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I just got done putting up two bellies myself, I did a maple one also but I bought maple sugar and used that in place of brown sugar. I can't wait to try it this weekend to see if the maple sugar makes a difference.
There seems to be consesus on use of maple syrup - i.e. it does not contribute much to the final flavor. Agree on that as well but I still use it to make my dry cure rub not so dry, but sort of sticky paste like. I found it easier to apply the paste to the bellies.