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Dessert

Chocolate Caramels

A sweet caramel made with brown sugar, molasses, chocolate, milk, flour, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Combine brown sugar, molasses, grated chocolate, boiled milk, flour, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a slow boil, stirring constantly.

Set and cut

  1. Once it reaches the desired consistency, pour it into flat tins to cool.

  2. While still warm, mark off into squares for cutting.

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. Chocolate + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 caramel flavour as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds moisture, depth of flavour and a darker colour to the caramel.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and fat that firms the caramel as it cools.
Boiled milk
Adds creaminess and moisture, giving the caramel a softer, chewier texture.
Flour
Thickens the mixture slightly, helping it hold its shape when set.

The step that matters

Bring the mixture to a slow boil, stirring constantly. Sugar and milk can scorch on the bottom of the pan if left unstirred, giving a burnt taste. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly and keeps the mixture from sticking while it thickens.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, molasses, chocolate, milk, flour, butter):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, chocolate, milk, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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