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Dessert

Vanilla Caramels, No. 1

A sweet caramel confection made with sugar, cream, glucose, butter, and vanilla.

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

Vanilla Caramels, No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Combine 6 lbs of sugar and 2 quarts of sweet cream in a large pot and stir well.

  2. Add 4 lbs of glucose and place the pot on the stove over medium heat.

  3. Stir constantly to prevent burning and boil for 15 minutes.

  4. Add 1½ lbs of fresh butter and continue stirring.

  5. Test the mixture by dipping a pipe stem or your finger into it; it should crack when cooled.

Finish and cool

  1. Remove the pot from heat and quickly stir in 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract.

  2. Pour the mixture onto a flat surface to cool.

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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks, the body and firmness of the caramel.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the caramel a soft, rich texture.
Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the caramel smooth rather than grainy.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and a rich, buttery flavor.

The step that matters

Stirring while boiling. Constant stirring prevents the sugar and cream from scorching on the bottom of the pot, where they can turn bitter. Heat is concentrated there, so the mixture must be kept moving throughout the boil.

“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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