Why it works: Sugar and condensed milk work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 804 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Caramel Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the base
Dissolve 4 lbs of potato flour in 1 gallon of cold water.
Cook the mixture of sugar, glucose, tallow, and paraffin by steam or over a very slow fire until it reaches a medium ball stage (about 248°F).
Pour the cooked mixture into a large tub.
Finish
Add 60 lbs of glucose and 100 lbs of condensed milk to the tub.
Stir well until combined and it is ready for use.
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.
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Sugar + condensed milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together804 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + condensed milktop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together410 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + potatotop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and the main body of the cooked mixture.
- Glucose
- Adds sweetness and helps prevent sugar from crystallising, keeping the texture smooth.
- Condensed milk
- Adds milk solids for creamy flavour and a soft, rich colour.
- Refined tallow
- Adds fat for a smooth, tender mouthfeel and a softer set.
- Potato flour
- Thickens the mixture as its starch swells in water when heated.
The step that matters
Cooking to the medium ball stage. Heat must be gentle and the mixture taken to about 248°F. Too hot scorches the sugars and gives a bitter taste, while stopping too early leaves the caramel soft and sticky.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, condensed milk):
- Sweet potatofits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Beetrootfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, condensed milk. 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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