Birch syrup ✦ ◆

Sirop de bouleau

What it is

It takes around 110 litres of birch sap to make one litre of syrup, against forty for maple - the sap runs at barely one percent sugar. That sugar is mostly fructose rather than sucrose, which is why the syrup tastes mineral and faintly bitter instead of sweet.

In the kitchen

Fructose scorches far below maple's temperature, so never reduce it into a glaze - stir it in off the heat at the end. Count on a quarter of the maple quantity: it seasons game and oily fish rather than sweetening them.

Goes with

Venison Salmon Rye berries Juniper berry Crème fraîche Duck

Also used with

Balsam poplar buds Chaga Sweetgrass

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