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Chocolate Caramels

Chocolate caramels made with chocolate, brown sugar, molasses, milk or cream, butter, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine grated chocolate, brown sugar, molasses, milk or cream, and butter.

  2. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until the mixture is quite thick.

  3. Just before removing from heat, stir in vanilla and beat the mixture vigorously for a few minutes.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture onto buttered plates and cut into squares before it cools completely.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and the bulk of the caramel's chewy body as it cooks.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and fat, giving the caramel a softer, smoother texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps keep the caramel smooth and tender.
West india molasses
Adds depth of flavour and extra moisture, deepening the caramel's colour and taste.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and fat, and helps thicken the mixture as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cooking to thick, then cutting before it cools completely. Cooking the mixture until quite thick concentrates the sugar and sets its firmness as it cools. Cutting too late makes the caramel hard to portion cleanly, so the squares must be cut while still workable.

“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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