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Chocolate Caramels

Chocolate caramels made by boiling chocolate, sugar, molasses, milk, and butter, then pouring into a pan and cutting into squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine grated chocolate, sugar, molasses, milk, and butter.

  2. Boil the mixture for about 20 minutes, stirring constantly.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pan.

  2. When nearly cool, mark off into small 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks, the bulk of the firm caramel body.
Molasses
Adds deep flavor and moisture, and gives the caramels a darker color and chewier texture.
Milk
Adds dairy richness and moisture, helping the mixture turn soft and chewy rather than brittle.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender texture and rich mouthfeel.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and color, along with some fat that contributes to a smooth set.

The step that matters

Boil while stirring constantly. Sugar mixtures scorch easily on the bottom of a pan, and stirring spreads the heat evenly. Cooking long enough drives off water so the caramel sets firm rather than sticky.

“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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