Gourmet’s Pleasures

Sugar blast

The first colonists of New France may have been puzzled when they saw the Natives cutting notches in the maple trees with their tomahawks in order to collect a mysterious liquid, but that’s no longer the case today. With an expertise born of 300 years of experience, Québecers take credit for three-quarters of the world’s maple syrup production, or 80 million litres (21 million U.S. gallons). Our maple trees enjoy quite a reputation! In fact, 80% of our syrup is sold in foreign markets, mainly to Americans, Germans and the Japanese. The latter are particularly fond of it in their tea!

Sap in all its forms

With different processes for boiling down the maple sap, including reverse osmosis (which requires between 30 and 40 litres, or 8 to 10.5 U.S. gallons, to make one litre or about 2 pints of syrup), maple syrup producers are pulling out all the stops to outdo each other and constantly offer you new recipes. Watch them transform this nectar into taffy and into soft, hard or granulated sugar, butter, candies and caramels. Savour it as syrup served on pancakes, omelettes, baked beans and "oreilles de Christ" (crisp fried salt pork) or drizzled over ham, scooped on a wooden stick or diluted in a drink.

Care for a sip of caribou?

Caribou, you ask? It’s a unique blend of red wine, whisky and maple sap. You’ll find this recipe (along with lots of other tasty alcoholic concoctions) at the Domaine Acer, a maple economuseum located in Auclair, in the Bas Saint-Laurent. The province also boasts a "maple capital": Plessisville, in the Centre-du-Québec region. The city is home to the Musée québécois de l’érable (Québec maple museum • By reservation only • 1280 avenue Trudelle, Plessisville • 819 362-9292), and hosts a flavoursome festival as well! This year, once again, festivities include numerous sugaring-off parties, an agricultural tour and the world log sawing competition.

Tasting Québec’s culture

Going to a sugar shack is a deeply enriching experience. In fact, there’s probably no better way to get acquainted with Québec’s landscape and culture: the country air, the folk music, the workers’ know-how, the traditional dishes... not to mention the plants and wildlife that begin to show themselves as the cold winter gradually yields to spring.

Guillaume Rivard
2008-04-10