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Chocolate Caramels

Chocolate caramels made from brown sugar, water, butter, and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, warm water, butter, and Baker's chocolate.

  2. Boil the mixture together until it becomes stiff.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into pans and let it 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. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + chocolatetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and the caramel flavor, and helps the mixture set firm as it cooks.
Baker's chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and richness to the caramel.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, softer bite and richer flavor.
Warm water
Dissolves the sugar so the mixture cooks evenly before it thickens.

The step that matters

Boiling until stiff. Sugar candy sets according to how far its water has cooked off. Boiling too little leaves caramels soft and sticky, while boiling too long makes them hard and brittle. Stop when the mixture reaches the stiff stage described in the record.

“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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