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Dessert

Chocolate Caramels

A sweet confection made from brown sugar, molasses, chocolate, milk, flour, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Combine brown sugar, molasses, grated chocolate, boiled milk, flour, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the mixture slowly until it reaches a thick consistency.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture onto greased flat tins to cool.

  2. While still warm, cut into cubes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and moisture, and helps the caramel set chewy as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds deep flavour and extra moisture, and makes the caramel darker and softer.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and fat that firm up as the mixture cools.
Boiled milk
Supplies milk solids and liquid that turn the sugars into a creamy, chewy texture.
Flour
Thickens the mixture so it holds its shape when cooled and cut.
Butter
Adds fat for smooth richness and keeps the caramel from being brittle.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture slowly until thick. Cooking too fast or too briefly leaves the caramel soft and runny, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle. Slow boiling lets the sugar concentrate gradually so the set is even and chewy.

“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.

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