Caramel

High school (ages 12+)
Food & Cooking

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/caramel

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the primary sugar?Sucrose is the most common sugar used for caramelization
2. What is the reaction type?Non-enzymatic browning, involving dehydration, fragmentation, and polymerization
3. What is caramel and how is it made?Caramel is a sweet, golden‑brown sauce made when sugar is heated to about 170 °C, causing it to melt, break apart, and form new flavors and colors.
4. Why does caramel taste sweet, nutty, and slightly bitter?The heat makes sugar break into smaller pieces that join together, creating many new chemicals like furans and pyrazines that give caramel its sweet, nutty, buttery, and slightly bitter flavors.

Caramelization: A complex chemical process of heating sugars that yields characteristic flavors, aromas, and colors.
Polymerization: A chemical reaction where small molecules combine to form larger, chain-like molecules.
Non-enzymatic Browning: Color and flavor changes in food that occur due to heat, not enzymes.