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Chocolate Caramels (One cup of fine granulated)
One cup of fine granulated sugar, one cup of New Orleans molasses, one-fourth cup of milk, a piece of butter the size of an egg, one cup of chocolate after it is cut up, if made single quantity; if doubled, it is as well not to put the chocolate in till about done, and then the same quantity of the recipe will suffice, as it retains the flavour if not cooked as much. Boil till it will stiffen in water; pour into flat buttered pans to the thickness of half an inch. Use Baker's chocolate.
A straightforward molasses caramel, but the original leans on the finger-in-cold-water test and on measuring chocolate by the cup. Both need translating.
- The hinge: cook to 245-250FThe hinge: "Boil till it will stiffen in water" is a cold-water test; for caramels of this type that usually means the firm-ball stage, roughly 245-250F on a thermometer. Below that the caramels will not hold a cut; much above it and they turn hard and brittle rather than chewy.
- Baker's chocolateThe recipe means unsweetened baking chocolate, which is what Baker's sold in cakes to be chopped. One cup chopped is about 6 oz. Do not substitute sweet or semi-sweet chocolate without cutting the sugar, or the batch will be cloying.
- Butter the size of an eggAbout 2 oz, or 4 tablespoons. Nineteenth-century books often used the egg as a rough volume standard, but it is an approximation rather than a precise measure.
- New Orleans molassesA cane molasses of medium darkness, not blackstrap. Modern dark molasses is the closest match; blackstrap is bitter and will dominate the chocolate.
- Pan and scorchingUse a heavy saucepan at least three times the volume of the ingredients. Milk, molasses and chocolate all scorch readily, so stir steadily and keep the heat moderate rather than trying to rush it to temperature.
- When to add the chocolateThe note about a doubled batch is sound: chocolate held back until the syrup is nearly at temperature keeps more of its flavour. It applies equally to a single batch if you would rather stir it in at the end.
- Pan size and cuttingHalf an inch deep from a single quantity means roughly an 8-inch square pan. Score the surface into squares while the slab is still warm and firm but not cold, then cut through once set.
- StorageWrap the pieces individually in waxed paper. Cut caramels left in contact with each other will tend to stick together.
Caramels of this kind belong to the broader growth in home candy-making in the later nineteenth century, as refined sugar became cheaper and more widely available to ordinary households. The instruction to "use Baker's chocolate" points to Walter Baker & Co. of Dorchester, Massachusetts, whose chocolate mill traces back to the 1760s and which by the 1870s was among the best-known American brands of unsweetened cake chocolate; the recipe assumes any reader would recognise the name. New Orleans molasses was the domestic cane syrup that reached northern kitchens up the Mississippi and by rail. The Home Cook Book was itself compiled from contributed household receipts and sold for charity, which may explain the conversational, over-the-shoulder tone of the aside about doubling the quantity.