The "Great Grampie Conspiracy"

I have no problem buying generic brand food products. Luckily my DH and I are not fussy and will resort to these if the name brand items are not on sale. My dad on the other hand seems to think the name brand stuff rivals all others on every level. I have to say that there are two items that we never buy generic, that being ketchup and peanut butter. Not saying I have not given them a chance, I have, but there are some things you just have to fork over the big bucks for.

The other item that my dad places on the name brand pedestal is the Aunt Jemima 15% real maple syrup. Yes folks he actually thinks it's real maple syrup because it says so.. One day while visiting one of my favourite sites, Amy wrote about making her own pancake syrup that she got from Hillbilly Housewife. I saw that and thought "what a perfect time to experiment on my father, the pancake connoisseur". I quickly whipped up a batch and filled the empty jar of name brand stuff and under the cloak of darkness (insert 007 music now) swapped this with his full one. The night of our weekly breakfast dinner we all sat down to a large batch of pancakes and began to drown them in the sugary goodness. And there we waited, waited for the look of deceit.  To our surprise it never came and only after the last bite did we ask him if he thought something was different. He didn't so we concluded with the theory that not all generic brands are superior and sometimes packaging plays a big role in how we perceive things. 

The only difference is the homemade version results in a thinner consistency but as far as taste I would almost go as far as saying it has a stronger maple flavouring.  But who can argue that the price is the deciding factor? The cost of a name brand kind can cost upwards of $4.50 and the homemade version is approximately 25 cents (could be even less but I am being generous)

Here is the recipe courtesy of Hillbilly Housewife