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Dessert

Extra Fine Caramel

A sweet caramel made by cooking sugar, glucose, and cream to soft and firm ball stages, flavored with vanilla and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Extra Fine Caramel

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a kettle, combine 4 cups of sugar and 3 cups of glucose.

  2. Add 2 quarts of cream and stir well.

  3. Cook the mixture until it reaches the soft ball stage.

  4. Add 1 quart of cream and cook again until it reaches the soft ball stage.

  5. Add another quart of cream and cook until it reaches the firm ball stage.

Flavor, set and cut

  1. Remove from heat and flavor with vanilla and liquid chocolate or your chosen flavor.

  2. Pour the mixture onto a surface between iron bars, about three-quarters of an inch thick.

  3. Once cooled, cut into squares and 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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  4. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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, as it cooks, the body and chewy texture of the caramel.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallization, keeping the caramel smooth and soft rather than grainy.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the caramel rich and tender once it sets.
Liquid chocolate
Adds fat and chocolate flavor; it is stirred in off the heat to flavor the mixture.

The step that matters

Cooking to the soft and firm ball stages. Cooking time sets the sugar concentration, which determines how firm the set caramel will be. Stopping too early gives a soft, sticky result; cooking too far gives a hard, brittle one.

“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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