Burnt Sugar, Called Black Jack, Otherwise Essence Parisian
Ingredients
Directions
Make the burnt sugar
Moisten the sugar with water in a pure copper sugar boiler.
Burn the mixture slowly until it is perfectly black, indicated by blue smoke.
Remove from heat and add 1 quart of water.
Let the mixture boil gently until the sugar is melted.
Strain and bottle
Pass through muslin and bottle when cold.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Burns to a dark, bitter caramel that colours and flavours the liquid.
- Water
- Moistens the sugar so it dissolves and melts evenly before and after burning.
The step that matters
Burning the sugar to black. Sugar darkens quickly once it passes the caramel stage, and going too far turns it bitter and acrid. Watching for the blue smoke signals the point where colour is deep but flavour has not yet burned away.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
More burnt sugar recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.