Today we will talk about MAPLE SYRUP, a sweet food typical of Canada and the United States of America.
Before going into the DETAILS, let's make a brief GENERAL OVERVIEW of the food!
- MAPLE SYRUP is a sweet, viscous liquid, obtained by BOILING the LYMPH obtained from MAPLE.
- A NATURAL sweetener is CONSERVED, even if the application of a HEAT TREATMENT is required in its production.
- The maple sap is a very ancient food, used PRIMARILY by the indigenous races of the North American continent; today, the same product is industrially concentrated with the HEAT heat treatment, from which it is possible to obtain about a liter of syrup for every 35 liters of sap.
- The world demand is COMPLETED for 80% by Canada (for a turnover of ALMOST 140 million US dollars), while the remaining 20% is produced almost entirely in the United States of America.
- The nutritional intake of maple syrup classifies it among the ENERGY SWEETENERS, even if (with a minimum of 66% in SUCROSE) it is among the least caloric.
- The traditional gastronomic use of maple syrup includes ACCOMPANIMENT with PANCAKES, WAFFLES, FRENCH TOAST and PORRIGE with OAT FLOUR; obviously it fully plays the role of GENERIC SWEETENER and, at times, is used instead of honey in HYDROMELE.
- We remind you that the maple leaf appears in the national flag of Canada and that its syrup is one of the most indicative symbolic foods of the country.
- In the autumn season, the plant tends to accumulate STARCH in the TRUNK and in the ROOTS to survive the winter
- The polysaccharide is then progressively converted into simple carbohydrates which, between March and April, are concentrated in the so-called RAW LYMPH.
As we anticipated in the initial overview, the first to use maple sap as a sweetener were the natives of North America; they dried it by CRYSTALLIZING it to obtain a product similar to sugar, even if some archaeological finds suggest that they were already able to produce some sort of syrup. It is possible that the aborigines used it for cooking game, sometimes as a substitute for salt, and (in its pure state) as a source of energy for the body and mind; it is no coincidence that among the successors of these peoples there are still traces of pagan rituals such as the MAPLE DANCE in conjunction with the first FULL MOON of SPRING (called precisely SUGAR MOON). For their part, the Europeans who colonized the north-east of North America soon learned how to exploit the sap of the maple; the settlers, instead of carving the V-shaped bark like the natives, perforated the trunks using manual drills and drained the sap by inserting spouts under which wooden containers were housed. The maple sap was then destined for import into the OLD CONTINENT, where boiling was applied to obtain the syrup. It could be argued that (in North America) maple sap performed the same function as CANE SUGAR in WESTERN INDIES. Today, lymph extraction and syrup production have been improved with the use of metal materials and more effective machinery; however, the METHOD remained almost unchanged!
Maple syrup is obtained by boiling from 20 to 50 liters of sap for each liter of product. The mechanism takes place at a higher temperature of 104.1 ° C and is strictly controlled; excessive dehydration would lead to crystallization of the product, on the contrary, too little would result in a rather unpleasant AQUOSITY. The right consistency of the maple syrup is equivalent to about 66 ° on the BRIX scale. After boiling, the syrup is subjected to filtration from the sugar or CALCIUM MALATE crystals, and then packaged at a temperature of at least 82 ° C in sterilized airtight containers. From a QUALITATIVE point of view, maple syrup can be subject to organoleptic and taste alterations. This occurs in the event of: primitive changes in the composition of the lymph, fermentation due to poor conservation and the presence of contaminants in the production cycle. Maple syrups are not all the same and differ on the basis of 2 very specific PHYSICAL criteria, namely: DENSITY and TRANSLUCENCY. The CANADIAN FOOD INSPECTION AGENCY differentiates 3 groups based on color: Number 1, including Extra Light, Light and Medium; Number 2, Amber; and finally, Number 3, Dark. This is not the only existing classification but SHOULD BE the most used!
Maple syrup is essentially composed of WATER and SUCROSE, but small amounts of GLUCOSE and FRUCTOSE released following boiling are also evident. Among the secondary components, MALIC ACID stands out, responsible for the CHARACTERISTIC acidic taste; at the same time, the presence of AMINO ACIDS (typical of late season syrup) can determine some LESS pleasant scents. Maple syrup boasts an UNMISTAKABLE aroma thanks to the presence of certain VOLATILE organic compounds; including: VANILLIN, HYDROXYBUTANONE and PROPIONALDEIDE. From the QUANTITATIVE point of view, the mineral content mainly consists of POTASSIUM and CALCIUM; while as regards the NUTRITIONAL aspect, 100g of maple syrup cover: 7% of the calcium requirement, 9% of the iron requirement, 44% of the zinc requirement and 157% of the manganese requirement for an ADULT PERSON! The vitamin portion is irrelevant, but there is a good fraction of PHENOLIC SUBSTANCES of which 5 are TOTALLY EXCLUSIVE (such as, for example, QUEBECOL). These are molecules with a strong ANTIOXIDANT power that seem to INHIBIT two particular enzymes involved in the onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Maple syrup provides 261kcal per 100g, compared to 387kcal for granulated sugar. However, its sweetening power is lower than that of fructose, sucrose and honey, even if the relative Glycemic Index of 65… even HIGH… is lower than that of SUCROSE.
