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Table Syrup
2 cups brown sugar. 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups water Dissolve the sugar in the water and cook until it thickens slightly. When cool, add vanilla or maple flavoring. The syrup is an excellent substitute for maple or other table syrup.
A plain sugar syrup meant to stand in for maple on the table, and simple enough that the only real difficulty is what the printed page leaves out.
- The missing sugarThe ingredient list as printed gives only vanilla and water; the quantity of sugar has dropped out of the line. A heavy syrup of this kind would need a good deal more sugar than water, but the proportion is guesswork, not what this book says.
- Keep the sides cleanUndissolved crystals on the pan wall will seed the whole batch and turn it grainy in the jar. Wash the sides down with a wet pastry brush and do not stir once the sugar has dissolved. A tablespoon of corn syrup or a pinch of cream of tartar in the pan also discourages crystallizing.
- Flavor after coolingThe instruction to add vanilla or maple flavoring when cool is the hinge. Flavoring extracts are volatile, and aroma is lost if they go into hot syrup.
- Maple flavoringBottled "maple flavor" was an imitation rather than maple extract; fenugreek has long been associated with the imitation maple note.
- Why it sits among frozen dessertsUses -- A thin sugar syrup of this kind would pour over cold desserts as readily as over breakfast dishes.
Imitation table syrups belong to a long stretch when real maple was a regional luxury priced well above cane sugar, and home cookbooks of the period carried formulas for faking it. Commercial equivalents worked the same way, a cane or corn syrup base carrying a trace of true maple or of imitation flavoring. Mrs. Fryer's version is the household version of that trade practice, and the offhand "or maple flavoring" suggests the bottled extract was a familiar pantry item.