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Dessert

Black Jack, or Kitchen Caramel

A caramel made by cooking sugar with water until dark brown, then adding more water and cooling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Black Jack, or Kitchen Caramel

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Combine the sugar and water in a copper saucepan.

  2. Place the saucepan over low heat.

  3. Skim the surface.

  4. Cook slowly for several hours until dark brown or until small bubbles change from red to blue.

Dilute and finish

  1. Add 1 quart of water.

  2. Cook for an additional 30 minutes.

  3. Let it cool.

  4. Bottle it.

  5. Cut a small hole in the cork to allow liquid to drop out without uncorking.

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

Lump sugar
Caramelizes as it heats, forming the dark color and rich flavor of the caramel.
Water
Dissolves the sugar at the start so it can melt and caramelize evenly.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for several hours until dark brown. Sugar caramelizes gradually at moderate heat, and cooking too fast can scorch it, giving a bitter taste before the color and sweetness develop properly.

“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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