Maple syrup.

Who knew that tree sap could taste this delicious?

Welcome to ingredient, where once a month I take a deep dive into some of my favourite seasonal and store cupboard ingredients. This month I’m focusing on maple syrup. To most cooks I know it is the rich, golden nectar that holds the title of honey’s pricier, more refined cousin, but as a European, rather than an American or a Canadian (they have a maple leaf on their flag for a reason!), before now I’d never thought to look any further.

For paid subscribers click here for my recipes for Maple & Pecan Choux Buns, Crispy Maple Glazed Tofu, and my Quick Maple Beans.

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I will admit that I’m not the fussiest of maple syrup consumers. Yes I make sure that it is 100% maple syrup and not maple flavoured sugar syrup that I’m buying (you only make that mistake once), and I tend to lean towards the Canadian varieties (because I’ll admit to not even realising that maple syrup was also processed in the USA until I watched Riverdale - though to be fair, Canada produces about 3/4 of the worlds maple syrup, a whopping 91% from forests in Quebec) but other than that, before writing this post I had no idea about grades, flavour profiles, or anything really. I just knew that the little glass jug in my fridge door (the below giant bottle is a recent discovery during my first ever Costco shop) was what I wanted to reach for when I wanted to add complex sweetness without the cloying nature of honey.

So what else did I know about maple syrup before I started writing this newsletter, other than this precious nectar’s affinity to autumnal baking which is why I chose it as my ingredient this November? Vegans prefer it to honey because honey comes from bees and maple syrup comes from a tree. And you need to keep it in the fridge - you only make that mistake finding a barely touched bottle hosting a layer of mould once as well. But that is about it: it turns out I know nothing about maple syrup, except how to cook with it. Which meant I usually grabbed whatever was cheapest without reading the bottle properly.

So what about that grading system?

Put simply, this helps you know what flavour of maple syrup you’re buying, and is determined by when in the harvest the sap which is boiled down (though these days most farmers use a machine to extract the moisture from the sap instead - a whopping 150 litres of sap makes about 3.8 litres of maple syrup, and each tree will only give you around a litre of sap!) was tapped: this is pretty logical, with the lighter, medium grade syrups coming at the start of the season, and the richer, darker amber syrups arriving towards the end of the season.

I'll admit to being pretty relieved to discover it really was this simple because for me because I knew nothing about it, maple syrup grading seemed like this mystical thing I was embarrassed to not know about, like how coffee is produced, because I can’t stand the stuff therefore I’ve never bothered to learn.

In 2014, the USA and Canada decided to align their maple syrup grades for the convenience of consumers, so you can be sure of the bottle you’re buying wherever you’re buying from. Something that is important is to buy ‘Grade A’ maple syrup; now I’ve looked into it I’ll not be buying any other syrup again, even if it is actual maple syrup, rather than maple flavoured sugar syrup.

‘Grade A’ covers all the different flavour profiles from golden in colour and delicate in taste, to very dark in colour and strong in taste - it essentially means that the syrup you’re buying is free from sediment, clear, and has a clean, rather than off taste. The next stage down is ‘Processing Grade’ syrup (which I suppose is helpful to keep costs down in mass produced items to still get a pure maple syrup flavour) as it still has to taste like maple syrup, but I love that the final grade name is ‘Substandard’ because that is exactly what maple syrup that does not taste like maple syrup is!

On the colour front, there are numbers about the shade that place syrup in different categories, but all you really need to know is that light is mild, and dark is rich: pretty obvious really. However, before I get into my final bit of research geekery before we head back into the kitchen, it is worth running through the old grading system which I still see on a lot of bottles: in Canada they ran with No.1 (extra light, light and medium), No.2 (amber), and No. 3 (dark), and in the US Grade A covered everything up to dark amber, and Grade B covered everything else.

I love that the final grade name is ‘Substandard’ because that is exactly what maple syrup that does not taste like maple syrup is!

As previously mentioned, pretty much all of the worlds maple syrup is produced in the United States or in Canada (though they are trying to produce it in New Zealand at the moment) which I think is why it has such American connotations in our British culinary minds; primarily it goes onto American-style buttermilk pancakes, and anything else is just an added bonus. Certainly I’m sure the first bottle arrived in our larder when I was small after my mother noticed how much Lyle’s Golden Syrup I used to pour onto my waffles and pancakes, and thought that maple syrup might at least be a little bit healthier. It is packed with antioxidants, zinc, magnesium, calcium and potassium, after all.

I think it is natural therefore, at least initially in a British kitchen to treat it simply as a sweet, and to turn to American recipes such as pies and sweet buns to show maple syrup off to its best advantage. However, I wanted to do something a bit different, so I started off experimenting with producing a classic Scottish shortbread flavoured with maple syrup; I wanted to capture the texture of a good shortbread and those rich, deep caramel notes of maple syrup. My first batch was both a success and a disaster; while the biscuits were not too sweet and benefited from a just-there maple syrup back note they splurged on the baking tray and had the texture of soft cookies, and not in a good way.

I’ve still not succeeded, shelving the project for later, but a discussion about maple flavours in baking with my mother as I threw probably the worst batch of them I was testing in her kitchen gave birth to a decadent autumnal dessert that is perfect for right now as us Brit’s don’t have to worry about making the perfect pumpkin or pecan pie: my Maple Pecan Choux Buns. I’ve used the same maple syrup in both the cream filling and the toothsome frosting because the contrasts of the sweet cream and caramel-note topping really highlight maple syrup’s versatility in one delicious dessert.

My Crispy Maple Glazed Tofu was one of those recipes that came about because of something else I happened to be working on at the time. Working on a recipe for Air Fryer Crispy Tofu I wanted to play around with glazes, but ran out of teriyaki sauce. While in the air fryer I decided that plain was best (seriously, don’t try to make soy seasoned crispy tofu in the air fryer - the caramelisation will go a little too far and the chunks will come out tasting burned), I did love the subtle complex sweetness tossing the cubes in maple syrup added to proceedings, hence why this month paying subscribers will find an oven baked version perfect for serving atop noodle bowls and salads if you’re after something a bit lighter as the seasons eats get heavier and heavier.

Finally, my Quick Maple Beans are a speedy lunchtime take on slow cooked Canadian maple beans which are a bit of a marmite recipe: you’ll either love them on toast, lightened with a splash of apple cider vinegar for their rich notes, smoky base note from the bacon and the complexity of the maple syrup, or you’ll find them too sweet and rather you were eating a can of baked beans instead (if you’re someone who thinks maple syrup on bacon with pancakes is an abomination, this recipe is not for you!) Give them a go, and if you love them as much as I do you’ll have a quick, easy lunch recipe to add to your rotation, or a rich and slightly unusual something to serve alongside fatty, juicy pork sausages the next time you get some from the butcher.

You’ll notice in my recipes I’ve not specified a colour or flavour profile of the maple syrup, mainly because I use amber maple syrup in almost everything, and because all of these recipes will work regardless of the grade, and I want to leave you with something to play with depending on what sort of syrup you want to buy or already have on hand. Do let me know how you get on!