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Caramel Sauce
Butter the inside of a granite sauce pan, add 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, and melt over hot water; add 2 cups of light brown sugar, and mix well; then add an ounce of butter and 1/2 cup of rich milk. Cook until the mixture forms a soft ball in cold water, then take from fire, and flavor with vanilla. Put into a sauce boat and pour while hot over each service of ice cream.
A hot fudge sauce under an older name, and the one number that matters is the soft-ball stage. Everything else is straightforward.
- Soft ball means 235-240FTest with a thermometer rather than the cold-water method if you have one. Below 235F the sauce stays thin and will not thicken on the ice cream; much above 240F it sets hard in the sauce boat and is difficult to pour.
- Granite saucepanGranite ware is speckled enamelled steel, which does not react with sugar and is less prone to scorching than thin tinned iron; that is the likely reason for specifying it. Any heavy-bottomed pan will do.
- Butter the pan firstNot decorative. The film of fat discourages the sugar syrup from crystallising on the sides and creeping up into grain.
- "Cup of rich milk"The original omits a quantity word before "cup" but almost certainly means one cup. Rich milk of the period was unhomogenised and high in cream; half-and-half is the closest match, and whole milk gives a thinner result.
- Unsweetened chocolateStill sold as baking chocolate, 100 percent cacao. Do not substitute bittersweet or semi-sweet bars without cutting the two cups of sugar back sharply, or the sauce will be cloying.
- Stir once the sugar is inAfter the chocolate is melted the pan comes off the hot water and onto direct heat to reach soft ball. Milk solids and brown sugar catch quickly, so keep it moving and keep the heat moderate.
- Flavour off the heatVanilla added to a boiling syrup loses most of its aroma. Add it once the pan is off the fire, along with a pinch of salt, which the recipe does not call for but which the sauce wants.
- Yield and servingRoughly one and a half to two cups, enough for six to eight servings of ice cream. Serve hot; it stiffens considerably as it cools and can be rewarmed over hot water with a splash of milk.
The name reflects a period usage in which "caramel" was often applied to sauces and confections built on cooked brown sugar rather than to burnt sugar alone. What the method really describes is candy-making practice moved onto the dessert table, with the soft-ball test familiar from fudge and taffy.