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Dessert

Caramel for Coloring Soup

A caramel made by dissolving sugar in water, used for coloring soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Caramel for Coloring Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Melt the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until it turns dark.

  2. Slowly add the cold water while stirring briskly.

  3. Boil the mixture until it thickens.

Store

  1. Store in a large-mouthed bottle.

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

What each ingredient does

White sugar
Melts and darkens to form the caramel, providing colour and a deep, toasted flavour.
Cold water
Added to the molten sugar to loosen it into a pourable liquid that can be boiled down.

The step that matters

Adding the cold water to the dark caramel. Hot sugar can spatter and seize violently when cold water hits it, so add the water slowly while stirring briskly to let the mixture blend smoothly and safely.

“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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