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Dessert

Caramel for Coloring

A caramel syrup made by boiling sugar and water, then adding hot water to reach a dark molasses-like consistency.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Caramel for Coloring

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Combine sugar and water in a small thick saucepan.

  2. Boil for 10 minutes over high heat.

  3. Watch the mixture until it turns golden.

  4. Watch the mixture until it turns dark brown.

Dilute and thicken

  1. Add hot water carefully when the mixture resembles thick molasses; it will sputter.

  2. Stir until fully dissolved.

  3. Boil until it reaches a syrup consistency.

Bottle and cool

  1. Pour into a bottle.

  2. Let it cool; it should look like black molasses.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Caramelizes under heat, producing the dark color and the bittersweet flavor of the coloring.
Hot water
Dissolves the hardened caramel into a pourable liquid and lets you control its thickness.

The step that matters

Adding the hot water. The caramel is far above boiling point, so water added to it flashes into steam and sputters violently, which can cause burns. Adding it slowly, with the pan off the heat or held at a distance, keeps the reaction under control and lets the caramel dissolve evenly.

“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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