Versatile maple syrup goes beyond breakfast
Ken Haedrich began cooking with maple syrup when he moved to New Hampshire to work in a group home, and almost four decades later his affection for the sweet treat hasn’t faded.
“Like everybody else I thought maple syrup was Aunt Jemima or table syrup. The more I cooked up there, the more I experimented with maple syrup that was native to New Hampshire,” he says from his current home of Wilmington, North Carolina. “I fell in love with the stuff.”
The Maple Syrup Cookbook (Storey Publishing) — originally a slim volume he self-published in 1985 with about 40 recipes — is now in its third edition, with more than 100 recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some original recipes have been included while others have been updated.
“In the first version of the book I don’t think I even knew what balsamic vinegar was. Nobody was using it way back then. But now in this version we have a nice balsamic salad dressing,” he says.
The huge interest in both farm-to-table fare and natural and native foods has fuelled a rising interest in genuine maple syrup, he says.
“It’s like the original natural food. It’s just sap boiled. That’s it. Period.”
Maple syrup is now used in many more ways than simply poured over French toast or pancakes. Haedrich takes breakfast offerings a step further with maple bread pudding, maple coffee cake and maple sticky buns.
Savoury dishes include grilled salmon with a lightly mapled mango salsa, shrimp and sausage kebabs, and salads, condiments and various vegetable dishes enhanced with syrup.
A range of pies, puddings, cakes and other goodies rounds out the offerings.
In The Maple Syrup Cookbook he uses maple syrup for flavour as well as to balance strong, salty and acidic components of food.
“The number of salad dressings I use it in, the number of smoky meats that I use it with — it’s great with bacon, it’s great with ham, pork and all those things. Maple syrup is very good at balancing out flavours.”
The book contains a section on tips, facts and the history and processes involved in making maple syrup.
Haedrich’s most important tip is to practise restraint when using maple syrup.
“You know how it is when we find something we love — we think more is more. But actually with maple syrup less is often more. I always say it’s like cologne A little bit goes a long way.”