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Caramels, Chocolate

A sweet confection made by boiling sugar, cream, milk, and chocolate until it hardens.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Caramels, Chocolate

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Dissolve the sugar in the milk over low heat.

  2. Add the cream and bring the mixture slowly to a boil.

  3. Dissolve the chocolate in a small amount of hot water, then stir it into the syrup.

  4. Boil gently until a drop of the mixture hardens and snaps in cold water.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture onto an oiled slab or into an oiled tin.

  2. Once cooled, cut into squares with a buttered knife and wrap each piece in wax paper.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

Vanilla and sugar 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 the sweetness and, as it cooks down, the firm body of the caramel.
Cream
Adds fat for a soft, rich texture that stays tender after cooling.
Milk
Adds milk solids and liquid that cook into a creamy, mellow caramel.
Chocolate
Supplies cocoa flavour and fat that give the caramel its chocolate character.

The step that matters

Boil gently until a drop of the mixture hardens and snaps in cold water. Sugar syrup sets according to its final temperature, which rises as water boils off. Stopping too early gives a soft, sticky caramel, while cooking too long makes it hard and brittle. Testing a drop in cold water shows when the mixture has reached the right concentration.

“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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