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Chocolate Caramels

Chocolate caramels made with chocolate, molasses, sweet milk, brown sugar, butter, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Combine chocolate, molasses, sweet milk, brown sugar, and butter in a granite saucepan.

  2. Heat slowly, stirring until dissolved.

  3. Boil until the mixture hardens quickly when tested in cold water.

Set and cut

  1. Pour into greased pans and mark when partly cool.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and the bulk of the caramel mass that sets firm as it cools.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and deep colour to the caramel.
Molasses
Adds depth of flavour and extra colour to the caramel.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender texture in the finished caramel.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, helping the sugar dissolve and the candy turn soft.

The step that matters

Boil until the mixture hardens quickly when tested in cold water. Sugar candy sets by how much water has boiled off. Boiling too little leaves caramels soft and sticky, while boiling too long makes them hard and brittle. The cold-water test shows when the sugar has reached the right concentration.

“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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