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Dessert

Burnt Sugar

A syrup made by caramelizing sugar with water until dark brown and smoky.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Burnt Sugar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Place the sugar in a pan and just cover it with water.

  2. Heat the pan on the stove and let it boil until the sugar turns dark brown and emits smoke.

  3. Remove from heat and add hot water until the mixture reaches the consistency of thin syrup.

Store

  1. Bottle the syrup, cork it, and set aside for use.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Caramelizes as it heats, creating deep brown color and a bittersweet, toasted flavor.

The step that matters

Boiling until the sugar turns dark brown. Sugar caramelizes in stages, and the flavor deepens as it darkens. Pulling it off heat too early gives a pale, sweet syrup, while letting it go too long can make it bitter and acrid. Watch the color closely.

“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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