Refrigerating Maple Syrup?
 

So, I've noticed a growing trend in whether or not people keep this stuff cold. My folks never have, and as a result, I tend not to. But after a roommate of mine pointed it out, I realize a lot of syrup bottles say to refrigerate after opening it.

What's you guys' take on it?

I've never had syrup go bad before in my life, so refrigerating has never been necessary...

Syrup is made of pure sugar, so it's unlikely to go off. It may go hard and crystaline tho, after a few years. But I never kept syrup in the fridge; it did alright in the larder.

Then again, syrup never is around long enough to crystalise in my house. :lol:

Neither. Most of the time it just waits in the cupboard, I know some people who do keep syrup in the fridge but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

Oh wow...normally I'm a freak about following food lables EXACTLY, but I won't be putting my syrup in the fridge. Only acception I'd make are the fruit flavored syrups.

On a slightly related topic...who refrigerates other things while other people don't? I for one ALWAYS refrigerate my mustard, but FREAKED out when I saw my In-Laws did not, ew, lol. But then they think I'M the wierd one because I don't refrigerate my vegetable/canola oil. Course, there are bound to be differences between us. I'm a mid-westerner and they're southerners! You should have seen me at Thanksgiving, I about cried from all the differences with food, lol.

I suppose it's good to know that's a midwestern thing; we also keep our vegetable/canola oil in the pantry and out mustard (which is usually honey dijon) in the fridge. Apparently you should refrigerate bread, but we don't unless we have to freeze it because we have too much of it. I also heard that fruits like strawberries lose their flavor if you refrigerate them. Actually, I'm pretty sure ice cold drinks are a US commodity (at least they are according to my old German teacher).

Probably cuz it's the 100% stuff. The stuff we get here isn't 100%; it's often just flavoured syrup. Golden syrup is more popular over here; and that often crystalises if you leave it for too long. Not talking about days, weeks, months here; you get a bit of crystal if you leave it years.

We do not refridgerate our maple syrup. So many preservatives, it's just not worth it. That stuff won't spoil for a while.

We do refridgerate all our condements, ketchup and mustard and the like. We also keep our loafs of bread in the fridge.

But here's the thing my friends find really freaky: we don't refridgerate our butter. We have like the big box of it that you buy at the warehouse store in there, but when we're using a stick for like toast or bread, we keep it in an old margerine container on the table. My family goes through so much freaking butter that we don't even have to BEGIN to worry about it going bad. Not even close.

So I made French toast the other day and double checked our syrup (Aunt Jemamey y'all! xD) and it says "refrigeration not required" YAY!

I've never heard of refrigerating bread! We use it just in time before it gets stale, so it's not necessary in our house. Thank goodness too, because I've had a sandwich before that sat in the fridge and the bread gets...crusty/dry? It just didn't sit right with me, lol. But I must say Katie, I'm definitely on the ew side of y'alls butter. Margarine doesn't need to be refrigerated, I'm aware, but idk, dairy in general freaks me out, lol. I'll let margarine sit out for baking, but it stays in it's butter cubby in the fridge until it's time to bake. My in laws used to keep margarine out too. I never touched it and was SO glad when they started their dieting frenzy and got spray butter...though admittedly I didn't trust that after I found they would leave it out overnight and put it in the fridge, lol.

It's interesting to see everyones traditional food storage! How odd, you never think people do things differently until you witness it, lol.