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  1. caramel love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A smooth chewy candy made with sugar, butter, cream or milk, and flavoring.
  2. n. Burnt sugar, used for coloring and sweetening foods.
  3. n. A moderate yellow brown.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Anhydrous or burnt sugar, a product of the action of heat upon sugar. When cane-sugar is heated in an oil or metal bath to between 210° and 220° C., it begins to assume a brown color of continually increasing depth, and when the tumefaction has ceased the vessel contains a black substance to which the name of caramel has been given. It has a high luster, like anthracite, and dissolves readily in water, giving it a fine sepia tint. Its composition is the same as that of cane-sugar in its compound with oxid of lead. It is used for giving a brown color to spirits, soups, gravies, etc.
  2. n. A sweet, variously composed and flavored, but generally consisting of chocolate, sugar, and butter, and dark-colored.
  3. n. Sometimes spelled caromel.
  4. In candy- and cheese-making, to become burned and browned: said of the sugar dissolved in milk or syrups under the influence of heat; caramelize. See caramel, n.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A smooth, chewy, sticky confection made by heating sugar and other ingredients until the sugars polymerize and become sticky.
  2. n. A (sometimes hardened) piece of this confection.
  3. n. A yellow-brown color.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Chem.) Burnt sugar; a brown or black porous substance obtained by heating sugar. It is soluble in water, and is used for coloring spirits, gravies, etc.
  2. n. A kind of confectionery, usually a small cube or square of tenacious paste, or candy, of varying composition and flavor.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. firm chewy candy made from caramelized sugar and butter and milk
  2. adj. having the color of caramel; of a moderate yellow-brown
  3. n. burnt sugar; used to color and flavor food
  4. n. a medium to dark tan color

Etymologies

  1. French caramel (Wiktionary)
  2. French, from Old French, from Old Spanish caramel, caramelo, from Portuguese caramel, from Late Latin calamellus, diminutive of Latin calamus, reed, cane, from Greek kalamos. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “By the time I'm off the phone the caramel is roughly the texture of dried carpet glue but I whip in half a litre of heated full-fat milk and 250ml of double cream.”

    The Guardian: Cooking up holiday memories

  • “Guess might make them in caramel too, which could be a really nice score!”

    The Huffington Post: Linda Grasso: Bored With Your Closet? Do Like the French

  • “This creme caramel is best served chilled, and while it can be eaten at room temperature, it is best to give it a few hours in the fridge to firm up a little further before serving.”

    Thai Coffee Creme Caramel | Baking Bites

  • “For the cake, apples are cooked in caramel on the stovetop until they are just tender.”

    Bites from other Blogs | Baking Bites

  • “Underneath the cookie layer, there is a thin caramel layer that adds a lot of moisture and flavor to the cake, with notes of both caramel, cinnamon and browned butter.”

    Snickerdoodle Pie | Baking Bites

  • “The milk caramel is made with milk, sugar and glucose, and is flavored with vanilla (there is also a little bit of baking soda “as an acidity control agent”).”

    La Salamandra Dulce de Leche, reviewed | Baking Bites

  • “The internal dialog was like: Dude, caramels, whoa, hard, I can chunk them though, that's right, mix in caramel chunks with the pie, it'll be the bomb and stuff.”

    Backyard Apples In Pie

  • “I am definitely going to try this one, salted caramel is one of the candies I truly have a weakness for, so combining it with cupcakes ... well, let's just say it's amore for me.”

    Salted Caramel Cupcakes... FINALLY!!

  • “While caramel is resting, roll out your puff pastry a few times on a very lightly floured surface to make sure it is large enough to cover the pan and to smooth out any wrinkles.”

    Tarte Tatin | Baking Bites

  • “Whether it will be made of macarons or a choux pyramid coated in caramel, remains to be hotly disputed.”

    l’oeil du cyclone

Show 10 more examples...

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘caramel’.

Comments

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  • reesetee Blecch. Feb 22, 2011

  • ruzuzu I've actually had licorice-flavored caramels. Or maybe they were caramel-flavored licorices. Regardless, they were much more enjoyable than Salzige Heringe licorice.

    Salzige Heringe....

    *shudders* Feb 22, 2011

  • bilby Uffa, someone's dropped a hazelnut on the caramel page! This could get sticky. Feb 22, 2011

  • dontcry She does indeed, in her chariot of empty hazelnut! Feb 22, 2011

  • yarb "...she gallops night by night / through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love." Feb 22, 2011

  • dontcry Love her. Feb 22, 2011

  • yarb Queen Mab. Feb 22, 2011

  • dontcry Which queen? Feb 22, 2011

  • yarb No, I say "liquorish". "Lick-o-riss" would be how the queen says it. Feb 22, 2011

  • ruzuzu What about licorice? Do you say lick-oh-rice? Feb 22, 2011

  • yarb Ditto Bilby. "Car-mull" is ludicrous. Feb 22, 2011

  • bilby More like CA-re-mell for me, middle vowel is schwaish. Feb 22, 2011

  • ruzuzu I heard both, but I always suspected they were two different things. Feb 22, 2011

  • pterodactyl I was raised saying "car-mull", but at some point, I made a conscious decision to switch over to "care-a-mull". I figured, hey, if both pronunciations are acceptible, I may as well use the one I like better. Feb 22, 2011

  • dontcry "car a mull" is straight out. Dec 5, 2009

  • madmouth I've heard "car mull" more often than "car a mull" Dec 5, 2009

  • reesetee I've never heard that pronunciation either. A bit odd to my ear. Dec 4, 2009

  • uselessness The American Heritage audio pronunciation is unlike any I've heard before. I've heard "CAR mull" and "CARE a mell" but never "CAR a mull." Dec 4, 2009

  • pterodactyl See this map for American pronunciation. Apr 10, 2008

  • brtom Our great day, she said. Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Sweet name too: caramel.
    Joyce, Ulysses, 8 Jan 3, 2007

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‘caramel’ has been looked up 2499 times, loved by 4 people, added to 52 lists, commented on 20 times, and has a Scrabble score of 11.