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Dessert

Chocolate Caramels, No. 2

A sweet caramel made with cream, sugars, vanilla chocolate, butter, and soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and chocolate 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 ↓

Chocolate Caramels, No. 2

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stir corn‑starch into the cream.

  2. Combine cream, brown sugar, white sugar, and butter in a saucepan.

Cook

  1. Boil for half an hour, stirring to prevent burning.

  2. Reserve half of the cream.

Finish

  1. Add vanilla chocolate and vanilla extract to the mixture. Stir until well combined.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

  4. Vanilla + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, 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

Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the caramel a soft, creamy body.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and molasses flavor, and helps the caramel turn deep and chewy.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and bulk, and cooks down to help the caramel set firm.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender texture and a rich mouthfeel.
Corn-starch
Thickens the mixture so the caramel holds its shape as it cooks.
Vanilla chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and fat, making the caramel richer and darker.

The step that matters

Boil for half an hour, stirring to prevent burning.. Sugars scorch quickly on the hot bottom of a saucepan, which gives a bitter taste. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly and keeps the mixture from sticking and burning during the long boil.

“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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