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Chocolate Caramels

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a porcelain kettle, combine the chocolate, sugar, molasses, sweet milk, and butter.

  2. Place the kettle on the stove and bring to a boil.

  3. Spoon a little mixture onto a plate to cool.

  4. If the mixture stiffens, stir in the vanilla.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into greased flat pans.

  2. Once the caramels start to cool, use a knife to mark them 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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 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

Chocolate
Adds deep flavor and color, and firmness as it sets.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks, the body that sets the caramel.
Molasses
Adds depth of flavor and a chewy, darker character.
Sweet milk
Supplies liquid and milk solids that give the caramel a soft, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and a rich mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Testing the mixture on a plate before adding vanilla. Sugar mixtures set firmly as they cool, so a small cooled sample shows whether the batch has reached the right firmness. Vanilla is added only once the mixture stiffens, because its aroma is delicate and can cook off during prolonged boiling.

“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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