I just learned the boiled can method during a cooking class at a local restaurant. They served it underneath French toast and braised pears, and topped it with crema. It was incredible.
I’ve had it with ice cream, cake, cookies, pie, flan, fresh fruit, and blini, and it was good with all of them. I wouldn’t recommend coffee, though: I tried it in tea once, and instead of dissolving, it just stayed in the cup and turned rubbery.
I’ve done it this way for years. Three cans fit well, or six of the little cans. Place in crockpot, cover with water, put on lid, turn to low and go to bed. Turn it off in the morning and voila!
The boiling method sounds like a pain.
I’m going to do this soon. How do you store it and how long does it keep? Just keep it in the cans? Pour them into a mason jar? In the fridge? Something like that?
The sealed cans will keep indefinitely. I usually refrigerate it after opening, but I don’t know if that’s necessary. In the fridge, it certainly keeps long enough to use it up.
This is what I was waiting on. I love caramel coffee. I am gonna do it. I may do it outside on the gas fish fryer. In case of explosions. I just repainted the kitchen last summer.
Seriously, crock pot. There’s no need to get all dramatic about it. Once I left one in for a full day just to see what it would be like. Darker brown, richer, nuttier goodness. For golden brown I leave it in on low for about 8 hours.
I also tried it with evaporated milk, but that was awful. It was a chalky, disgusting, burned mess. Blech. You need the sweetened condensed milk for this one.
Storage: I always remove it from the can because I fear rust after heating them up. I put it into ziplock bags and then freeze them, removing to the fridge as I want them. Sometimes the ice crystals create a grainy texture, but whip it up a bit at room temperature and you’re golden again.
You can do it sous vide too, in glass jars. But these days I just buy it from the Mexican food section at the grocery store.
And speaking of browning dairy, there’s this.
I like the idea of using my crock pot to make the treat. I’ve got a huge batch of banana bread that I’d like to try try some dulce on.
I astounded some friends a couple years back with this trick I learned decades ago from some friends who were on a Wilderness Rescue team.
My hispanic friends invited me to go camping with them at Lake Tahoe and we enjoyed a variety of lodgings from tents to RV’s to the-hotel-across-the-street. On the first night, when people were nicely drunk and the kids (grade schoolers) were asleep and the adults were planning to turn in as well, I pulled out a can of Sweetened Condensed Milk and said, “Watch this!”
My friends frowned at me when I tossed it into the fire pit. Then I watched as the label burned off and told one of the guys to douse the flames for the night. The next morning, before breakfast, I told one of the kids, “Hey, what’s that can doing in the fire pit? Go pull it out.” He did, and was surprised to see that it wasn’t a soda or beer can – and that it was still sealed. I told him to leave it on the picnic bench and sent him off to brush his teeth. I polished off the soot with a wet rag and left it there for the morning.
Later, after lunch, I dashed over to Richardson’s Ice Cream Parlor to grab a half-gallon of vanilla and kept it hidden in my pack. Then I returned to our campsite and wondered aloud about that funny can that I had the boy pull from the fire pit.
“Yeah, what is that?” one of the adults asked, almost spoiling my fun.
“Oh, I don’t know…” I replied as I pulled the tab on the can and opened the lid to reveal just under two cups of fresh caramelized goo. My friends went ‘Ooh!’ and ‘Ahh!’ and I said, "Gee, that would go real nice on – this ice cream here!
And I served up ice cream topped with ‘caramel sauce’ for an after-lunch dessert.
When one of the adults asked where I learned to do that, I told her, “Well, you oughta know that one. It’s not real caramel; it’s dulce de leche!”
The cooling embers heat the sugary milk inside, producing a Maillard reaction. Since the can is sealed while the milk is heating, I suspect there’s some kind of Boyle’s Law (increasing pressure increases the temperature?) thing going on, as well*. However, since the embers are cooling, the risk of explosion decreases over time – and leaving it over night (roughly 8 hours?) while everyone sleeps gives it plenty of time to toast. Just don’t forget to pull it out before starting the morning campfire. And even if it does explode, it’s outdoors in a fire pit; the sugary goo will just burn away when the next fire is going.
–G!
- I dunno. I never even took chemistry. :smack:
Camping and cooking as performance art.
Gotta love it!
It should never be a problem to boil an unopened can. They will have to sustain greater temperatures and pressures in the canning process. If your pan runs dry it could be a problem, you shouldn’t put unopened cans in an oven or on a grill or in a campfire because they could explode, and it takes longer than you think before they explode in a campfire so you’re likely to get bored and miss the explosion anyway.
Or just look for this in your market. Might be in the Mexican food section.
The vapor pressure of the liquid inside the can won’t be nearly high enough to cause it to explode at 212 F/100 C. As long as the can is submerged in boiling water it won’t get hotter than that. If you want to be really safe you can put the can on a rack so it doesn’t touch the bottom of the pot.
In my brother’s Boy Scout group this recipe was called “Danger Pudding”. Due to the presumed risk of the van exploding.
Fantastic typo. I’m now envisioning a TV show with “Danger Pudding” delivery vans driving around town - they have to deliver all their cans dulce de leche before the van explodes.
Regarding exploding cans of condensed milk, consider this from the Wikipedia page on Dulce de Leche:
So, as I believe was stated above, you’re safe as long as you keep the water level high enough to cover the cans. But you’re in trouble if you don’t.
The footnote is to this book:
Kijac, Maria Baez (2003). The South American Table: The Flavour and Soul of Authentic Home Cooking from Patagonia to Rio de Janeiro, with 450 Recipes. Boston, MA: Harvard Common Press. p. 391. ISBN 1-55832-249-3.
As I pointed out earlier, it’s also safe if you put the cans on a rack. Even if the pot boils dry, the cans won’t overheat if they’re not touching the bottom of the pot.
Gee, all I imagined was a van full of boy scouts exploding,.
I am gonna do this.
I am a pot peeper, so if it explodes it will happen while I’m peeping.
If I die from this, y’all say nice things at my funeral.
Maybe they could serve Mexican foods at the after funeral meal.