Caramel Coloring
Ingredients
Directions
Make the caramel
In a clean frying pan, add the sugar.
Place over low heat and stir with an iron spoon.
Allow the sugar to melt gradually to a clear amber syrup. Do not let it turn black to avoid bitterness.
Finish and store
Quickly add the boiling water and simmer until thick like syrup.
Bottle when cool.
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
- Granulated sugar
- Melts and caramelizes to form the dark color and the flavor of the coloring.
- Boiling water
- Dissolves the caramelized sugar into a pourable syrup and stops further darkening.
The step that matters
Melting the sugar to clear amber, not black. Sugar darkens quickly once it passes amber. Going too far produces burnt, bitter compounds, so the syrup must be removed from heat at the right color. Low heat and gentle stirring help the sugar melt evenly without scorching.
“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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