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Dessert

Caramel or Burnt Sugar

A caramel made by boiling sugar with water and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Caramel or Burnt Sugar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine 1 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of water.

  2. Stir constantly over heat until the mixture turns a dark color.

  3. Add ½ cup of water and a pinch of salt.

  4. Let it boil for a few minutes, then allow to cool.

Bottle

  1. Once cooled, bottle the caramel for use in coloring soups, sauces, or gravies.

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

Sugar
Caramelizes under heat to form the dark color and deep flavor of the caramel.

The step that matters

Stir constantly over heat until the mixture turns a dark color. Sugar can go from amber to burnt within moments. Constant stirring keeps heat even so the sugar darkens evenly without scorching, which would make the caramel bitter.

“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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