Homemade Maple Syrup

Cooking from scratch is one of the best ways I have found to save money on food. Many think that cooking from scratch is for meals only. Making your own condiments, however, is a great way to save money. Take for instance maple syrup. Pure maple syrup is around $6 for an 8 ounce bottle. Fake maple syrup is much cheaper at around $3-4 per bottle, usually 16 ounces. The problem with fake maple syrup is it is almost all high fructose corn syrup, which is about the worst kind of sugar to put in your body.

Making your own maple syrup is much better for you than the fake syrup and it is much cheaper. There are 11.5 cups of sugar in a 5 pound bag of sugar. Maple syrup uses 2 cups of sugar. At $2 per 5 pound bag, that breaks down to just over $.17 per cup, or $.34 to make a 16 ounce batch of syrup. Maple extract (I use imitation, because I can not find the pure maple extract at any of the stores here, but I used the pure maple extract in CO and it was only about $1 more per bottle) comes in small bottles, however you only need a small amount. I estimate about $.50 worth of maple extract per batch of syrup. Total for homemade syrup is $.84.

Here are the easy directions. Combine 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water in a sauce pan and stir to dissolve, while heating to a boil. After the sugar dissolves add 1/2 tsp of maple extract and stir it in well. When it boils, turn the heat down just enough to keep it boililng, but not boiling over. Boil for 3 minutes. Let cool and store in old syrup jugs.

It really couldn't be easier to make your own maple syrup, and it is much cheaper and better for you than store bought. Enjoy!