Fish Sauce Caramel

Funky with umami. More complex than your average salted caramel.

Made using a wet caramel method. Dry method works fine too, search up a video.

This recipe yields 4-6 oz of caramel. Enough caramel to swirl into 1 quart of ice cream as a light/moderate amount. Goes well with a sweet cream base, toasted milk powder sweet cream base, or up to your imagination.

Water, sugar, corn syrup into a pot. Medium to med high heat and let it dissolves. Can swirl the pot but no need to stir. If sugar crystallizes on the sides you can dab with a wet brush or cover the pot with a lid and the condensation will help to dissolve it. At your desired caramelization color, add warm cream gradually while whisking.

First cook temperature: As the sugar is caramelizing, do not pass 375 or it will burn and ruin the batch.

Second cook temperature: After adding the warmed cream and whisking in the butter and fish sauce, cook it to reach 220 F to achieve a better texture and viscosity.

1 TBSP water for initial dissolve

100 g (1/2 cup) of sugar (depending on sweetness preference)

20 g (~1 TBSP) corn syrup (helps to reduce recrystallization)

60-100 g of warmed heavy cream (depends how runny you want the caramel). Cold cream to the hot sugar will bubble more violently and could break the caramel.

43 g / 3 TBSP butter (depends how much more richness you want, 2 TBSP is fine.)

10-15 g / 2-3 teaspoons of fish sauce. This can vary based on brand, some are more concentrated than others. I used Three Crabs Fish Sauce by Viet Huong and preferred 2.5-3 tsp/15 g.

Disclaimer: After adding the fish sauce to the caramel, the aroma will be intensely pungent in the kitchen. The smell and flavors tend to mellow out as it cools and will be less pungent if swirled into ice cream.