Skip to main content
Dessert

Caramels, Wrapped.

Caramels wrapped in wax paper after cooking to hard ball stage.

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

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 ↓

Caramels, Wrapped.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the eggs into the milk.

Cook the caramel

  1. Add the milk, sugar, wax, and butter to a boiling pot.

  2. Boil the mixture to 245°F (118°C).

  3. Add the glucose.

  4. Boil to hard ball stage at 247°F (120°C).

  5. Color and flavor as desired.

Set and wrap

  1. Pour onto oiled marble.

  2. When nearly cold, cut.

  3. Wrap in wax paper.

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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 sweetness and the bulk of the caramel's body as it cooks.
Glucose
Interferes with sugar crystals, keeping the caramel smooth and chewy rather than grainy.
Milk
Adds milk solids and moisture for a creamy flavor and a softer, chewier texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, flavor, and a tender, smooth bite.
Eggs
Add protein and richness, helping the mixture set with a softer structure.

The step that matters

Boil to hard ball stage at 247°F (120°C). Caramel firmness depends on how much water has boiled off. Stopping even a few degrees early leaves the caramels soft and sticky, while going too far makes them hard and brittle.

“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

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes