Overwhelmed by Maple

I know that maple is often considered a fall flavor, though I don't really know why. Late winter/ early spring is much more appropriate, as that's when maple syrup is actually made. So that's why I'm posting Favorite Maple Recipes (The Log Cabin Products Co., 1928) in March.

If you're skeptical about mentioning "Log Cabin" and "maple syrup" together, well, you have a right to be skeptical, as the brand doesn't actually include any maple today. (The company's own website doesn't even list the ingredients in an easily accessible way, suggesting that they don't want buyers to realize this, but quick checks of other websites that sell the syrup proved that it's mostly corn syrup, water, and sugar today.) However, when this pamphlet was made, the brand did contain at least some actual maple syrup. The introduction claims the blend is made of "the early springtime sugar of New England's far-famed maples" plus "The fresh, woodsy fragrance of northern maples from the giant groves of Canada" and "to mellow the heavy richness of these two maples there's just the right amount of pure cane sugar." I'm guessing the cheapest ingredient was probably the most abundant, even if it was listed last, but at least the blend had a little of the real stuff.

The booklet mostly consists of dessert recipes that sound pretty good, assuming you have a sweet tooth. It's not as if Vermont Maple Pecan Cake or a Maple Nut Sundae is likely to go very wrong... So I guess I'll just list an entire menu using the few savory-yet-maple-centric recipes and hope that sensory specific satiety sets in and you get tired of imagining an entire meal of sweet and sticky stuff. (It also doesn't hurt if you hate sweet-and-meat-type combos as much as I do.) We'll start off with Savory Baked Ham.

Made less savory after being stuck with whole cloves and basted with Log Cabin.

Now we need a side. How about some sweet potatoes?

Candied in Log Cabin syrup, of course!

And if you need a salad, well, try a fruit salad topped off with Maple Mayonnaise!

Yep. Maple Mayonnaise. 

And since dinner is insufficiently sweet, let's finish with a nice Maple Puff!

I rarely see recipes that call for Jell-O to be dissolved in a milk-and-egg-yolk mixture, so I was impressed. And since strawberry Jell-O is likely to be insufficiently sweet, make sure to add a cup of Log Cabin Syrup!

I also love the dramatic presentation of the gelatin mold rising from a mass of whipped cream like the face of an angry monster rising out of a whitecap-covered ocean. (I hope you can see the frowny eyebrows, puffy cheeks, and threatening tusks too!) Or maybe it's just the angry face your stomach will make after being inundated with all this sugar for dinner....

Either way, happy maple season!