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Condensed Sweetness Caramels

A caramel made from molasses, sugar, butter, and vinegar, cooked until brittle and cut into pieces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Condensed Sweetness Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Melt the butter in a kettle over medium heat.

  2. Add the molasses and sugar, stirring until dissolved.

  3. Let it cook undisturbed until nearly done, then stir constantly.

  4. Boil until it becomes brittle in cold water.

  5. Add the vinegar just before removing from heat.

Shape and cool

  1. Pour into well buttered pans.

  2. Pull with your fingers and thumbs, then cut with a sharp knife and place on buttered plates to cool.

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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Molasses + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides the bulk of the sweetness and the deep, dark flavor and color.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture harden into a brittle candy as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer, richer bite and keeps the candy from sticking too hard.
Vinegar
Adds a little acidity that helps keep the sugar smooth and prevents crystallization.

The step that matters

Boil until brittle in cold water. Sugar candy sets by how far its water has boiled off. Undercooked caramel stays sticky and soft, while overcooked caramel turns hard or scorches, so checking the cold-water test matters.

“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 caramels recipes

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