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Dessert

Atlantic City Caramels

A caramel candy made with sugar, butter, cocoa paste, cream, and paraffin wax.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Atlantic City Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a sugar boiler, combine sugar, butter, cream of tartar, cocoa paste, and paraffin wax.

  2. Pour in the cream and boil over a clear fire until the mixture reaches a "hairs" stage.

Set and finish

  1. Prepare a well-buttered pan and pour the mixture into it.

  2. Allow it to cool, then cut into cubes or desired shapes.

  3. Wrap each piece in wax paper and store in boxes.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + cocoatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together548 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-undecalactone (coconut, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + cocoatop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together304 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the sweet body of the caramel as it dissolves and cooks down.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer, richer texture and smoother bite.
Cocoa paste
Provides chocolate flavor and deep color to the caramel.
Rich cream
Adds moisture and fat, producing a softer, creamier set.
White paraffin wax
Adds gloss and firmness so the pieces hold their shape and resist sticking.

The step that matters

Boiling to the hairs stage. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration before cooling. Stopping too early leaves the caramel soft and sticky, while cooking too far makes it hard and brittle. Steady heat and attention to the stage are needed for a good set.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Filbertfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, cream. 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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