caramelize
Americanverb (used with or without object)
-
caramelizes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
caramelized,
past participle, past
-
caramelizing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
caramelizesimple
-
caramelizessimple
-
have caramelizedperfect
-
has caramelizedperfect
-
am caramelizingprogressive
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are caramelizingprogressive
-
is caramelizingprogressive
-
have been caramelizingperfect progressive
-
has been caramelizingperfect progressive
Past
-
caramelizedsimple
-
had caramelizedperfect
-
was caramelizingprogressive
-
were caramelizingprogressive
-
had been caramelizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of caramelize
Explanation
To caramelize is to slowly cook a food until it turns sweet, nutty, and brown. You can also caramelize pure sugar, or cook it until it melts, becoming golden-brown, sweet, and thick. When a cook caramelizes chopped onion, she gently cooks it in butter or oil, usually for a long time at a low temperature, until the sugars in the onion begin to brown and become very sweet. She caramelizes sugar by cooking it until it melts and reaches a certain temperature. The verb caramelize comes from caramel, or "burnt sugar" in French.
Vocabulary lists containing caramelize
Blanch, Poach, and Scald: Cooking Methods
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Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet
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When Clouds Touch Us
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Some wrap their ham in foil to prevent drying out, but this can hinder the glaze’s ability to caramelize.
From Salon ● Apr. 18, 2025
If you can nail the cook on the skirt steak, caramelize the onions to perfection and do a flawless garlic aioli, you have a sandwich that you’ll crave for the rest of your life.
From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2024
Zucchini, on the other hand, with its high moisture content, needs plenty of roasting time for the juices to condense, then caramelize.
From Seattle Times ● May 26, 2024
They will soften, and then turn golden, and then — quite a lot later — caramelize.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 13, 2024
Laughing as they chop onions and caramelize them with garam masala and turmeric and ginger and garlic, trying to replicate my nanni’s kheema.
From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed
The sugar in glazes caramelizes in the oven, adding deep sweet-savory notes and intensifying browning.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 19, 2023
Grilling them caramelizes their sugars a bit, complements their sweetness with a little smoke and gives them pretty grill-lines.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 1, 2023
The fruit in a classic upside-down cake caramelizes in a butter and brown sugar mixture that gets poured into the cake pan before anything else is added.
From Salon ● Mar. 16, 2023
But using flour comes with another benefit: The flour left behind in the pan caramelizes, helping to both flavor and thicken the pan sauce.
From Washington Post ● May 12, 2022
A final coating of brown sugar and honey, speckled with mustard seeds, caramelizes onto the ham in the oven.
From New York Times ● Apr. 8, 2022
Because one caramelized vegetable is good and two are better, I added a white onion.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
Roast for about 30 minutes or until the edges are brown and caramelized.
From Salon ● Feb. 7, 2026
A caramelized garlic steak bowl sells for $17.95, and a garden cobb salad is $15.75.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 16, 2026
Lotus’s caramelized cookies are a ubiquitous traditional treat back home in Belgium, where they have long been known as speculoos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026
Jam ground some pink salt over them and nibbled at a caramelized edge, watching Redemption’s face in her periphery.
From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi
Roasting, grilling or caramelizing can bring out natural flavors in foods.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 4, 2024
The near-direct heat chars the peaks of the skewered meat, and the valleys catch little pools of caramelizing sauce.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 11, 2023
The steaks and onions would brown quickly and evenly, caramelizing into a sweet, deep mahogany brown.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 12, 2023
By lowering the pressure of each successive pan, he lowered the temperature needed to boil the juice, which prevented the sugar from caramelizing.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 26, 2022
Iron is not affected by the highest cooking temperature, hence it is desirable to use an iron utensil for caramelizing sugar.
From School and Home Cooking by Carlotta Cherryholmes Greer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
