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Cajeta

The bicarbonate goes in at the start, because goat's milk curdles as it reduces and will not brown without it.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (milk).

Ingredients

Method

  1. THE BICARBONATE GOES IN AT THE START AND IT IS DOING TWO JOBS. Goat's milk is noticeably more acid than cow's, and as two litres reduce to a fifth of their volume that acidity concentrates with everything else -- at some point around the fortieth minute the proteins curdle and the pan goes irretrievably grainy. Half a teaspoon of bicarbonate, slaked in a spoonful of water, raises the pH enough to stop that. And the same raised pH is what lets the browning happen: the Maillard reaction between the milk sugars and proteins runs far faster in alkaline conditions, which is why a pan with bicarbonate in it goes deep amber in an hour and one without stays the colour of pale toffee however long it is cooked.
  2. IT IS SLAKED IN WATER AND ADDED OFF THE BOIL, AND THE PAN WILL FOAM UP. Bicarbonate dropped in dry sits in lumps and gives bitter pockets. Dissolved first and stirred in with the pan off the heat, it foams dramatically for about twenty seconds and subsides. A pan filled more than halfway will go over the sides at that moment, so a large pan is used.
  3. IT IS STIRRED CONSTANTLY FOR THE LAST TWENTY MINUTES AND OFTEN BEFORE THAT. Milk sugars settle and catch on the base, and one scorched patch flavours the entire batch -- there is no rescuing it. A wooden spoon, the base scraped in a figure of eight, and the last twenty minutes without leaving the pan at all.
  4. IT IS DONE WHEN A SPOON DRAWN ACROSS THE BASE LEAVES A TRAIL THAT CLOSES SLOWLY. About an hour. It should still pour from the spoon in a thick ribbon -- it thickens a great deal more as it cools, and a pan cooked until it looks right hot will be a solid block cold.
  5. IT IS THE BASE AND THE OTHER TWO CAJETA PAGES DO NOT DEPEND ON IT. Each writes its own handling, because what changes between them is not an addition at the end but how far the pan is taken and when the fruit meets it.
  6. The goat's milk and sugar put in a LARGE heavy pan -- no more than half full -- and warmed over a medium heat, stirred, until the sugar has dissolved.
  7. The bicarbonate slaked in the tablespoon of water.
  8. THE PAN TAKEN OFF THE HEAT and the slaked bicarbonate stirred in. IT WILL FOAM UP hard for about 20 seconds.
  9. Returned to the heat once the foam subsides, with the salt.
  10. Simmered 40 MINUTES over a medium-low heat, stirred every few minutes and the base scraped.
  11. WATCHED as the colour goes from cream through pale gold to deep amber.
  12. The last 20 MINUTES stirred CONSTANTLY, in a figure of eight, never leaving the pan.
  13. TESTED: a spoon drawn across the base should leave a trail that closes SLOWLY. It should still pour in a thick ribbon.
  14. The vanilla stirred in off the heat.
  15. Poured into warm jars and cooled. It thickens considerably as it cools.
  16. Keeps 3 months in the fridge.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes