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Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

crème caramel au beurre salé

English translation:

salted butter crème caramel

Added to glossary by Miranda Joubioux (X)
Oct 1, 2014 15:49
9 yrs ago
1 viewer *
French term

crème caramel au beurre salé

French to English Other Cooking / Culinary
Target=UK

Crème caramel au beurre salé

Une savoureuse crème dessert agrémentée d'un coulis de caramel au sel de Guérande.
Le mariage subtil de la Bretagne et de la tradition : un régal à l'état pur !


I'm hesitating on this one. I've done a fair amount of searching on the web.
In my mind 'caramel' is made with only sugar and water, unless you are referring to hard sweets and even then I'm not quite sure whether butter is used.
Toffee has the addition of butter.
When I buy caramel au beurre salé in a jar (which is delicious) I think of it as a gooey sticky toffee.
When I put toffee sauce on an ice-cream, I have no doubts in my mind what it is.

So what do you call this?

I've seen a few salted butter crème brulées, but that's not the same thing is it?

Does anyone have any idea of how to deal with this. I've been all over the place on UK sites and it looks like the word 'caramel' is now being used for ice-cream sauces and stuff like that.

Opinions please! I need to deliver this in about 14 hours.
Proposed translations (English)
4 +9 salted butter crème caramel
4 +8 crème caramel with salted butter
4 salted butter caramel cream
4 salted caramel creme
References
Salted butter caramel

Discussion

Jane Phillips Oct 2, 2014:
stop stop stop I have a jar of caramel au b salé at the back of the cupboard and its getting very difficult to keep my hands off it!
B D Finch Oct 2, 2014:
@Miranda You set off a load of childhood memories, that's why! http://www.advertisingarchives.co.uk/detail/12992/1/Magazine... But I mainly remember the shiny white paper packets of Callard & Bowser butterscotch with a thistle on the front and each portion wrapped in paper-backed matte silver foil. One of the many treats that kept our dentist in business.
Miranda Joubioux (X) (asker) Oct 2, 2014:
Well, I didn't expect this to encourage so much discussion. It seems that between countries there are some differences (I've seen some fudge examples in the US and then there's butterscotch too, which I understand to be something very crunchy). It also seems that toffee can mean quite a few things too. Strange that it's all so blurred. Perhaps I was looking for problems where there weren't any. I have decided to go with "salted butter crème caramel", since it seems to be taking root, as Melissa pointed out.

I want to thank you all for your help on this. Language changes all the time and nothing is ever as simple as it seems.
Jane Phillips Oct 2, 2014:
Agree fudge I tend to think of caramel au beurre salé as being a wonderful spreadable and slightly salty fudge - I've always known fudge referred to in France as 'caramels'.<p>
But I'm not sure you can use it as a translation as it simply becomes too cumbersome and 'crème caramel with salty fudge sauce' isn't quite accurate and 'cream dessert with salty fudge sauce' loses the crème caramel aspect which makes it instantly recognisable.
B D Finch Oct 2, 2014:
@Valentrad That not only sounds a bit down-market to me and doesn't fit with "sel de Guérande", but it sounds like it applies to the crème caramel itself rather than just the "coulis". Butterscotch has cream in it too and there's no mention of that in the "coulis".
Sinéad Moore Oct 2, 2014:
"salted butter caramel" is butterscotch. How about "Butterscotch (flavoured) crème caramel"?
B D Finch Oct 2, 2014:
As a highly experienced eater of crème caramel ... ... having watched my mother making it ever since I was tall enough to see over the edge of the worktop and occasionally having made my own, the only butter I can recall being used was to grease the ramekins. The addition of salt to the caramel sounds very good, but butter seems OTT.

I agree with Melissa that toffee doesn't usually contain butter. The difference between caramel and toffee is the temperature the sugar is heated to. So you can have butter toffee or butter caramel, though it's probably easier to add to caramel as toffee is still a bit hot for adding butter when it solidifies.
Melissa McMahon Oct 1, 2014:
caramel vs toffee "Salted butter caramel" has taken firm root in the English language, I think, technically correct or not. I'm interested to learn the difference but I think vernacular has it here (nb the toffees sold at my school fetes definitely had no butter... nor the toffee in our toffee apples)
Rachel Fell Oct 1, 2014:
As it's a product, I also wonder whether it needs to be translated, as the description follows the name.
Colin Morley (X) Oct 1, 2014:
Agree with Phil and Tony Both the terms 'Crème caramel' and 'beurre salé' are understandable to most English speaking diners - a translation seems almost superfluous.
Rachel Fell Oct 1, 2014:
Do you have a picture of this product? Does it look, for example, like this? http://www.amazon.com/Albert-Menes-Salted-Butter-Caramel/dp/...
Tony M Oct 1, 2014:
crème caramel Personally, I think the term is common enough these days in Englishto keep the FR version, as for 'crème brûlée' etc.

Note that it is a 'crème' accompanied by caramel, and NOT a 'caramel-flavoured cream', as some word orders might appear to suggest.

I agree with Miranda's qualms, about the fact that the 'runny caramel' found at the bottom of a 'crème caramel' doesn't usually have any butter in it (salted or not)!

In fact, very often in FR 'parfum caramel' etc. means what we would call 'butterscotch' in EN, or, sometimes 'fudge' — I'm thinking things like ice-cream flavours etc.
Miranda Joubioux (X) (asker) Oct 1, 2014:
http://justindunham.net/2011/05/the-difference-between-caram...
explains the difference between toffee and caramel
Miranda Joubioux (X) (asker) Oct 1, 2014:
I've seen 'salted butter caramel' on a few sites, but it jars with me because when you put butter into caramel (which is invariably salted) it's referred to as toffee.
Miranda Joubioux (X) (asker) Oct 1, 2014:
It's on a product list for a food industry trade show. I've given you the description, because I found it. But for the person reading the list, there's no description.
philgoddard Oct 1, 2014:
In fact, why do you need to translate it at all if it's followed by an explanation? Doesn't turning it into English take away the poetry?
philgoddard Oct 1, 2014:
I wonder if you're making things slightly too complicated. Surely a literal translation would do, especially since they explain exactly what it is.

Proposed translations

+9
11 mins
Selected

salted butter crème caramel

Crème caramel is a flan dessert, a French classic that is called using its French name in most recipes. See for example:
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/classic_crme_caramel_44792

"Beurre salé" is generally translated salted butter.

Crème brulée is a similar but distinct dessert - the crème caramel is burnt before serving.
Peer comment(s):
agree philgoddard
5 mins
agree John Holland
6 mins
agree TatsianaThomson
21 mins
agree Tony M : Except I would tend to say 'salt-butter'
51 mins
neutral mchd : cela ne correspond pas au texte source
1 hr
agree Michele Fauble
1 hr
agree Martyn Greenan
2 hrs
agree Victoria Britten
4 hrs
agree Melissa McMahon
7 hrs
agree Julie Barber
22 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you"
8 mins

salted butter caramel cream

It needs to be translated literally here.
Peer comment(s):
neutral mchd : cela ne correspond pas au texte source
1 hr
neutral B D Finch : "Caramel cream" isn't necessarily crème caramel.
17 hrs
Something went wrong...
14 mins

salted caramel creme

caramel with salted butter, or just salted caramel creme, is a huge trend right now in the U.S. from hard candies to being it's own shakes and ice cream flavors. Google picks up a ton of hits as well.
Peer comment(s):
neutral mchd : cela ne correspond pas au texte source
59 mins
Something went wrong...
+8
17 mins

crème caramel with salted butter


Crème Caramel with Salted Butter
http://www.theworldwidegourmet.com/recipes/creme-caramel-sal...

Menu - Les Auberges de Jeunesse
www.lesaubergesdejeunesse.be/.../LAJ_Menus_tarifs_2014_EN_G...
Crème caramel with salted butter. OR. Spinach soup. Roasted chicken breast curry & pineapple sauce, rice pilaf. Normandy (apple) tart with chantilly cream. OR.
Peer comment(s):
agree writeaway : more English sounding
30 mins
Thank you wrtieaway :-)
agree roneill
43 mins
Thank you roneill :-)
agree Tony M : my only slight qualm abut this word order is that it tends to treat the 'salted butter' as if it were some kind of accompainiment (as is usual with this w/o), rather than a component of the caramel.
46 mins
Thank you Tony :-)
neutral mchd : crème dessert AVEC coulis de caramel, ce n'est pas la même chose !
51 mins
Hello mchd, how might you put it?
neutral philgoddard : I don't see how this is different to Yarri K's answer, apart from being longer.
1 hr
It's just the way I would phrase it, and when I started writing my answer there were no other answers visible.was wr
agree Michele Fauble
1 hr
Thank you Michele :-)
agree liz askew
1 hr
Thank you Liz :-)
agree Martyn Greenan
2 hrs
Thank you Martin :-)
neutral Melissa McMahon : This doesn't sound appetising to me - like you're pouring butter over custard...
7 hrs
agree B D Finch
17 hrs
Thank you BD :-)
agree Julie Barber
22 hrs
Something went wrong...

Reference comments

43 mins
Reference:

Salted butter caramel

Thoughts on "slated butter caramel" from the popular food blogger and cookbook writer David Lebovitz, an American who lives in Paris:
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2007/04/salted-butter-c/
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/01/salted-butter-caramels/


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 17 hrs (2014-10-02 09:44:15 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I posted these links as an example of how the term "salted butter caramel" is used.

It is true that one of the links concerns candies or sweets made with salted butter caramel. David Lebovitz also has a recipe for "salted butter caramel sauce" in a cookbook. Here is a link to a blogger writing about that recipe:
http://www.theurbanbaker.com/salted-butter-caramel/
Peer comments on this reference comment:
neutral writeaway : that's a candy/sweet
6 mins
Thanks. There are two recipes at those links. One is for an ice cream flavor (glace Caramel-Buerre-Salé) which seems relevant, and the other is for a candy that is not toffee (toffee was mentioned in the discussion area).
neutral B D Finch : Crème caramel is a dessert, not a sweet. Caramel is put into the ramekin, the egg custard is poured on top and when the crème caramel is baked it liquifies and stays liquid after cooling, while some is absorbed into the surface of the custard.
16 hrs
Thanks, B D Finch. These are just some general examples of how "salted butter caramel" (as opposed to, for example, "toffee") is used.
Something went wrong...
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