Hi Michael,

flavors in it that are distracting to me; also
a woody bitterness, though the other ingredients
might smooth that out.

Depends on what the other ingredients are. Some might work; others, might better use a somewhat lighter syrup.

If there's a substantial amount of extra-dark syrup
in anything, it would be detectable by most. In a
few cases it might even enhance the dish.

As long as you don't use so much that it overpowers other tastes.

the Canadian and US federal governments, and
all maple syrup sold to the public is Grade A
by fiat.

Somebody needs to straighten them out, not every beef is

Grade A nor > ML> is > all syrup.

That's the thing - they've redefined grade A as
something else than a quality designation but
are counting on the public not to know that.

Not a good practice, IMO

I didn't think so, either.

Guess they think the average consumer is too dumb to know the
difference.

Sometimes, but not always, one and the same--maple growers

and syrup > ML> > producers/packers.

There are the small farms, sure, but even
such a traditionally made product has felt
the effects of massive agribusiness. Out west,
we get all our maple syrup from Trader Joe's,
which though a generally worthy operation, is
hugely corporate.

Somebody has to supply TJ's with the syrup. It's not as if a big corporation can crank it out on an assembly line like a box of

cereal. > TJ's must have contracts with a number of suppliers who,
instead of

putting their own label on the product, put a TJ's label on instead.

It's agribiz that supplies TJ's - you can't be
imagining that thousands of little pickup trucks
come in from Vermont and upstate and drop things
off at the stores. Actually, not only is it agribiz
it appears to be Canadian agribiz.

I had the mental picture of them all sending it to a central facility
for combining/repackaging.

Rather odd that this calls for more regular sugar than maple,

and > ML> almost > as much molasses as maple. Good way to drown out
the maple > ML> flavor.

It is a New England recipe, the implication
being frugal. I'm sure that for that person,
the balance of sweeteners created the best
ratio of maple flavor to cost.

Probably so. Could be also that the maple taste might have been a

bit > too strong also, especially if someting like a C grade was used.

That would be heresy for a New Englander [g]

Probably so. As I've said, I was raised on nothing but maple syrup and
consider anything like Mrs. Butterworth's (or similar) to be a very poor imitation of the real thing.

Fruit and Nut Granola

I used to make our granola type cereal all the time. Got away from

it > when Steve joined the Army and some of the ingredients were
harder to > find. I've done it off and on over the years but not on a regular basis > like I used to.

Especially with the diabetic issue that
intervened. Granola is - despite its reputation
- not very good for anyone.

Depends on what goes into it. Ours had a minimal amount of sweetening,
usually honey. Also had roasted soy beans, oatmeal, wheat germ......

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net FIDO 1:396/45.28


--- PPoint 3.01
* Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)