Sweet Flavor Of Pure Maple Syrup Makes All The Difference In Recipes

“You going’ way up there to Pickens?” A big belly chuckle breaks out. “You better not go alone; a bear’ll get yer!”

My informant is right, I do encounter bear, but not before I’ve tasted the purest maple syrup of my life - first run of the 1997 season.

In torrential rain I head deep into the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia. Blacktop ends, and I roar along the dirt track, engine in second gear. Deer tails flash, and suddenly I see wild turkey - not one, but a whole flock of this notoriously shy bird.

Arriving at Mike Richter’s maple house seems like a return to civilization. “Come in, come in,” he urges, and the pungent sweetness of maple vapor hits my nose.

A long open tank of maple syrup is simmering gently, clouds of steam rising from the surface. The tank is divided in channels, and Mike explains that as the syrup concentrates, it gradually moves by gravity along the tank, sinking to the far end where it is drawn off for filtering.

Fifty gallons of sap are needed to make a single gallon of syrup, and in the old days extraction was done with heat. Nowadays, however, the formidable task of evaporation is speeded by a high-pressure machine that extracts water from the pure sap.

Mike leads me to the window, where a dozen little bottles are filled with gleaming syrup ranging in color from clear honey yellow through caramel gold to mahogany.

“The concentration of them all is the same,” explains Mike. “The clear, light golden syrup is the start of the run. It gradually darkens, acquiring more sediment, until the last syrup of the run is almost brown. It tastes different, too.”

He hands me a spoon and I eagerly dip in. The golden syrup has a refreshing bite, which mellows in the darker syrups to a full-bodied, almost winey flavor - my favorite. Mike is a purist and prefers the first-run syrup, which is best for making pale candies and maple cream. Dark syrup has more impact for cooking.

Maple syrup is like wine; there’s a subtle difference between syrups from Vermont and West Virginia, and they also vary from year to year. When a summer is sunny, the trees store generous amounts of sugar in their roots, which circulates the following spring when the sap runs.

Most of the local farmers boil some maple syrup for their own use, and that’s how Mike got started. He is now the largest producer in West Virginia.

“We’re so spoiled; we have so much,” exclaims Mike’s neighbor, Judy Davis. “We pour maple syrup over pancakes and waffles, of course,” she says. “And it’s wonderful warm over fresh peaches and ginger.”

Local cooks roast ham with maple syrup, and Judy likes to bake yams in maple syrup and butter with raisins and cinnamon. Children love to make “pennies from heaven”in the snow. Maple syrup is boiled to 240 degrees, then poured by spoonfuls into snow where it sets to chewy coins (crushed ice works well, too).

Last year a bear broke into Mike’s beehives, stealing trays of honey. “Plenty o’ bears around here,” he says. “There’s a bear dinner over to Lewisburg this afternoon. You should try it.”

And so I did. The rich, dark meat reminded me of the oxtail my mother used to cook. And what could be better than that?

Maple-Walnut Muffins

While still hot, the tops of these deliciously moist muffins are dipped in maple syrup to form a glaze.

2-1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 cups walnut pieces

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1-1/2 cups pure maple syrup

Sift about 3/4 cup flour with baking soda and salt into bowl. Combine walnuts with remaining flour in food processor and finely chop; do not overwork, or nuts will be oily. Stir nuts into flour mixture. Make well in center.

Whisk eggs in bowl just until mixed. Whisk in sour cream and 1 cup maple syrup until thoroughly combined. Pour into well in flour and stir until batter is mixed but still slightly rough. (If overmixed, muffins will be heavy.)

Spoon batter into buttered muffin cups. Bake at 425 degrees 18 to 22 minutes or until muffins are peaked and start to pull away from sides of cups and a wood pick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean.

When muffins are done, let them cool 2 to 3 minutes in cups and then unmold them. While still warm, dip their peaks into remaining 1/2 cup maple syrup. Set on rack to cool.

Yield: 12 large muffins.

Nutrition information per muffin: 272 calories, 7.2 grams fat (24 percent fat calories), 5 grams protein, 47 grams carbohydrate, 39 milligrams cholesterol, 217 milligrams sodium.