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Dessert

Chocolate Caramels

A sweet treat made by boiling sugar, butter, chocolate, molasses, and milk until set.

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

Chocolate Caramels

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Cream together the sugar and butter.

  2. Add the grated chocolate, molasses, and milk; beat well.

  3. Boil until a drop in ice water sets and cracks.

Set and cut

  1. Pour into well buttered tin pans to a thickness of ½ inch.

  2. When nearly cold, mark into squares with a buttered knife.

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. Sugar + molassestop 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. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

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

  5. Butter + chocolatetop 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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, once boiled, helps the mixture set firm and chewy.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, tender texture and smooth mouthfeel.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and fat that firm up as the candy cools.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Milk
Adds moisture and milk solids that give the caramel a creamy texture.

The step that matters

Boiling to the ice-water test. Boiling drives off water and concentrates the sugar. Stop too early and the caramels stay soft and sticky; go too far and they turn hard and brittle. Checking a drop in ice water shows when the sugar has reached the right stage to set and crack.

“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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