Miss Parloa

This is a caramel syrup: sugar melted to a dark amber, let down with water, and boiled to a pouring consistency. The original assumes you have just read the caramel custard entry, so it gives no quantities and no pan size.

• The hinge: adding the waterMelted sugar sits well above 300F, and water hitting it will erupt in steam and spatter. Take the pan off the heat, add the water in a slow stream at arm's length, then return it to the burner to dissolve the seized lumps.
• Melting the sugarGranulated sugar in a heavy pan over medium heat, undisturbed until it begins to liquefy at the edges, then swirled rather than stirred. Pull it at a deep amber, around 350F; past that it turns acrid and no amount of water will fix it.
• Proportions are not givenThe text as printed carries no measurements. A workable caramel syrup is roughly equal weights of sugar and water, but that is a modern reconstruction rather than anything stated here.
• The ten-minute boilPresumably the boil reduces the thinned caramel back to a pouring syrup; the text gives no test for doneness. Judge it by consistency rather than the clock, since pan width changes the rate of evaporation.
• Cooling and thickeningCaramel syrup is far thicker cold than hot. Stop while it still seems slightly loose, or it will set to a hard sheet in the jar.
• Keeping and usingStored in a clean jar in the refrigerator it will keep for some weeks. It is a sauce for custards, ices and steamed puddings, and burnt sugar was also the colouring agent behind many nineteenth-century browned gravies and cakes.