Sugar stages & caramel

How to tell it is going right

• Nothing is stirred once it is boiling, and any crystals clinging to the side of the pan are brushed down rather than left to fall in.
• Judged by temperature or by a tested stage rather than by time: consecutive stages are a few degrees apart and look identical in the pan.
• Colour is read off the heat and in good light, remembering that sugar keeps darkening after the flame is out.
• Stopped decisively at the point wanted: off the heat and into the next liquid or onto a cold surface, rather than left to coast in a hot pan.
• The result is clear and smooth rather than grainy, cloudy, or seized into a solid mass.

Where it goes wrong It was stirred after coming to the boil, or a stray crystal from the side of the pan fell back in. One crystal seeds the whole pan and the syrup turns grainy within seconds, and once sugar has crystallised the only cure is more water and starting the whole thing again.