disco, thanks for your thots on maple syrple. it's very expensive here, so i substituted raw brown sugar in my wet cure. i have 9 lbs curing right now.
i grew up on back bacon from ontario. it has a nice sweetness, so that's what i wanted.
i'm using dave omak's brine with added raw brown sugar as it seems to have a close flavor profile to real maple syrup..
raw sugar doesn't add that much sweetness either. i added 4 cups to the brine for a ham i cured, n i was afraid it might be so sweet as to mask the ham taste. it wasn't.
the ham tasted like real back bacon.
so, don't be shy adding brown sugar. use more than you think you need.