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Vanilla Caramels

A caramel made by boiling sugar, milk, cream of tartar, and butter until it congeals.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Vanilla Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine milk and sugar in a bright kettle.

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

  3. Once boiling, add the cream of tartar.

  4. Boil for ten minutes, then add the butter.

  5. Every minute, test the syrup by dipping a wet finger into it and then into a dipper of cold water.

  6. Continue testing until the syrup congeals and forms a lump when removed from the water.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the bulk of the caramel and, as it cooks, browns and sets the candy's sweetness and firmness.
Milk
Supplies moisture and milk solids that give the caramel its creamy texture and colour.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the caramel rich and smooth and keeps it from being brittle.
Cream of tartar
Acidity that helps prevent the sugar from crystallising, keeping the caramel smooth.

The step that matters

Testing the syrup. Syrup that is undercooked stays soft and sticky, while overcooked syrup turns hard and grainy. Checking every minute in cold water shows when the sugar concentration reaches the firm set the caramel needs.

“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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