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Dessert

Chocolate Carameils

A sweet confection made from sugar, molasses, milk, butter, and chocolate, cooked until stiff and set.

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 Carameils

Ingredients

Directions

Cook

  1. Combine sugar, molasses, milk, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook until the mixture stiffens in water.

  3. If doubling the recipe, add the chocolate towards the end of cooking.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into flat buttered pans to a thickness of ½ inch.

  2. Allow to cool and set before cutting into pieces.

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. 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. Milk + chocolatetop 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, as it concentrates, forms the firm body of the caramel.
Molasses
Adds deep flavour, colour, and moisture that keeps the caramel chewy.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, and its milk proteins contribute to a smooth, chewy texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender, smooth bite and a rich flavour.
Baker's chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and cocoa fat to the caramel.

The step that matters

Cook until the mixture stiffens in water. Setting depends on how far the sugar mixture has concentrated. Stopping too early leaves the caramel soft and sticky, while cooking too long makes it hard and brittle once cool.

“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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