Maple Syrup

Let's talk about maple syrup, and let's talk about it honestly.

This is boiled-down tree sap, nothing more. The tree makes sugar in its leaves, stores it as starch over winter, and in early spring, when the nights are still freezing and the days start to warm, that starch turns back to sugar dissolved in rising sap. That sap is thin, barely thicker than water. It takes a long boil, a lot of evaporation, to get the thick, clinging syrup you buy in a bottle. That's why real maple syrup costs what it costs — 260 kcal per 100 grams doesn't come cheap when it starts out that thin.

Choose it by holding the bottle up to the light. Clear, bright, no cloudiness — good syrup, whatever its shade. It should smell warm, a little smoky, a little like caramel, never flat or sour.

Some people say all maple syrup tastes the same, so grab whatever's cheapest. No! Darker grades carry deeper, almost toasted notes, lighter ones are delicate. Mix them up in a recipe meant for one or the other, and you'll wonder why your pancakes taste wrong, or why your glaze has no backbone at all.