Caramel
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Put sugar and water into a preserving pan.
Beat with a wooden spoon over low heat until it boils, removing the scum.
When liquefied, strain through a tamis.
Cook to hard crack
Return to heat until it hardens when dropped into cold water.
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
- Dissolves into the syrup, and as water evaporates it sets hard when cooled.
The step that matters
Testing for hardness. Hardness depends on how much water has boiled off. Too little cooking leaves the caramel soft and sticky, while too much makes it brittle or burnt, so check by dropping a little into cold water.
“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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