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Dessert

Maple Caramels

A chewy candy made from maple syrup, brown sugar, glucose, water, cream, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter 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 ↓

Maple Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine maple syrup, brown sugar, glucose, and boiling water.

  2. Boil the mixture until it hardens in water.

  3. Add cream and butter, then boil again while stirring continuously.

  4. When the mixture snaps when dropped in cold water, remove from heat.

Set and cut

  1. Pour into buttered tins and let cool.

  2. Once cool, 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. Cream + buttertop 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. Maple syrup + sugartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Maple syrup + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,084 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. 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

Maple syrup
Provides the main sweetness and the distinctive maple flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and deeper caramel flavor.
Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the caramel smooth and non-grainy.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the caramel a softer, creamy texture.
Butter
Contributes fat for richness and a tender bite.

The step that matters

Judging when to stop cooking. Caramel sets according to its temperature, so the cook must judge by the snap test. Stopping too early leaves it soft and sticky, while cooking too long makes it hard and brittle.

“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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