What good are pancakes if you do not have maple syrup around? Maple syrup is that amber colored liquid sweetener that many people use on not just pancakes, but on corn fritters, crumpets, oatmeal, French toast and waffles too. In other parts of the world, this syrup is being used extensively for baking particularly for breads, desserts, pastries and other sweet confections (e.g. candy.) Baked dishes like baked beans, roasted chicken, and slow grilled baby back ribs also use this syrup as a way of enhancing the flavor of the ingredients, while giving off that semi-bitter slightly burned crisp. This is also used as a distinctive flavoring agent to apple sauce, bacon, beer, custards, coffee, hot toddies, ice cream, milkshake, sausage and tea. Often, maple syrup is combined with butter or margarine and used to glaze fresh fruits, and other broiled, baked or steamed foods like biscuit, bread, cake, carrots, doughnut, fried dough, fudge, powdered biscuit, squash, and sweet potato.

As such, the best sources of maple syrup still come from the sap of black, red, silver and sugar maple trees. It is said that the black maple and sugar maple trees contain saps with the highest sugar content, which makes their syrup of a higher grade than the others. You can actually tell by visual inspection which ones are those of higher quality. Syrups that are usually lighter and clearer in coloration are the most favored ones because these can be poured directly on cooked dishes or drinks as a sweetening agent. Their flavor and aroma are also very robust, and their consistency is very liquid. In fact, the highest grade ones are just slightly shades darker than pure honey. However, that does not mean that lower grade maple syrup products are useless. Because of their darker color and higher heating rate, these are better suited for cooking and baking. Lower grade syrup does not burn as quickly as its light colored counterpart; and its flavor is best released after an extensive cooking time.

Unfortunately, imitation syrups are now flooding the markets. These may be cheaper alternatives to the real deal, but many of these contain very little or no maple sap at all. Products like maple-flavored syrup, pancake syrup, table syrup, and waffle syrup contain fructose corn syrup or candy syrup and fenugreek seed. These may taste somewhat similar to real maple syrup, but their liquid consistencies are very thick which is not really useful if you are using these as topping for breads and soft pastries. In many cases, imitation syrups are not recommended for baking because these easily burn at high temperatures, or during prolonged baking periods. There is also very little nutritional value to be gained from fructose corn syrup. Studies show that its high sugar content can be detrimental to one’s health. The best thing that can be said for these imitation products is that they can be bought very inexpensively; but these are certainly no substitute for the real and high grade maple syrup products.