Canada's traditional sugar shack has been a vegan's nightmare up until now, it's out with the old, and in with the new! The traditional cabanes a sucre, found in some of Quebec's backwoods filled with the French-Canadian culinary tradition of glazed ham, sausages, meat pies, scrambled eggs and pork rinds have been a staple for hundreds of years. The heavy meal known to be drenched in sweet syrup has evolved from humble huts where sap is boiled down to maple syrup with feasting houses churning out meals with meat by the tray-full atop communal tables. Only now, more and more sugar shacks are offering pork rinds without pork and maple baked beans without lard, including other vegetarian or vegan options. It's fueled by the growing health and ethical concerns of meatless meals and shifting eating habits.
While more and more sugar shacks owners are reconsidering the culinary traditions of the sugaring-off period, one thing is unlikely to change: expect the food, whether it's pork or lentil-based, to come drenched in plenty of maple syrup.
