Caramel for Coloring Soup

No ratings yet

Ingredients 3 ingredients

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

Hot oil. Never put water on an oil fire: turn off the heat and cover the pan with a lid or a damp tea towel. Pat food dry before it goes into hot oil, and lower it in gently, away from you.
Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.
Hot sugar. Hot sugar sticks to skin and burns far hotter than boiling water: don't touch or taste it. Keep a bowl of cold water close, and keep children away while it cooks.

A heaping tablespoonful of common brown sugar if you have it;
if not, use any kind of sugar;
put it in the frying pan and stir it until it is dark brown;
that is, until it is on the point of burning;
see that it browns evenly.
Then put in a tablespoonful of water, either hot or cold--it does not make any difference;
stir that until it is mixed with the sugar;
then another tablespoonful, until you have used about half a cupful of water.
If you should pour the water all in at once the sugar would simply boil over and burn you.
Use about half a cupful of water, adding it gradually, and stirring until the burnt sugar is dissolved.
That gives you the caramel.
Now, while I am making the caramel, I will describe to you the clarifying of the soup.