- The word caramel was first recorded in the English language in 1725. It comes from a Spanish word, “caramelo.” Where that word comes from is less clear but three possibilities have been suggested: the Arabic kora-mokhalla meaning 'ball of sweet'; the Medieval Latin cannamella, meaning 'cane' and 'honey'; but most likely it comes from Late Latin calamellus, meaning 'sugar cane'.
- The first caramels were made in America by settlers who would heat sugar beet juice and water together to make a hard candy. The ingredients were readily available and cheap, and they kept well. Somewhere along the line someone had the idea of adding milk and fat to the mix.
- The Hershey company is known for its Chocolate, but Milton Hershey started out making caramel. His first company was Lancaster Caramel Company. He only got into chocolate after experimenting with it as a potential coating for his caramels.
- To make caramel sugar is heated to around 170 °C (338 °F). They chemistry behind why this turns it into caramel is complicated but in a nutshell the molecules break down and re-form into compounds with a characteristic taste and colour.
- 69 grams of commercially prepared butterscotch or caramel topping contains 103 calories and is mostly sugar and fat - but the good news is that there is no cholesterol.
- Salted caramel is a relatively recent invention dating back to the late 1970s. A French chocolatier called Henri Le Roux had opened a new shop in Brittany, and wanted a new product to distinguish himself from all the other chocolate makers in the area. Salted Butter was a local product which Le Roux decided to experiment with. After a few months, he came up with a salted butter caramel with crushed nuts for texture. His creation went on to win the "Best Sweet in France" award in 1980.
- Why is salted caramel so nice? We like sweet things and salty things because our bodies need salt and the energy from calories. Layering the two together enhances the flavour of both - but the amount of salt has to be just right. Too much salt and it will taste disgusting.
- It can be used as a flavouring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, or as a topping for Ice cream and custard. It is used to make brittles, nougats, pralines, crème brûlée, crème caramel, and caramel Apples. Ice cream is sometimes flavoured with swirls of caramel. Caramel sauce is made by mixing caramelized sugar with cream.
- Somewhere between 10 and 50% of the sugar in commercially produced caramel today is glucose (from corn syrup or Wheat), which stops the product from crystallizing.
- There are songs by Corinne Bailey Rae, Suzanne Vega, City High, Booba and Blur entitled Caramel.
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