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Dessert

Walnut Caramels

A caramel candy made with molasses, brown sugar, milk, glycerine, chocolate, butter, and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Walnut Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a large pot, combine molasses, brown sugar, milk, and glycerine.

  2. Boil rapidly for about 30 minutes.

  3. Add grated chocolate and butter, then boil for an additional 20 minutes.

  4. To test, drop a little mixture into cold water; if it hardens, remove from heat.

Set and cut

  1. Stir in walnuts and pour into buttered tins.

  2. When nearly cool, mark 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Chocolate + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides dark color, rich flavor, and moisture that gives the caramel its chew.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and caramel flavor while helping the mixture set firm as it cooks.
Milk
Adds dairy richness and softness, mellowing the texture of the caramel.
Grated chocolate
Adds bitter depth and fat, enriching the flavor and smoothing the texture.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and a rich mouthfeel in the finished caramel.

The step that matters

Testing the boil. Sugar syrups harden as water boils off and concentration rises. Removing the pot too early leaves soft, sticky caramels, while cooking too long makes them brittle. The cold-water drop test shows when the mixture has reached the right stage.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, milk, chocolate, egg, butter):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pecansfits better
  3. Peanutfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, milk, chocolate, egg, butter. 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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