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Chocolate Caramels

Chocolate Caramels are made by boiling cream, brown sugar, molasses, butter, and chocolate until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter 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 ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine the cream, brown sugar, molasses, and butter.

  2. Boil the mixture for 20 minutes.

  3. Add the grated chocolate and continue boiling until the mixture reaches the right consistency.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered dish.

  2. Once set, cut or mark into squares.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rich cream
Adds fat and dairy richness, giving the caramel a soft, smooth texture.
Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks, helps the caramel brown and develop flavor.
Molasses
Adds depth, dark color and a slightly bitter note, and keeps the caramel soft and moist.
Butter
Contributes fat for smoothness and a rich, buttery flavor.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and deepens the color of the caramel.

The step that matters

Boiling until the right consistency. Sugar mixtures set firmer as more water evaporates and sugar concentrates. Stopping too early leaves the caramel soft and sticky, while boiling too long makes it hard and brittle once cooled.

“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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