Skip to main content
Dessert

Shilo Caramel Chocolates

A caramel chocolate made with sugar, glucose, cream, ginger, and coconut.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Ginger and coconut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,168 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Shilo Caramel Chocolates

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a large pot, combine sugar, glucose, and paraffin with 1 gallon of cream.

  2. Cook the mixture until it reaches a medium ball stage.

  3. Add ½ gallon of cream and cook to medium ball again.

  4. Add another ¼ gallon of cream and cook until it reaches a good firm ball.

Add flavourings and set

  1. Remove from heat and stir in the Canton ginger and Macaroon coconut until well mixed.

  2. Pour the mixture onto a slab to cool.

Cut and dip

  1. Once cooled, cut into pieces and dip in chocolate.

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. Ginger + coconuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Cream + coconuttop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,223 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + coconuttop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Sugar
Provides the sweetness and the solid body that the candy sets into.
Glucose
Interferes with sugar crystals, keeping the candy smooth rather than grainy.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the caramel a soft, creamy texture.
Paraffin
Adds firmness so the candy holds its shape when cooled and cut.
Canton ginger
Adds its sharp, spicy flavour and chewy pieces throughout the candy.
Macaroon coconut
Adds chewy texture and toasty coconut flavour to the caramel.

The step that matters

Cooking to the firm ball stage. The final cooking temperature sets how firm the caramel becomes after cooling. Stopping early leaves it soft and sticky, while cooking too long makes it hard and brittle.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, coconut):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, coconut. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Ginger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesGinger CakeGinger Cake93 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesSoft Ginger CakeSoft Ginger Cake56 recipes