Maple Syrup - Better Than Real

The complex taste of real maple syrup eludes most home recipes because of a lack of ingredients. True maple syrup isn't just sweet. It has a subtle astringency and a smokey essence brought out by the hardwood trees it's taken from.

• Ready In: 25 mins
• Serves: 25
• Yields: 2 1/2 cups

Ingredients

• 4  cups brown sugar (one 32 oz package)
• 1 1⁄2 cups water
• 2  teaspoons  maple flavoring
•  juice of one lemon
• 1⁄2 teaspoon liquid smoke (double it if you like it smokey)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1  teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Heat water and sugar til begins to boil. Turn down heat to slowly boil for 15 minutes, remove from heat and add remaining ingredients - vanilla last. This is thicker than real M.S. but thin stuff won't store without refrigeration - this will. I like syrup to be alive and astringent so you might want to reduce the lemon to half the amount if you prefer just sweet.