Caramel, Caramel Sauce, Caramel Syrup, and Butterscotch

All of these terms cause confusion because they mean different things to different people. In French cooking, caramel is the hard, dark, and brittle result of cooking sugar, without liquid, in a heavy-bottomed pot. To make caramel, just heat granulated sugar in a heavy-bottomed nonaluminum saucepan over medium heat while stirring with a wooden spoon. (French pastry chefs have a special untinned copper pot just for making caramel.) The sugar will gradually melt, look lumpy and disastrous (no need to worry), and turn pale golden and then deep red. As soon as it is smooth, it must be used right away—as for lining molds for crème caramel—or liquid has to be added immediately to keep the sugar from burning. If you add 1 cup of water to 1 cup of still-hot caramel, the mixture will boil up furiously—stand back—and you’ll have caramel syrup, which you can boil down to the consistency you like, not a bad sauce for ice cream. If you add 1 cup of heavy cream instead of the water, you’ll end up with a rich and creamy caramel sauce.