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Maple syrup is a sweetener made from the sap of some maple
trees. In cold climate areas, these trees store sugar in their roots before the
winter and the sap which rises in the spring can be tapped and concentrated.
Quebec, Canada, produces most of the world's supply of maple syrup. The United
States is the only other major producer and the leading consumer.
Maple syrup is most often eaten with waffles, pancakes, oatmeal,
crumpets and French toast. It is sometimes used as an ingredient in
baking, the making of candy, preparing desserts, or as a sugar source
and flavoring agent in making beer. Sucrose is the most prevalent sugar
in maple syrup. |
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Left: Bottled maple
syrup produced in Quebec. |
It was first collected
and used by Native Americans and was later adopted by European
settlers.
Maple syrup is sometimes boiled down further to make maple
sugar, a hard candy usually sold in pressed blocks, and maple taffy.
Intermediate levels of boiling can also be used to create various intermediate
products, including maple cream (less hard and granular than maple sugar) and
maple butter (creamy, with a consistency slightly less thick than peanut
butter). During the production season in New England, a traditional delicacy
known as "sugar-on-snow" is often prepared by drizzling superheated maple syrup
over snow or shaved ice, resulting in a chewy taffy-like confection.
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Owing to the sugar maple tree's predominance in southeastern
Canada (where Europeans settled in what was to become Canada), its leaf has come
to symbolize the country, and is depicted on its flag. |
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Left: Two taps in a
maple tree, using plastic tubing for sap collection. |
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