Make your own Maple Sugar


 
Len Dennis

Len Dennis

TVWBB Diamond Member
Coming across a lot of recipes lately that call for maple sugar (Bob's bacon recipe being one of them

http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?47522-Maple-Cured-Hickory-Smoked-Peppered-Back-Bacon )

However, it's so darn expensive ($16-$17 a pound)--(but maple syrup is pricey too) so what's a fella to do?
Then to add in shipping costs (doesn't seem to be available locally for me), makes it a bust.

I came across this:

Q. What is a substitution for maple sugar? My recipe calls for 1-1/4 cups of maple sugar.

A. While grocery store shelves groan with (not particularly good) maple syrup substitutes, there is really no practical substitute for maple sugar. Maple syrup is the sap from maple trees that undergoes evaporation until it is about 30% to 35% water. If the sugarmaker continues the evaporation process, he or she next gets maple honey (with a thicker consistency), maple butter (which is thick and spreadable), and, once almost all the water has been evaporated, maple sugar.

Maple sugar is about twice as sweet as granulated white sugar. It also browns more quickly, and, of course, imparts much more flavor than white sugar. Using white sugar — and doubling it to get the same amount of sweetness — for your recipe does not seem very practical. If we were faced with your dilemma, we would use a cup of granulated or light brown sugar (or a combination of the two) and half a cup of maple syrup, remembering to reduce some other liquid in the recipe by about 1/4 cup. That's assuming there is some other liquid in the recipe.
Click to expand...
http://www.ochef.com/930.htm

Using this ratio, I would just adjust for the amounts needed.

I also found this method to make your own maple sugar (not just by adding maple syrup to white sugar):

A quart (one liter) of syrup will yield about 2 pounds (one Kg) of granulated sugar.
Click to expand...

and the method to make it on your own. I think just buying a quantity (250ml? 100ml?) of maple syrup may be the
way to go.

Here's the method: http://www.nnyagdev.org/maplefactsheets/CMB 207 Granulated Maple Sugar.pdf
 
Len take a little drive to the Elmira Sugar Festival in the spring and you can get all the maple products you could dream of. I get maple sugar at our local sugar bush in the spring.
 
I don't remember what I paid last year but it is expensive. My brother in law taps some trees so if he has lots he makes some for me and we usually get a gallon or two of syrup from him every year. I find if you rub the meat with syrup and then add your rub it's pretty much the same flavour as using maple sugar.

Have they rebuilt the St Jacobs farmers market it burnt down not to long ago. I'll be heading down to Waterloo in mid March to meet my new grand niece.
 
Nah, anything that was inside is now under tents. Some isn't there at all. Went there in Nov and it was cold and rainy. Crappy weather does not a fun day make. The entire west building was gone. But they were putting up a new one really quickly. Should be done by now.

It's funny, the advertise "Ontario" fruits and veggies but when did they start growing orange's and bananas up here?
 
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