Wednesday 10 February 2010

Only A Slight Difference

I think if I did a blind taste test I could identify between Butterscotch and Caramel. In general though, they are similar in colour, taste, and use. I decided to look into it more and found that they are actually two distinct stages of sugar, which appears to have around nine different stages depending how hot you heat it.
Butterscotch
The term describes the flavour of brown sugar and butter. Often other ingredients are included as well and it is very similar to toffee. With butterscotch the brown sugar is only heated to between 112-115°C giving it a sugar concentration of 85%, this is called the the Soft Ball stage. On the other hand, the sugar used in toffee is heated more to 146-154°C and the Hard Crack stage which also gives it a higher sugar concentration of 99%.
Caramel
Any type of sugar can be used to create caramel and it is basically the word used to describe almost burnt sugar. This should not be confused with Burnt Sugar, the sugar stage after Brown Liquid. Brown Liquid occurs when sugar is heated to 170°C and has 100% sugar concentration, this is caramel.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Ah! Butterscotch, caramel AND toffee?!