Caramel candy has a surprisingly epic and ancient history, from Neolithic African goat-herders to sugarcane processing in India to the buttery, chewy caramels perfected by French and American confectioners.
What is it about a chewy, soft caramel candy that’s so magical? You've probably had the amazing experience of biting into a creamy caramel chew with its initial hit of sweetness, followed by warm toasty, nutty and even fruity flavors and aromas spreading over your palate and your nose. It’s not just sweet. Great caramel is complex with a ton of wonderful flavor combinations.
How did we humans come up with something so divine? What you probably didn't realize is just how global and ancient the story of that delicious caramel is!
[Caveat: We’re huge cheerleaders for reducing refined sugar in diets. And we have a whole blog post coming about how we replicated the magic of caramel with no sugar to create a more healthy caramel candy! But we also know everyone needs their moment to treat themselves once in a while. And sometimes that comes with some sugar. We’re here to say, it’s ok and even a positive part of a healthy diet to treat yourself in moderation as long as you work with your healthcare provider to have a plan to manage your overall intake and blood sugar!]
Now, let’s take a walk through caramel history!
Cream, Butter, and Sugarcane
It all started with those three humble ingredients.
Humans first got access to a consistent supply of milk and cream about 10,000 years ago, in the Neolithic era, when we domesticated sheep, goats and cattle. Maybe the greatest culinary invention of all time, butter, was first made by a lucky accident around 8,000 BC. Historians think butter’s origin can be traced to a Neolithic-era sheep herder in Africa, traveling on the back of a pack animal. When the herder opened his or her sheepskin for a drink of milk, they found that the bumpy ride had accidentally “churned” their fresh milk into a mix of butter and buttermilk. Talk about a yummy find!!
Meanwhile, sugarcane originated around the same time in New Guinea and was carried by human migration into Southeast Asia, the Middle East and, eventually, Europe. The earliest known records of processing sugarcane juice into refined sugar appear around 500 BC in Northern India. By 600 AD sugarcane farming had spread all the way into the Middle-East. It wasn't long before refined sugar was making its way deep into Europe.
The Invention of Caramel Candies
Hard caramel candy in its modern form has been around since medieval times, when cooks across the Arab world started boiling sugar into hard, golden sweets. In fact, the word “caramel” may come from the Arabic kora-moħalláh, which translates to “ball of sweet.”
[Side note, depending on where you live today you may pronounce the word “care-uh-mel” or “car-mel” or “cara-melle”. We’re going to go ahead and bow out of that fight and opt to take a bite of caramel rather than debate how to say the word].
By the 17th century, these crunchy caramel candies made their way to Europe and eventually the New World. In fact, early settlers in America used to cook sugar as an easy, relatively cheap way to make a sweet treat around the campfire!
How the French and Americans Perfected Salted Caramel Candy
Like many inventions, caramel chews were the result of people building on the innovations of others.
It was the French candy-makers who first took the baton from Arab candy makers. They took caramel to another level by stirring in butter and cream. This transformed simple cooked sugar into what we’d think of as toffees or butterscotch. These were either hard and brittle in texture or cooked at very low temperature to a syrupy consistency. We can find evidence of these creations used in recipes as early as the 17th and 18th century, including in baked goods.
Hard candy treats quickly became popular and spread across the Atlantic. By the middle of the 1800s, there were almost 400 candy makers in the US making hard boiled sugar candies. But to achieve a smooth, soft caramel candy, chefs needed one more ingredient to help keep the cooked sugar and cream from crystallizing into a hard or brittle texture: corn syrup.
In the 1880’s new industrial techniques and abundant American corn led to the large scale production of corn syrup in the US. Candy makers soon found that adding this syrup to their creamy caramels, along with controlled heating and cooling, could allow them to produce chewy caramel candy that remained soft, without forming hard or crunchy sugar crystals.
It's very unclear who made the first caramel chews, but at the end of the 1800’s several competitors had arrived on the scene. Lancaster Caramel Company was founded in 1886 by Milton Hershey (the same Hershey who would later sell his caramel company and form Hershey’s Chocolate!). Lancaster may have been the first company to popularize soft caramel candies on a large scale and was definitely the most successful. But there were other names you'll recognize, also fighting hard for caramel dominance, including American Caramel Company and Goetze’s Candy.
Not to be outdone, the French candy industry had one more tasty innovation to add to what we all imagine today when we think of indulgent caramel chews: salt!
In 1977, pastry chef Henri Le Roux, of Brittany, France developed a caramel candy using salted butter and crushed nuts. That year, his salted butter caramels were named “Best confectionery in France." Salted caramel became a sensation and today, caramel with a pinch of salt has all but become the norm!
Choosing the Best Sugar or Sugar-Free Caramels
Traditional, high quality caramel recipes emphasize deep, complex flavors just as much as or more than sugary sweetness. They use real cream and possibly butter, and just the right touch of salt. If you want a smooth, soft caramel chew, remember the recipe will require some type of syrup to prevent crystallization. So in sugary caramels you may see corn syrup, or if you’d prefer sugar-free caramel, the recipe may include allulose syrup or maltitol syrup. And the overall ingredient list should be relatively simple, without flours, milk powder or baking soda. In cheaper candies, those additives are sometimes used to side-step the risk of crystallization, but they add a gritty texture and, in our opinion, can create strange unpleasant after-tastes.
If you're looking for a sugar-free sweet that's as faithful as possible to traditional soft caramel candy methods, consider trying out Tom & Jenny’s sugar-free soft caramels. Our recipe was developed in partnership with a James Beard awarded pastry chef and modeled off of traditional French caramel recipes. You’ll taste the difference!
