Burnt Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and boil
In a kettle, combine 5 lbs of sugar and 3 quarts of water.
Set the kettle on the stove and mix well.
Allow the mixture to boil until it turns perfectly black.
Dilute and store
Add 2 quarts of water to the blackened sugar and stir to melt.
Pour the syrup into a can or open-neck jars.
Open a window while cooking to manage the smoke.
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
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Caramelizes as it heats, giving the syrup its dark color and bittersweet, toasted flavor.
The step that matters
Boiling until perfectly black. Sugar darkens quickly near the end of caramelization, and going too far turns the flavor bitter and acrid. Watch the color closely and stop as soon as it reaches the target shade.
“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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