If you haven’t tasted Pure Vermont Maple Syrup on pancakes, you are surely in for a treat! There is simply no comparison with those “maple flavored” syrups that you find in the supermarkets, with ingredient labels with names of chemicals that you can’t pronounce. What better way to enjoy the real thing than by serving it over real homemade pancakes or as an ingredient in old-fashioned New England recipe. We hope that you enjoy these recipes that have been handed down in the Harlow Family for four generations!
Maple Baked Beans
- 2 lb Dried Soldier Beans
- 1/2 lb. salt pork
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 – 2/3 cup Vermont Maple Syrup
- 2 teaspoons dry mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- dash of salt
- 1 medium onion (optional)
Pick over the beans and soak them overnight in cold water. In the morning, parboil the beans until the skins crack when blown upon. If an onion is used, cut in quarters and put in bottom of bean pot. Add the parboiled beans. Cut through the rind of the salt pork to a depth of ½ inch, and place the pork on top of the beans. Mix in the sugar, maple syrup, mustard, pepper and salt with 1 pint of boiling water. Pour this over the beans and pork. If necessary, add more boiling water to cover. Bake at 300 degrees F. for 6 hours or more, adding more boiling water as the beans cook. Serve with steamed brown bread or hot Johnny Cake.
Maple Cream
Pure Vermont Maple Cream is produced by heating maple syrup, cooling, then stirring until a creamy thick consistency yields a spread that is excellent on toast, doughnuts or when used as a frosting.
Heat syrup to about 232 degrees F. Pour unstirred syrup into a cold pan and put pan into sink with cold water beneath. When cool (about 70 degrees), stir with a wooden paddle or large wooden spoon without any interruption of beat until waxy gloss begins to disappear, and the batch is barely fluid enough to run. Pour immediately into glass containers.
Maple Candy
Pure Vermont Maple Candy is made by further cooking the maple syrup without any other ingredient, and pouring syrup into molds.
Do this in small batches, no more than a quart at a time. Heat the syrup to about 243 degrees F., remove from the heat and begin stirring the hot, thick syrup immediately. Continue stirring until you see the color become slightly lighter, and the batch barely begins to stiffen. Pour the partly crystallized syrup into molds to harden.