Skip to main content
Dessert

Mock Maple Syrup

A sweet syrup made from brown sugar, granulated sugar, water, butter, and vanilla, used as a maple syrup substitute.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Mock Maple Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine brown sugar and boiling water in a saucepan.

  2. Boil for 10 minutes.

Finish the syrup

  1. Melt granulated sugar in a frying pan until it turns light brown.

  2. Carefully add the syrup to the melted sugar.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla extract.

  4. If the syrup is too thick, thin it with additional boiling water.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Provides the main sweetness and the molasses flavour that mimics maple syrup.
Granulated sugar
Melted and browned to add caramel notes and deeper colour to the syrup.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the finished syrup.
Vanilla extract
Adds aroma that enhances the perceived sweetness and maple-like character.

The step that matters

Adding the syrup to the melted sugar. The syrup is hot and the melted sugar is far hotter, so it can bubble up violently and spatter. Adding it slowly and carefully, with the heat controlled, prevents splattering and seizing of the sugar.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes