10 more foods that make America great

Maple syrup
This sticky treat has a centuries-old pedigree. As one maple producers group notes: “Maple sugaring was not new to Massachusetts when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.”

Tim Boyle / Getty Images file New England isn't the only place to find maple syrup. Kickapoo Gold hails from Wisconsin.

Native tribes were recorded tapping trees for sap in the first years of the 17th century, and turning the clear, sweet liquid into solid maple sugar. The Iroquois of the Northeast, and the Ojibwe and Ottawas of the Great Lakes, all have their own maple legends.

Though European maples produce little sap, North American varieties create it in abundance and New England settlers were quick to copy the technique, especially as a substitute for costly imported sugar. Sky-high tariffs from the 1764 Sugar Act provided even more incentive. That price advantage for maple remained through much of the 19th century, even as cane sugar became more affordable. But the maple industry in New England (and across the border in Canada) eventually turned its attention to the liquid stuff.

Since the creation in 1888 of Log Cabin Syrup (which mixed maple and cane syrups), it has been crucial to differentiate the real deal from lesser “pancake syrups,” and USDA regulations now mandate that only syrup made “exclusively by the evaporation of pure maple sap” can be called maple syrup, with the end product graded for quality.

If maple syrup is no longer cheap, it is still a food filled with tradition.  It's not uncommon to see New Englanders trudge through the woods on a February or March morning, ready to boil down sap and, if Mother Nature cooperates, eat fresh syrup off freshly fallen snow. For all the improvements, the sugaring technique is remarkably similar to the way it was before America's colonial roots were ever in place.