Cornell
Improves Maple Cream for the 2004 Maple Season
by Nate Abbott
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 1, 2004
For more information, contact:
Peter Smallidge, pjs23@cornell.edu , 607-255-4696,
or Linda McCandless, llm3@cornell.edu , 607-254-5137
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Pictures are linked
to hi-res scans
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Cathy
Cogswell, a field assistant at the Arnot Forest, taps a sugar
maple in preparation for the 2004 season.
Photos courtesy Cornell University. |
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Maple
cream is continuously stirred as it cools to become thick
and spreadable.
Photos courtesy Cornell University.
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ITHACA, NY: Inspect most breakfast tables, and you find the usual
spreads: peanut butter, jelly, cream cheese, and jam.
Cornell University microbiologist Randy Worobo and food scientist
Olga Padilla-Zakour, of the New York State Agricultural Experiment
Station, in Geneva, NY, have increased the shelf life and quality
of a little-known alternative called maple cream, making it easier
to manufacture and store, and more appealing to the consumer.
Maple cream is the smooth-textured spread made by heating syrup
to high temperatures and continuously stirring it as it cools.
Despite its name, maple cream contains no dairy products. Instead,
it offers the rich flavor of maple syrup in a form that can be
drizzled over ice cream, licked off the spoon, or spread on toast,
bagels, muffins, or pancakes. Until now, maple cream has not had
the widespread appeal due its tendency to mold and separate. Because
of these deficiencies, maple cream was only available on a limited
basis. Most consumers have never tried it.
Padilla-Zakour and Worobo devised ways to produce maple cream that
has a creamier texture and lasts up to six months. To prevent the
formation of surface mold, the researchers added a food preservative,
potassium sorbate, at a low concentration of 500 ppm. To address
the issue of separation, 10 percent of the maple syrup undergoes
the process of inverting the sugar from sucrose to glucose and
fructose by the addition of the natural enzyme invertase.
The result is a maple cream or maple spread that lasts longer,
retains the same flavor, and possesses a creamier texture. The
processing will cost producers less than ten cents per pound of
finished product, and requires equipment already found in typical
maple syrup operations.
Worobo and Padilla-Zakour estimate that developing good manufacturing
practices for shelf-stable maple cream could increase production
and marketing by 10 percent, resulting in an additional $1.6 million
per year in revenue for maple producers. For consumers, it adds
value to what is already a naturally sweet product.
Chuck Winship, of Sugarbush Hollow, in Springwater, NY, produces
600 gallons of maple syrup a year, and has sold 200 pounds of maple
cream since August. He wrote the grant that drove the maple cream
development project, and was one of two industry cooperators, along
with Lyle Merle of Merle Maple Farms, in Attica, NY. In limited
taste tests at his sugar shack, Merle has found customers prefer
the creamier maple cream 8 out of 10 times. His sales of maple
cream have increased 6 percent since he started making the new
shelf-stable maple cream last August.
Industry has always considered maple cream to be an under-marketed
maple product with great potential. Peter Smallidge, NYS extension
forester and director of the Arnot Teaching and Research Forest,
in Van Etten, NY, adds, "The marketing opportunities for
producers will increase because this new maple cream can be displayed
prominently
and made more visible to consumers. If the marketing increases
consumption and the producers respond to the demand, more syrup
will have to be devoted to cream production."
Smallidge expects to have limited quantities of the product available
during the Arnot Forest's Maple Weekend, March 20 and 21. [For
more information, call 607-589-6076 or link to the Arnot Forest
web site at http://www.dnr.cornell.edu/arnot/ ]
A Renewed Commitment to New York's Maple Industry
The success of shelf-stable maple cream is a good example of Cornell's
renewed commitment to the New York maple syrup industry. In December
2003, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences announced plans
to reinvigorate the Cornell Maple Program (CMP). The plan is a
cooperative effort among maple producers, extension educators,
researchers and others that calls for integrating applied research
and extension, and developing strategic and working partnerships
with key players in the New York maple industry.
Some of the goals include: rebuilding and upgrading facilities
at both Cornell maple research and production sites- the Arnot
Teaching and Research Forest in Van Etten, NY, and the Uihlein
Sugar Maple Field Station in Lake Placid, NY-and hiring a statewide
maple specialist. Peter Smallidge, senior extension associate in
the department of natural resources, has already been directed
to undertake additional maple extension activities.
New York's Maple Weekend, March 20 and 21
The arrival of the shelf-stable maple cream is a timely one, as
the New York maple industry prepares for the 2004 Maple Weekend,
March 20 and 21. Over 75 maple producers across the state will
open their sugar shacks for demonstrations and tastings. [For a
list of locations, link to www.mapleweekend.com ]
More than 1525 commercial producers with 100 or more taps are engaged
in maple production in New York, making the Empire State the second-largest
maple producer in the U.S. Maple production in New York State was
valued at $6.83 million in 2002, and represents more than one-sixth
of the total U.S. production.
The maple cream project was supported with funding from a USDA-SARE
Farmer/Grower Grant, USDA Fund for Rural America, and the New York
State Agricultural Experiment Station.
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Notes to Editors: New York maple producers have just started tapping
their sugar maple trees for the 2004 season. For a list of maple
producers in your area who will be open for Maple Weekend, March
20 and 21, link to www.mapleweekend.com
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