Maple trees provide maple sap, which is made into sugar and syrup. Several food products are created from the sap harvested from maple trees, which are incorporated into various foods and dishes. The sugar maple is one of the most important Canadian trees, being, along with the black maple, the major source of sap for making maple syrup. Other maple species can be used as a sap source for maple syrup, but some have lower sugar contents or produce more cloudy syrup than these two.
Foods made from maple
Maple butter – also known as maple cream or maple spread, it is a confection made by heating maple syrup to 12 °C above the boiling point of water, cooling it to around 52 °C, and stirring it until it reaches a smooth consistency. It is usually made from Grade A Light Amber syrup, and is a light tan color. A gallon of syrup can make about three kilograms of maple cream.
Maple sugar – prepared from the sap of the sugar maple tree, it is a traditional sweetener in Canada and the northeastern United States. Maple sugar is what remains after the sap of the sugar maple is boiled for longer than is needed to create maple syrup or maple taffy. Once almost all the water has been boiled off, all that is left is a solid sugar. Maple sugar was the preferred form of maple by First Nations/Native American peoples as the sugar could easily be transported and lasted a long time. It is called ziinzibaakwad by the Anishinaabeg. Blessing of the Bay, the second ocean-going merchant ship built in the English colonies, carried maple sugar from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to New Amsterdam as early as 1631. Today, specialty candy shops still carry "": an individual-consumption-sized block of compacted maple sugar, usually molded into the shape of a maple leaf.
Maple syrup – In maple syrup production from the sugar maple, the sap is extracted from the trees using tap placed into a hole drilled through the phloem, just inside the bark. The collected sap is then boiled. As the sap boils, the water is evaporated off and the syrup left behind. 40 litres of maple sap are required to be boiled to produce only 1 litre of pure syrup. This is the reason for the high cost of pure maple syrup. Maple syrup is often eaten with pancakes, waffles, French toast, or oatmeal and porridge. It is also used as an ingredient in baking, and as a sweetener or flavoring agent.
Maple taffy – also known as maple toffee, is a confection made by boiling maple sap past the point where it would form maple syrup but not so long that it becomes maple butter or maple sugar. It is sometimes prepared and eaten alongside during the making of maple syrup at a sugar house or cabane à sucre.
Maple beer – by fermenting the sugar in maple syrup to replace malt and other components, craft brewers create an ale with noticeable maple tones that is often reinforced in sweetness with residual sugars. However, due to maple syrup being more expensive than traditional sources of sugar, this beverage is considered more of a delicacy.
Hot Toddy – Contains whiskey, lemon, butter and maple syrup instead of honey.
Baked goods
Maple bar – an American rectangular doughnut topped with a maple glaze. Varieties of maple bars include Long Johns and Maple bacon donuts.
