The process of heating sugar or sugar-containing foods until the sugar molecules break down and reform into complex compounds, creating a golden-brown color and rich, nutty flavor. This can occur through dry heat or prolonged slow cooking.
From French 'caraméliser,' derived from 'caramel,' which comes from Spanish 'caramelo,' ultimately from Latin 'cannamella' (sugar cane). The term evolved from describing candy-making to encompassing the broader chemical transformation of sugars in cooking.
Caramelization is pure chemistry in action—as sugars heat past 320°F, they undergo pyrolysis, breaking apart and recombining into hundreds of new flavor compounds that create that distinctive sweet-bitter complexity. This is why caramelized onions taste nothing like raw onions; you're literally creating new molecules that didn't exist before, transforming simple sugars into complex flavor bombs.
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