Shelf · Fire & pan · High heat
Caramelizing
Cooking sugars slowly past golden into deep amber flavor.
- The temperature band
- The pan · 160 to 200 °C
Why it works
Above the caramelization threshold sugars break down and recombine into hundreds of nutty, bittersweet compounds.
The tell
Steady amber deepening with a toasty smell — dark mahogany plus sharp smoke means burnt is seconds away.
How it fails
Caramel goes from perfect to acrid in moments — off the heat immediately. Burnt caramel is unsalvageable; start over.
Open the card in Rikaido
In the app, the card opens on the recipe step that names it, with the tell drawn.
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