Caramels
One cake (half a pound) of Baker's chocolate broken up, four pounds brown sugar, half a pound fresh butter, one pint of milk. Pour the milk in a preserving kettle and pour the other ingredients into this. Let it boil at least half an hour, stirring frequently. When done, a crust of sugar will form on the spoon and on the side of the kettle. Pour in a large table spoonful extract of vanilla, take from the fire and stir rapidly till it begins to thicken like mush. Then pour quickly into buttered dishes or pans, and when nearly cold cut into small squares.--Mrs. S. T.
Caramels.
Three pounds white sugar, half a pound of chocolate, one pint milk, six ounces of butter. Boil three-quarters of an hour and stir constantly.--Mrs. R. C.
Two versions of the same chocolate caramel from two contributors, both written before candy thermometers were household objects. The whole recipe turns on how far you cook the sugar, so that is where to start.
- Cook to a temperature, not a timeThe stated half hour or three-quarters of an hour is only a rough guide, since it depends entirely on your pot and burner. Chewy caramels set at the firm-ball stage, 245-250F; much past that they grow progressively harder, and stopping short of 240F will not hold a square.
- The spoon test"A crust of sugar will form on the spoon and on the side of the kettle" describes crystallisation, which is a sign the batch is dry enough but also a warning: scraped back into the pot, those crystals can seed the whole thing grainy. Brush the sides down with a wet pastry brush instead, and judge doneness by thermometer or a cold-water test.
- Baker's chocolateA "cake" of Baker's in this period was half a pound of unsweetened chocolate, pressed into a block and broken up by hand. Use 8 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped; a modern semisweet or bittersweet bar will throw the sugar balance well off.
- Preserving kettleA wide, heavy pan with plenty of headroom; period examples were brass, copper or enamelled ware. Any heavy-bottomed pot of at least 5-6 quarts will do. The volume matters: four pounds of sugar with milk foams up hard as it approaches the ball stages.
- ScorchingMilk, butter and brown sugar all catch on the bottom. "Stirring frequently" is not enough at the end of the boil; stir constantly with a flat-edged wooden or silicone spatula over the final ten minutes, as Mrs. R. C. sensibly directs throughout.
- Beating and pouringStirring off the heat "till it begins to thicken like mush" deliberately induces a fine crystal grain, giving a fudge-like caramel rather than a clear chewy one. If you want the smoother chewy texture, pour straight into the pan without beating.
- The pansTwo 9-inch square pans, buttered and preferably lined with parchment, will take the larger batch. Cut while still warm and firm rather than fully cold, or the slab cracks; wrap the squares individually in waxed paper, since they weep and stick to each other.
- YieldThe first recipe makes roughly five pounds of candy, upward of a hundred small squares. Halving it is reasonable for a modern household.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1878), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by Virginia housewives, is signed throughout with initials like "Mrs. S. T." and "Mrs. R. C." -- the sort of collective, credited authorship that made community cookbooks the great American recipe archive of the nineteenth century. Both entries here depend on Walter Baker & Co. of Dorchester, Massachusetts, whose unsweetened chocolate was sold in cakes and was so ubiquitous that a recipe could simply say "one cake" and expect to be understood. Caramels themselves were a relatively new sweet in American kitchens: chocolate caramels appear in confectioners' trade literature and household books from roughly the 1860s onward, as cheap refined sugar, canned and fresh milk, and reliable cooking chocolate came together to put a candy that had been the confectioner's business within reach of a home cook with a strong arm and a heavy kettle.