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Dessert

Shilo Caramel Chocolates

A caramel chocolate made by cooking sugar, glucose, cream, ginger, and coconut, then cooling and dipping in chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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. Combine 8 lbs sugar, 6 lbs glucose, and 1 gal cream in a large pot.

  2. Cook until it reaches a medium ball stage.

  3. Add ½ gal cream.

  4. Cook until it reaches a medium ball stage again.

  5. Add another ½ gal cream.

  6. Cook until it reaches a good firm ball stage.

  7. Remove from heat.

Add flavour and set

  1. Stir in 3 lbs Canton ginger and 2 lbs fine macaroon coconut until well mixed.

  2. Pour the mixture onto a slab to cool.

  3. Once cooled, cut into pieces.

Finish

  1. Dip the pieces 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 sweet base and the bulk of the firm caramel body.
Glucose
Interferes with sugar crystals so the caramel stays smooth and does not turn grainy.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the caramel a soft, rich texture.
Canton ginger
Contributes its spicy, sharp aroma and flavour to the caramel.
Fine macaroon coconut
Adds chewy texture and toasty coconut flavour to the set caramel.

The step that matters

Cook to the good firm ball stage. Cooking sugar to the right stage controls how firm the set caramel will be. Stopping early leaves it soft and sticky, while going too far makes it hard and brittle once cooled.

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.

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