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Dessert

Strawberry Fruit Caramels

A caramel candy made with sugar, glucose, butter, cream, and strawberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Strawberry Fruit Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a kettle, combine the sugar, glucose, butter, and ½ gallon of cream.

  2. Cook over low heat until it reaches 238°F (soft ball stage).

  3. Add 1 quart of cream and continue cooking until it reaches 242°F (firm ball stage).

  4. Stir in the remaining quart of cream and cook until it reaches a hard ball stage.

  5. Pour the mixture onto a slab between iron bars.

  6. Once cooled, mark and cut into pieces.

  7. Add the strawberries only after the second quart of cream is added.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 firm body the caramel sets to as it cooks and cools.
Glucose
Helps prevent sugar crystals, keeping the caramel smooth and chewy.
Butter
Adds fat for a soft, rich texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and fat, giving a softer, creamier chew.
Strawberries
Add fruit flavour and moisture to the caramel.

The step that matters

Cooking to the set temperatures. Each stage of cooking concentrates the sugar further, so the final temperature determines how firm the caramel becomes on cooling. Stopping early leaves it soft, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle. Adding cream in portions helps control the rise in temperature and keeps the mixture from scorching.

“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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