> I know it isn't, but I use the dry sugar to make a heavy syrup, I can deal
> with that a lot better than I can deal with commercial crap. I throw fruit
> in it too or cider and have fun..
Sounds fine. Just as long as you are not confusing the product of some
food lab with the product of a Sugar Maple.
> Yeah, I know...I have an actual tin of REAL maple syrup that I keep
> for company...I don't want to feed them crap.
That is indeed civilized, but why stint yourself? is this a case of "the cobbers
children going barefoot"?
Try the Bulk food stores and purchasing clubs, like Costco, or BJ's they
generally have real maple syrup for less than HALF what it costs in those
pretty vermont cans with the fancy painted lables of snow covered scenes!
I have gotten it for 8 dollars a quart in good seasons!
> >lightly Sprinkle with Confectioners sugar,
>
> Right there that turned me off, I woiuldn't ruin a perfectly good
> peice of polenta by dousing it in sugar...I have done the fried polenta
> thing as well.
Now don't get me wrong, this is a difficult point to achieve. Yes it could be
ruined by an excess ( and it would not take much, I agree! ) of 10X Sugar,
but a VERY fine dusting, not more than a pinch blown out between fingers,
will make the savory flavors really POP. Definite omit it if you don't want it,
but for GOWSH sakes, put REAL maple syrup on it!!
> >Judging maple syrup on the basis of Log Cabin or Mrs Butterworths
> >or some other "brand" is like judging a calligraphy A&S entry based on
> >the applicant's performance in a mundane rock band.
>
> Nope, judging it because it's too sweet, I like a VERY little
> amount of it when I do decide to use it.
My point is that the stuff in the logcabin bottle has not relation to "maple
syrup", since the closest it ever gets to a maple tree is driving past one
in the truck to to market! The stuff goes to the bottling plant in a TANKER
truck, for goodness sakes!
If, as I thought you were saying, you are denouncing maple syrup on the
basis of those overly sweet bottles of dreck form the corn belt, then that
is judging Apples and Oranges! you cannot judge one by the other.
Real maple syrup is not nearly as sweet, has subtle hints of vanilla, and
other flavors (sometimes an almost citric astringency is hinted at, as well
as Orange, or "Rootbeerish" flavor hints), and is possessed of a very
complex flavor and a vastly different mouth feel.
Also the flavors will vary from season to season, and from region to
region, with Connecticut maple syrup tasting definitely albeit subtly
different from Vermont syrup.
You need to be careful about "Maple Sugar", too, since it is often just table
sugar with syrup or maple flavor concentrate added.
I have NO idea what "Maple Flavor Powder" is made from!
The only real, honest to goodness, boiled down from the sap, maple sugar
I have seen is in the shape of little guys, or maple leafs, and is really expensive!
> Now, just because it was brought over as a sample I wouldn't call it period.
> If it was available and used regularly by some portion of the society,
> then I would...
Well, I agree, I wouldn't try to use it except maybe as an Elizabethan Novelty,
properly referenced. But, it was eaten and enjoyed by Europeans in Europe
before 1600, I consider that marginal, as in "outside the mainstream", as I said.
Brandu
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