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Dessert

Brown Sugar Caeamels

A sweet confection made from brown sugar, cream, chocolate, butter, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Brown Sugar Caeamels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a large pot, combine brown sugar and cream.

  2. Boil for fifteen minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Remove from heat and add chocolate, butter, and vanilla.

  4. Beat the mixture until very smooth.

Set and cut

  1. Pour into tins and mark into squares before it cools completely.

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. Cream + buttertop 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

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

Brown sugar
Provides the sweetness and the caramel flavour as it cooks with the cream.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the boiled sugar mixture soft and creamy rather than brittle.
Chocolate
Adds richness and a deeper, bittersweet flavour to the caramel.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender texture and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Boil for fifteen minutes, stirring constantly. Boiling concentrates the sugar and cream and sets the caramel's texture as it cools. Constant stirring prevents the sugar from scorching on the bottom of the pot, which would leave a burnt taste.

“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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