What is the difference between caramel and carmel. We have all heard
of carmel candy, carmel icing, caramel apples and caramel popcorn.
The difference is that carmel is a misspelled word. Carmel is a name of
cities, persons last names but is misused when referring to as caramel.
Neither the encyclopedia nor dictionaries recognize carmel as a correct
spelling or as a term used in cooked syrup or candy.
Caramel:
[kar-e-mel],[kar,mel in some U.S. regions] is a food which
has a color from orange to dark brown and a sweet toasted flavor,
derived from the caramelizing of sugar. Caramel is used to flavor
candy, as well as soft drinks such as Coca-Cola. Caramel can be made
from sugar by heating it slowly to around 340°F, depending on the
sugar being used and the final use. There are many ways to make
caramel, different recipes, added ingredients and cooking methods,
yield different finished products used for different purposes. Various
candies, confections, and desserts are made with caramel; caramel
apples, caramel with nuts, caramel with custard, brittle, soft chewy
candies, icing, caramel sauce, etc. The word caramel also describes a
soft, chewy, caramel-flavored candy made by boiling milk, sugar,
butter, syrup, vanilla, essence, water and glucose gum together. Milk
is the vital ingredient in caramel candies, giving them a creamy,
collapsible texture. Milton Hershey began his chocolate empire not
with chocolate but with caramel. In 1886 he founded the Lancaster
Caramel company, surely utilizing traditional recipes that were found
in many a regional cookbook. He learned about chocolate making
because he sought new coatings for his famous caramels.
www.en.wikipedia.org
has a color from orange to dark brown and a sweet toasted flavor,
derived from the caramelizing of sugar. Caramel is used to flavor
candy, as well as soft drinks such as Coca-Cola. Caramel can be made
from sugar by heating it slowly to around 340°F, depending on the
sugar being used and the final use. There are many ways to make
caramel, different recipes, added ingredients and cooking methods,
yield different finished products used for different purposes. Various
candies, confections, and desserts are made with caramel; caramel
apples, caramel with nuts, caramel with custard, brittle, soft chewy
candies, icing, caramel sauce, etc. The word caramel also describes a
soft, chewy, caramel-flavored candy made by boiling milk, sugar,
butter, syrup, vanilla, essence, water and glucose gum together. Milk
is the vital ingredient in caramel candies, giving them a creamy,
collapsible texture. Milton Hershey began his chocolate empire not
with chocolate but with caramel. In 1886 he founded the Lancaster
Caramel company, surely utilizing traditional recipes that were found
in many a regional cookbook. He learned about chocolate making
because he sought new coatings for his famous caramels.
www.en.wikipedia.org
this really helped me with an argument in class and now they understand
same thing happening in my class between some kids
Thank you for clearing this up! I’m glad I found your web site and will definitely be visiting often!
Just to annoy my brother I’m still going to call it carmel. He just gets oddly perturbed by it.
Keep on annoying! A little sibling rivalry is good.
I love teasing my daughter about the word “Caramel”. She showed me this site just to teach me that I was wrong lol. Thanks from a dad that is pleasantly disappointed 🙂
I just moved to Portland, OR, and there are so many restaurants here that spell it as Carmel. I thought I was going crazy. Thank you!
You are crazy hun, It is Carmel , fortunately the vintage spelling and pronunciation are rapidly fading away . i.e. , when was the last time you ” caramelized ” butter or sugar in a pan on your stove. YOU DON’T, you carmelize it . People would sure look at you strangely if you walked into ice cream store and asked for a caramel malt — , again , its CARMEL . You must be one of those people that that say “app-ricot” instead of “ape-ricot”
Sarah, thank you for your post!
We all say ap,ruh,koht on the west coat, honey.
I just use carmel when talking about cooking, and caramel when talking about the sweet; you carmelize onions, and you get a caramel apple. It just makes the most sense.
Love this. Thank you.
Thank you! That’s how I was brought up. CARMEL. I hear caramel & think they are saying it wrong for it to sound better on TV.
In the western United States there is a distinction between Caramel and Carmel. Caramel has the burned or a coffee like taste where Carmel does not and is therefore sweeter. I have noticed that I can’t find the same taste on the eastern seaboard.
As someone from the west born and raised I can say that isnt true. They are synonymous.
Um no they’re not the same. It’s incoherent people like you who don’t know English.
The way I learned it in a culinary class I took several years ago, Was The difference is that camel is more dense and able to stand alone easier, whereas caramel has more fluidity and is therefor more often used as a filling then Carmel.
It’s kahr,muhl on the west coast. People will roll their eyes at you if you try to convince them it’s a 3 syllable word. They will do the same if you pronounce the nut as pee,kan instead of pah,kahn.
Thank you Chef.
I just use carmel when talking about cooking, and caramel when talking about the sweet; you carmelize onions, and you get a caramel apple. It just makes the most sense.
Thank you, Chef Dave!!! I am an English major, and I cannot count the number of times I have and have had this discussion with different individuals. I cringe when I hear someone mispronounce words (makes me wonder where they went to school). It is, as you say, Kar-e-mel when referring to food or sweets. You DO caramelize onions. You do not carmelize them. I think it is that people get lazy when speaking and they tend to shorten words, or inadvertently mispronounce them. This allows for the misspelling or mispronunciation to become more acceptable (though still incorrect). It is right up there with, as the say on the east coast and in the mid-west “I SEEN”. Quite actually, you did not “seen” anything! You “SAW”! Back to basic English – “I see”, “I saw”, ” I had/have seen”.
Does it really matter so long as someone understands what you are talking about. It’s communication for goodness sake! In an age where we have “OMG” and “LOL”, it seems everyone would understand that. Besides someone decided it was “caramel” at some point. Maybe they were wrong!
People are just lazy and stupid, and shorten words and just keep mispronouncing them because “that’s how mom said it”.
I have always said Carmel. The only time I ever saw caramel was when the caramello candy bar came out.
Kraft made Carmels with which we made Carmel apples and Carmel popcorn balls.
I didn’t hear people start saying caramel until sometime in the 2000’s. Like many words, things and history have been revised to reflect the popular culture of the day
I will continue to say Carmel.
I’ve always used Caramel when referring to a sauce or a color.
Carmel when referring to a type of candy.