[Sca-cooks] Caramel Laura Secord

[Lis]

Hi all. I figured someone would be able to help me out here on this list. My
French is getting rusty.

My daughter was assigned a report/project on the famous 1812 Canadian Spy
Heroine called Laura Secord. Ms Secord went on to found a high-class
confectionary under her name that exists to this day. This project is due
next week, but we thought we'd try out the recipe to see how it works.

I found a recipe in french for Caramel Laura Secord, and what I got was a
caramel sauce (well, it's thickening up some in the fridge, but I have grave
doubts), so I'm thinking I probably messed up on the translation. OTOH I've
never made caramels before, so maybe choosing a recipe in a foreign language
was a bad choice for a first experience. I'm thinking the recipe proportions
are way off, though. Too much water or not enough condensed milk, to my way
of thinking.

Here goes:

Caramel Laura Secord
Recette (recipe)
1/2 lb beurre  (1/2 lb butter, no problem)
2 tasses de sirop de mais (2 cups corn syrup...got it. I used clear Karo)
4 tasses de cassonade (4 cups of, after much searching, brown sugar)

Faire bouillir 5 minutes. Retirer du feu, ajouter:
Make boiling for 5 minutes. Retire from the fire. Add:

1 tasse d'eau froide en trois parties (1 cup cold water divided in 3
parts--necessary because it spits at you if you add too much in one go. This
seems like a lot of water).

1 boite de lait Eagle Brand (one ??? of milk Eagle Brand, I'm assuming 1 can
Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk, so it's fudge-like caramels---but what
size/how much? 1 can seems too little)

Laisser refroider et mettre dans des plattes hermetiques. Se conserve au
refrigerateur. (Let cool and put in clean pans. Keep refrigerated).

Before anyone points it out, I AM aware that the original Laura Secord is
unlikely to have had Eagle Brand Condensed milk in 1812.

Any help, etc....

Aoife