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Candy Caramels
Mary H.
One pint cream, one pound sugar, one cup butter, onefourth cup chocolate, one cup of molasses.
This is a formula rather than a method — the contributor assumed anyone reading it had made caramels before. The proportions are sound; everything that matters is in the cooking.
- The hinge: cook to temperatureNothing here works without a thermometer or a cold-water test. Caramels set at the firm-ball stage, 245–250°F; below that you get sauce, and much above that the candy turns progressively harder and chewier rather than caramel-tender.
- What the measures meanA pint is 16 fl oz of cream — heavy cream is the safer choice, since skimmed "cream" of the period was probably richer than today's half-and-half. A pound of sugar is about 2¼ cups granulated. A cup of butter is 8 oz, two sticks.
- The chocolateOne-fourth cup chocolate means unsweetened baking chocolate, grated or shaved from a cake of it — roughly 1 to 1½ oz. Modern unsweetened bar chocolate is the direct descendant; cocoa powder is not a substitute at this ratio.
- The molassesUse light or full-flavour molasses, not blackstrap, which was a byproduct sold cheap and will turn the batch bitter against this much sugar.
- Butter and saltButter of the period was usually salted for keeping. With unsalted butter, add about ½ teaspoon salt — without it the candy tastes flat and cloying.
- Pan and techniqueUse a heavy pan at least four times the volume of the ingredients; dairy and molasses foam violently near the end. Stir steadily over medium heat — the milk solids scorch on the bottom long before the sugar reaches temperature.
- Setting and cuttingPour into a buttered 8-inch square pan, let stand until firm but not cold, then cut into squares with an oiled knife. Wrap the pieces in waxed paper or they will flow together.
- Time and yieldExpect 30 to 45 minutes of cooking. The batch makes roughly 2 to 2½ lb of candy, about 60 one-inch caramels.
Caramels of this kind — sugar, cream, butter and molasses boiled together — were a fixture of American home candy-making by the 1870s, when cheap refined sugar and reliable cast-iron stoves put confectionery within reach of an ordinary kitchen. Chocolate came into such recipes in a particular form: cake chocolate was sold in hard blocks to be grated, and it appears in household books of the period as a flavouring for candies and puddings rather than as an eating confection. The Home Cook Book was compiled in Chicago from recipes contributed by named local women and sold to benefit a charitable home, which is why entries like this one carry only a contributor's name and a bare list of proportions: the audience was other experienced cooks who needed the ratio, not the lesson.