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Dessert

Chocolate Caramels

A sweet treat made by boiling chocolate, cream, sugar, vanilla, butter, and molasses until thick, then cooling and cutting into squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Mix all ingredients together in a saucepan.

  2. Boil for 20 minutes.

  3. Test by dropping a little mixture in cold water until it hardens.

Set and cut

  1. Pour into a buttered plate and set aside to cool.

  2. Once cooled, cut 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. 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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  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

Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and firms the mixture as it cooks.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and, with the butter, gives the caramel its colour and chewy body.
Butter
Adds fat for a soft, smooth texture and rich mouthfeel.
Cream or sweet milk
Adds moisture and dairy solids that make the caramel softer and creamier.
Molasses
Adds depth of flavour and extra moisture, and deepens the colour.

The step that matters

Boiling and testing the mixture. Sugar concentration decides the final texture. Boiling too briefly leaves caramels soft and sticky, while boiling too long makes them hard. Testing in cold water shows when the mixture has reached the right firmness.

“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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