Caramel is simply sugar that’s heated until it melts and turns brown. Yet caramelized sugar is about as far from white sugar as glass is from sand. We all know it as an ingredient or sauce for desserts, but it’s also a tasty umami-laden base note for savory dishes, much like brown butter, sweet soy sauce and miso. Many Vietnamese dishes start with a simple caramel, which is then offset by salt (such as fish sauce) and acid (such as vinegar or citrus) to make magic. Try adding caramel as the sweet element on chicken wings, in pan sauces for pork or duck, with roasted vegetables, even in salad dressings. Or just stick your spoon in the jar, pop open a bottle and contemplate its beauty.
Try This Recipe: Whiskey Caramel Sauce with Bitters
Sticky-Sweet
It’s no secret that caramel is sweet, but it’s hardly sweet like a mango; this is a dark, even dank, sticky kind of sugar rush. Ice Riesling, the Finger Lakes’ take on Canadian Icewine, has intense sweetness to match, but with piercing acidity that somehow refreshes, for a pairing that is both complementary and contrasting.
Toasty
Flavorwise, caramel hovers somewhere between brown sugar and molasses, with earthy charred notes as the heat turns the sugars brown (think of a caramelized onion). Argentinian Malbec has notes of sweet tobacco, smoldering embers and roasted plum, with lots of tannins to cut caramel’s innate richness. Ample fruit lends a similar feeling of lushness as the
This Article was originally published on Wine Enthusiast
