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Dessert

Chocolate Caramel

A sweet sauce made from sugar, cream, butter, molasses, chocolate, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Caramel

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Combine sugar, cream or milk, butter, molasses, and baking soda in a saucepan.

  2. Add the chocolate and stir continually over medium heat.

  3. When the mixture thickens and can be stirred until creamy, remove from heat. Beat vigorously.

Set and finish

  1. Pour the caramel onto a buttered slab or dish.

  2. Stir in vanilla and optional nuts if desired.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Vanilla + pecanstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,691 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  5. Chocolate + pecanstop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

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

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

Sugar
Provides the bulk of the sweetness and, when heated, forms the caramel base.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and fat, giving the caramel a softer, creamier texture.
Molasses
Adds depth of flavour and a darker colour to the caramel.
Baking soda
Reacts with the hot mixture to lighten its texture and mellow its acidity.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and richness, and helps the mixture thicken as it cooks.

The step that matters

Stir continually over medium heat. Sugar and dairy can scorch or crystallise on the bottom of the pan if left unstirred, and the mixture can burn before it thickens. Constant stirring keeps heat even so the caramel thickens smoothly.

Swap the pecans

The recipe marks pecans as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, butter, molasses, chocolate, vanilla):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, butter, molasses, chocolate, vanilla. 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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