Dulce de Leche

Now that I have unused 4 oz jars, I think I should fill them up with something sweet. These would make nice gifts for those sugarholics in your life.

Dulce de leche is a caramel sauce with South American origins and likely the result of needing to preserve dairy in those pre-refrigeration days. This recipe uses the lazy method: a crockpot and sweetened condensed milk.

Food52 via Serious Eats would have you combine these ingredients, if making it from scratch:

1 quart whole milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 vanilla bean, split
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

And, you'd have to slave over a hot stove for 1.5 - 2 hours, stirring constantly so the mixture doesn't burn or scald. And, once you're done this mixture keeps well for four weeks in the refrigerator.

Fortunately, there's always-on electricity and products like already canned sweetened condensed milk. Here's the other not-really-from-scratch process, which comes from the Crazy for Crust blog:

Ingredients

two 14-oz cans sweetened condensed milk
clean glass jars with rings and lids
water

Directions

1. Evenly distribute sweetened condensed milk across the jars being used. It should fill seven 4 oz jars or three 8 oz jars. Attach lids and rings to jars.

2. Place jars (not touching each other) into the slow cooker and fill with enough water to cover the jars by 1-2 inches.

3. Set slow cooker for 10 hours on LOW.

The only problem with this method that the dulce de leche is not shelf stable because of its low acidity. This will also spoil if not used within 4 weeks and must be refrigerated, even though the jars are sealed.

Either method is a LOT better than buying the irradiated stuff from the grocery store, IMHO.