Maple sugar

Sucre d’érable

What it is

For most of its history maple was stored as sugar rather than syrup — hard cakes kept and travelled, and a liquid did neither before sealed tins. The Eastern Woodlands nations who developed sugaring made blocks; the can of syrup is the recent form.

In the kitchen

Swap it weight for weight with white sugar but drop the oven about 10 °C: it browns noticeably faster. It cakes hard in a damp cupboard, so keep it sealed and sieve it before creaming.

Goes with

Pecan Butter Apple Smoked cured pork belly Buckwheat groats Cinnamon Walnut

Same species

Maple butter Maple syrup

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