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Chocolate Caramels

Chocolate caramels made from molasses, sugar, milk, chocolate, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Grate the chocolate finely.

  2. In a saucepan, combine molasses, sugar, milk, and butter.

  3. Boil the mixture until it thickens.

Set and cut

  1. Pour into buttered pans to cool.

  2. Before it cools completely, mark off into small 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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Chocolate + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark color, deep flavor, and chewy body to the caramel.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it concentrates on boiling, helps the caramel set firm.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, softening the texture of the caramel.
Chocolate
Contributes chocolate flavor and richness to the caramel.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender bite and helps keep the caramel from sticking.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until it thickens. Boiling evaporates water and concentrates the sugars, which determines the final firmness. Stopping too early leaves the caramel soft and sticky, while boiling 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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