Maple sugar
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Maple sugar is a traditional sweetener in Canada and the Northeastern United States, prepared from the sap of the maple tree ("maple sap").
SourcesEdit
Three species of maple trees in the genus Acer are predominantly used to produce maple sugar: the sugar maple (A. saccharum), the black maple (A. nigrum), and the red maple (A. rubrum),Template:SfnTemplate:Full citation needed because of the high sugar content (roughly two to five percent) in the sap of these species.Template:SfnTemplate:Full citation needed The black maple is included as a subspecies or variety in a more broadly viewed concept of A. saccharum, the sugar maple, by some botanists.<ref name=grin>Template:GRIN</ref> Of these, the red maple has a shorter season because it buds earlier than sugar and black maples, which alters the flavor of the sap.<ref name="mann">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A few other species of maple are also sometimes used as sources of sap for producing maple sugar, including the box elder (or Manitoba maple, A. negundo),<ref name="thestarphoenix">Template:Cite news</ref> the silver maple (A. saccharinum),<ref name="resource">Template:Cite book</ref> and the bigleaf maple (A. macrophyllum).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Similar sugars may also be produced from birch or palm trees, among other sources.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
PreparationEdit
Maple sugar is what remains after the sap of the sugar maple is boiled for longer than is needed to create maple syrup or maple taffy.<ref name="vermont">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Once almost all the water has been boiled off, all that is left is a solid sugar.<ref name=vermont/> By composition, this sugar is about 90% sucrose, the remainder consisting of variable amounts of glucose and fructose.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> This is usually sold in pressed blocks or as a translucent candy. It is difficult to create as the sugar easily burns and thus requires considerable skill.<ref name=vermont/>
Regulation for product labelingEdit
In Canada, maple sugar is one of several maple products manufactured from maple sap or maple syrup, including maple butter and maple taffy.<ref name="CFIA2017">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Under the Food and Drugs Act and Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, Canadian regulations require that maple sugar products identify the business identity and country of origin on the retail product label.<ref name=CFIA2017/>
HistoryEdit
Maple sugar was made by many First Nations/American Indian peoples. Unlike maple syrup, it was easy to transport and long lasting.<ref>Tim Herd, Maple Sugar: From Sap to Syrup: The History, Lore, and How-To Behind This Sweet Treat, p. 18, Storey Publishing, 2012 Template:ISBN</ref> It is called ziinzibaakwad by the Anishinaabeg.<ref>Weshki-Ayaad, Lippert and Gambill. Ojibwe-English and English-Ojibwe online dictionary Template:Webarchive.</ref> Blessing of the Bay, the second ocean-going merchant ship built in the English colonies, carried maple sugar from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to New Amsterdam as early as 1631.<ref name = "clark">Template:Cite book </ref> French awareness of the process is indicated in at least one engraver's works, those of the mid-18th-century artist Jean-Francois Turpin, the engraver Bernard (including several for Diderot's 1755 Encyclopedie.) and others.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Maple syrup and maple sugar were used during the American Civil War and by abolitionists in the years before the war because most cane sugar and molasses were produced by Southern slaves.<ref name="atlantic">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="gellmann">Template:Cite journal</ref> For example, Lucretia Mott was known for giving out maple candies wrapped in papers that bore messages like "Take this, my friend, you need not fear to eat. No slave hath toiled to cultivate this sweet."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
UsesEdit
Maple sugar is used to flavor maple products and as an alternative to cane sugar.<ref name=vermont/>
- Sugar Makak 1925.jpg
Sugar makak – 1925
- Maple sugar demonstration 1.jpg
Demonstration of Native American technique of making maple sugar