On the very short list of items that improve the pure joy that is natural Canadian maple syrup, bacon is followed closely by smoke.
Luke Powell of Sydney’s LP’s Quality Meats is rich in both those things and after spotting a very narrow gap in the market, has created the only thing we’re going to pour over our pancakes from now on – smoked maple syrup.
To make it, Powell lights up the restaurant’s smoker with applewood and smokes the organic Canadian-sourced syrup in trays for around three hours. “We continually taste it so it doesn’t taste like an ashtray,” he says, “then it gets strained and bottled.”
You can usually smell LP’s before you see it. All its meats are smoked in-house, from short ribs to chickens, sausage to lamb belly. As well as selling bottles of the syrup at the restaurant (for maximum Sunday morning breakfast wins), it’s also mixed into cocktails, and used for glazing meats and Christmas hams at Powell’s house.
We’ve spotted it around town too; the team at Newtown café 212 Blu pour it into milkshakes and stir spoonfuls into cold-drip coffee as a sweetener. It’s also available in Melbourne at Andrew McConnell’s Meatsmith on Smith Street in Fitzroy. Make sure you pick up some top-quality local bacon to go with it.
Looking for some recipes to try using smoked maple syrup? How about:
[
Southern fried chicken with smoky maple caramel](http://www.gourmettraveller.com.au/recipes/recipe-search/feature-recipe/2013/5/southern-fried-chicken-with-smoky-maple-caramel/)
LP’s Quality Meats Smoked Maple Syrup, $28 for 500ml, Suite 1, 16 Chippen St, Chippendale, NSW, (02) 8399 0929, lpsqualitymeats.com.
