Tap, Tap, Tappin’ on Heaven’s Door

While wandering the New Hampshire countryside recently, I spied with my little eye a few sure signs of Spring. The bright sunshine and unseasonably warm weather brought out the do-it-yourselfers, eager to clean up debris from the recent windstorm while there was no snow on the ground hindering the effort. The edges of the ice on area ponds and lakes started to melt. A few bird songs not heard for months floated in the air. Weathered metal buckets dangled precariously from tree trunks.

If you’re not from New England (or other parts Northern), you might not recognize the significance of that last sign. It’s sugaring time! You see, maple sap runs best when it’s still below 32° degrees Fahrenheit overnight, but daytime temperatures get between 40° and 50° degrees. The combination pushes the sap from the roots up into the trunk and branches where it freezes until the next day when the warmer temperatures get the sap flowing – through a tap and into those buckets.

Once collected, the sap is boiled, skimmed, and strained, and the ambrosia known as maple syrup is born. Did you know that it takes 10 gallons of sap to make one quart of syrup? True! Variations in boiling times produce other delightful textures such as maple sugar, maple butter, and maple cream. Who first thought to do this, I have no idea, but I’m so glad (s)he did! And compared to other popular sweeteners such as agave and high fructose corn syrup, maple syrup is low in fructose while being an excellent source of manganese and zinc. Who knew?

Though Vermont maple syrup is perhaps more famous, Maine maple syrup is equally great. Stonewall Kitchen offers Maine Maple Syrup in the 8.5 oz. glass jug and 16 oz. crock, individual serving size, and even a neat bottle that looks like a barn! Any one of which is perfect for making another New England treat – Sugar on Snow.

We also have a wonderful selection of products that utilize this most wonderful sweetener in nearly every course of your dinner. Start with Maple Mustard Dip on pretzels for an appetizer (though it also makes a delicious sauce for stir-fry). On your salad, drizzle on the savory/sweet combination of our Maple Balsamic Dressing. For the entrée, pulled pork is elevated to a new level when drenched in our best-selling, award-winning Maple Chipotle Grille Sauce. Or spruce up ham or beef with the divine combination of tangy, sparkly, and sweet in our Maine Maple Champagne Mustard. Of course, dessert loves maple, and what better (speaking of New England treats) than our spin on the classic Maine whoopie pie -- made even better when the cream filling is swirled with a dollop of Maple Pumpkin Butter.

I’m getting hungry. And already prepared for a good tooth-brushing when dinner’s done.

Easter Eggs

I'd like to apologize in advance for the shameless, horrible egg puns that I'm inevitably going to shell out over the course of this blog.

I thought I'd tackle one of the simplest, yet most vexing everyday challenges of the home kitchen: perfectly boiling an egg.

Nearly every basic cookbook offers conflicting techniques on how it should be done—start the egg in cold water, or gently lower it into boiling water; add vinegar to the water to lower its pH, or add baking soda to the water to raise it; cover the pot, don't cover the pot; use old eggs, or use new eggs, and on and on—but very few offer evidence as to why any one of these techniques should work any better than your average old wives' tale. Apparently, boiling is not...ahem...an eggs-act science.

What Factors Matter When Boiling Eggs?

Age of the Eggs - "Old eggs are for boiling, fresh eggs are for frying," is what my mother told me. Well, it's true...to a degree. As anyone who's had fresh-from the hen eggs will tell you, they do fry up beautifully, giving you tall, tall yolks, and tight whites, and trying to peel a very freshly laid boiled egg is difficult—the inner membrane of the shell has a tendency to stick to the white, giving the peeled egg a pockmarked appearance. But these differences disappear within a few days after the egg has been laid. Since eggs in the supermarket can spend up to 30 days before they even hit the shelf, followed by a further 30 days before they hit their expiration date, the point is pretty much moot. So long as you don't keep your own chickens, you can boil eggs with impunity.

Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

Hard boiled eggs are a little complicated. The goal is to have both your white and your yolk at the point where they are opaque, but not rubbery. I was taught to place the eggs in cold water, bring them to a simmer, shut off the heat, and wait for a prescribed period of time (about ten minutes).

The best part about using this method is that even if you accidentally forget about your egg and leave it sitting in the water, there is no chance that it will overcook, because by the time the egg is done (about ten minutes), the water temperature has dropped far enough that the egg will stop cooking.. But for most practical purposes, this will deliver perfect hard boiled eggs every time.

Perfect eggs, but the yolk's on me—all this egg boiling has left me fried.

Or you could just use our electric egg cooker . . . .

Have a great deviled eggs recipe? Please share with us!