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Dessert

Chocolate Caramel

A chocolate caramel made with chocolate, butter, cream, molasses, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla 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 Caramel

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine the Baker's chocolate, butter, cream, molasses, and chopped chocolate.

  2. Add sugar to taste and mix well.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil, adding butter as needed.

  4. Boil for about 20 minutes, or until a drop in water becomes brittle.

Finish

  1. Remove from heat and flavor with vanilla extract.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Baker's chocolate
Adds bitterness and body, giving the candy a deep chocolate flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, softening the candy and making it smoother.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a dark, caramel-like depth of flavor.
Chopped chocolate
Adds more chocolate flavor and helps thicken the mixture as it cooks.

The step that matters

Boil until a drop in water turns brittle. The sugar concentration rises as water evaporates. Stopping too early leaves a soft, sticky candy, while cooking too long makes it hard and grainy or scorched. The water test shows when the right texture is reached.

“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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