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Chocolate Caramels

A chewy candy made from chocolate, molasses, sugar, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine chocolate, molasses, sugar, and milk.

  2. Boil slowly until the mixture hardens in the water.

  3. When nearly done, add the piece of butter and do not stir.

Cool and cut

  1. Pour the mixture onto a buttered plate to cool.

  2. Mark into squares once cooled.

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

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

  2. Chocolate + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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 firmness to the caramel as it sets.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a rich, slightly bitter sweetness.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks, helps the caramel set firm.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness to the texture of the caramel.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and a softer, richer bite.

The step that matters

Adding the butter without stirring. Stirring at the end can make the caramel grainy or cause sugar crystals to form, so the butter is folded in gently by leaving the mixture undisturbed. Cooking to the hardening stage in water is what gives the caramel its firm set.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chocolate, molasses, sugar, milk, butter):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chocolate, molasses, sugar, milk, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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