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Chocolate Caramels

Chocolate caramels made from sugar, molasses, milk, butter, and chocolate.

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Combine sugar, molasses, milk, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Heat the mixture until it boils, stirring constantly.

  3. Add the chopped chocolate and continue to boil until it thickens.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into flat tins to cool.

  2. While warm, cut 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. 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. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

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

  5. Butter + chocolatetop 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, helps build the firm, chewy caramel body.
Molasses
Adds deep flavour and moisture, and keeps the caramel soft and chewy.
Milk
Adds dairy richness and softness to the caramel texture.
Butter
Adds fat for smooth texture and rich flavour.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and helps thicken the mixture as it boils.

The step that matters

Stirring while the mixture boils. Sugar and milk can scorch on the bottom of the pan if not stirred constantly, giving a burnt taste. Constant stirring keeps heat even and the mixture from sticking or crystallising.

“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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