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Dessert

Caramel or Burned Sugar

A simple caramel made by heating sugar until dark, then adding water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Caramel or Burned Sugar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Put the sugar into an old tin cup over a brisk fire.

  2. Stir until it is dark and smells burnt.

  3. Add the cold water.

  4. Let it boil gently for a few minutes, stirring constantly.

  5. Remove from heat.

Cool and store

  1. Let it cool before bottling for use.

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

Sugar
Browns through caramelization to give the syrup its color, deep flavor and remaining sweetness.

The step that matters

Stir the sugar until dark. Sugar caramelizes over high heat and turns bitter quickly once it passes dark amber, so it needs close watching and constant stirring to brown evenly without burning.

“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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