Caramel

[W.DeBord]

My carmel doesn't turn that quickly that I have to worry about going past carmel to burn, so I thinking maybe it's your pan? We have very thick pans at work....but I'm kind of thinking I can recall having a problem with a thinner metal pan before. I don't have to plunge my current pans in cold h2o to slow things down but I can recall working with pans where I did have to and it had to do with the thinness of the metal (or perhaps the type of metal)

Maybe someone else has experienced this more currently then I and can elborate?

Somehow because the pan is not real thick (or it's the type of metal and how it conducts heat) the metal brings the heat into you sugar quicker/more intensely so that does speed things up, which would them speed up the process of burning too. What kind of pan/brand are you using?

[nancya]

W, the last time I tried to make caramelized sugar, I was using andonized aluminum [Circulon] which I hated. I have since switched to stainless steel and haven't tried them on caramelizing yet. I never thought about the type of pan. That could be an interesting experiment.

[W.DeBord]

You must try it in other pans! You definatly will see a difference! More with the weight of the pan then the material. The weight really affects the speed of the melting.

We have very heavy aluminum pans (I think, it's hard to tell anymore their so abused) at work that work very well. This is one of those things that professional chefs don't really like to make at home, equpiment at home just isn't as good.

[Kimmie]

I use an unlined copper pan for that. Never a problem...

[Spoons]

Went to Willie Sonoma and they were out of Dulce de Leche in my area. Wanted to try it.
Has anybody ever made this? Seems so time consuming.

Is this stuff highly perishable? Can it sit in a cake left out for several hours?

Thanks