,000 maybe 1,200 years before the first Europeans arrived here," said Fred Elliott of the Ontario Maple Syrup Museum in Hillsburgh.
"They converted all of the maple sap into maple sugar, which they could store in their birch bark containers."
The museum's exhibits include some of those containers, along with 17th century artifacts such as clay vessels and a sleigh European settlers used to transport sap from the bush to the fires to be processed.
Today, Canada is the world's largest producer of commercial maple syrup, with Ontario producing just less than five per cent of the nation's crop.
"Most people don't realize Ontario actually has more maple trees than Quebec," said Kevin Snyder, of Snyder Heritage Farms in Breslau. "Most of those trees are on government ground, but it's sort of a neat fact that we actually have more trees."
A shorter season with lower yield
Snyder is also the president of the Waterloo-Wellington chapter of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association, which stretches from Niagara, Hamilton, Brant to Waterloo-Wellington.
Here, maple season usually starts in the first week of March and lasts between four and six weeks. This year, sugar makers are optimistic for a good crop.
"Those 18-to-20-degree days were exactly what syrup producers did not want to see," said Snyder. "It's going to be quite a shorter season. The yield — we're going to be below average."
Maple — a taste of place
Syrup's golden to deep hues reflect when the sap is harvested.
"As the tree is waking up, the chemistry of the sap allows us to produce a delicate maple syrup. As the season progresses, that sap is changing to get ready to put buds and leaves on the trees and that reflects in the colour as well," explained Snyder.
As with wine, terroir plays a role in maple's flavour. Some areas produce earthier flavours, while others are lighter or reflect their soil's minerality.
"Region to region, the flavours change. You don't have to go far from here and the flavours will change, which sort of makes it unique for people who are really connoisseurs of maple," said Snyder.
Chef makes the most of maple
Elmira chef Allan McGlone of the local catering company The Travelling Chef calls maple syrup the perfect sweetener, because it's locally made and there are no additives or preservatives.
With cream, he said it gives a "perfect balance" to coffee. And, aided by a smoker gun, it makes a fine smoked bourbon apple cider cocktail.
"Every sip you have, you're just getting the aroma of the smoked bourbon, the smoked maple syrup, the smoked apple cider. It all works so well together. It's delicious," he said.
He substitutes maple syrup for sugar or honey when fermenting pizza dough and finds a small amount can round out the flavour of acids in sauces and vinaigrettes.
McGlone recommends it with sweet, earthy, and warming spices such as cumin, coriander seed, and cinnamon. It also supports smoky flavours like paprika, harissa and peri peri.
"Maple just pairs so well. I love doing like a harissa spice mix or a peri peri spice mix. It just excites the mouth, more of your taste receptors open up as the spice comes in and then you're tasting more things that you wouldn't have necessarily picked up on."
In sweet dishes, he uses it in carrot cake and desserts using pecans. It also works with deep, rich flavours, like stout beer for his Guinness-maple caramel sauce.
"When you add in the maple syrup, it really has the malty flavour of the Guinness, but then at the same time it's got the sweet, mapley flavour. And then the butter doesn't hurt anybody."
Salted Guinness-maple caramel sauce
Time: 30-45 minutes
Yield: Approximately 400 ml
350 ml Guiness, or other stout beer
150 g maple syrup
185 ml heavy cream (2/3 cup)
40 g unsalted butter (3 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
In a small saucepan, reduce the Guinness to 125 ml over medium heat (about 20 minutes). Stir in sugar until dissolved. Boil for five minutes, or until caramelized aromas are released.
Remove from heat. Stir constantly while slowly adding heavy cream. Keep stirring as you add butter, one tablespoon at a time. When incorporated, stir in salt and vanilla.
Pour over ice cream, pound cake, brownies or baked apples.
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