Carmel vs. Caramel—Which Is Correct? (2024)

FAQs

Carmel vs. Caramel—Which Is Correct? ›

Carmel and caramel are not different spellings of the same word. Caramel is the correct spelling if you're talking about food or colors. Carmel is a misspelling when used in those contexts, but it is a word that can be used as a name for people or places.

The spelling Carmel, without the second A, should only be used as a proper noun that describes a person or a place. When in doubt, use the version with a double A, since that's much more common. Whenever you're talking about a sweet treat or a light brown color, you should use caramel.

The word "caramel" has three syllables: car-a-mel; however, there isn't one correct pronunciation because of the differentiation of accents. The most common pronunciations include karr-uh-mel, karr-uh-muhl, kar-e-mel (with emphasis on the first syllable), and, frequently used by North Americans, kar-muhl.

If you're talking about caramel the food/colour, there is an “a” in caramel; two, in fact. If you're spelling it carmel, you're spelling it wrong. In some accents (particularly in the US), the second “a” is not pronounced or barely pronounced. In others, such as in the UK, both are pronounced.

People on the east coast from Maine to Florida and throughout the south, including Atlanta, Mississippi, Louisiana, and parts of Texas tend to pronounce it like car-a-mel according to the Harvard Dialect Survey. People from the West coast tend to use two syllables instead of three, pronouncing it, car-muhl.

Caramel has been in use in the English language for a while, but it's not one of the words you could trace back to Old English. It entered the language during the eighteenth century from Spanish, via French. Today, it's occasionally misspelled as carmel, likely because of the way it's commonly pronounced.

The "sodder" pronunciation is actually older. The word is from French "souder," but the L was put into the spelling on the basis of the Latin etymology (related to "solid"), and eventually a lot of people started pronouncing the L.

We can all rest assured that there is no one proper pronunciation for the word pecan; though, the most accepted is "pi-KAHN." The word pecan originated from the Algonquin term pacane and the iteration we are most familiar with was used in the mid-1700s. From there, pronunciation trends really seem to vary.

Most people from western and northern states drop the middle syllable of the word altogether and pronounce it car-mel. Hop across the Atlantic to the UK and you'll hear another variation on the sweet name. There they pronounce the first syllable of the candy as care (as in care-a-mel) while Americans tend to say car.

Similar to caramel, butterscotch is made by heating sugar. The main difference between the two is that butterscotch uses brown sugar instead of white. The ingredients are also combined in a slightly different order for butterscotch: your start out by melting butter with brown sugar.

Is Carmel the same as dulce de leche? ›

Caramel and dulce de leche might look and taste somewhat similar, but they are actually pretty different. While caramel is made from slowly simmering water and sugar until it caramelizes, dulce de leche is made from simmering milk and sugar super slowly until it turns into a creamy, caramelized substance.

The difference between caramel and toffee is greater, as caramel has a more liquid consistency and is usually pure sugar (it doesn't contain butter or flour). Still, the taste of caramel, fudge, and toffee is relatively similar, as they are all made from mostly sugar (as well as butter in the case of fudge and toffee).

pronunciation is car-a-mel. What say the people from. Vintage Philly. was right.

Many people believe Southerners say “pee-can” while Northerners say “puh-kahn.” According to the National Pecan Shellers Association (which, we assume, is the foremost authority on all things pecan), only 45 percent of Southerners are Team Pee-can—unlike 70 percent of people in the Northeast.

ˈka-rə-, -ˌmel. 1. : a usually firm to brittle, golden-brown to dark brown substance that has a sweet, nutty, buttery, or bitter flavor, is obtained by heating sugar at high temperature, and used especially as a coloring and flavoring agent. Caramel is an ingredient in many candies.

Some say that the Arabs were the first to discover caramel around 1000 A.D. It's believed that it was a crunchy kind of caramel created by the process of crystalizing sugar in boiling water. The Arabs called it “kurat al milh,” which roughly translates into “sweet ball of salt.”