The History Of Caramel

 

The word caramel appeared in the English language for the first time in 1725, derived from the Spanish caramelo. The original Spanish term most likely did not relate to the chewy caramel candy we know today, but rather to caramelized sugar. Caramelo's origins are uncertain, although some academics believe it is linked to the late Latin calamellus, a smaller version of calamus, reed, or cane an inferred allusion to sugar cane.

 

Researchers know soft caramel candy is an American innovation, but we don't know when it was created. Americans were heating water and sugar in deep kettles in their fireplaces to produce hard candies from around 1650. Someone added butter and milk to the saucepan at some point and created the caramel. By the mid-1800s, approximately 400 American candy factories were creating hard candies as well as caramels, caramel recipes abound in period cookbooks. Milton Hershey's initial company was the Lancaster Caramel Company, and he learned to produce chocolate while looking for a covering for his caramels.

 

Whereas the British originated toffee, the "soft toffee," or caramel, invented by Americans crossed the Atlantic in the 1880s, quickly becoming popular in England. Unfortunately, mass-producers cut shortcuts, substituting coconut oil for butter and cream, until, as one writer at the time put it, "competition stepped in with the typical result prices plummeted, quality degraded, until anything cut into the shape was dubbed caramels."