What does caramelised mean?
Caramelised means cooked, browned, or coated with caramel. When applied to ingredients such as onions, apples, garlic, or meat, it usually indicates that natural sugars have been heated until they have developed a deep brown colour and a concentrated sweetness, rather than that the food has merely been sweetened. Caramelised onions are therefore soft, darkly golden, and distinctly savoury, while caramelised fruit may have a glossy coating. As a verb, caramelised describes the process of turning sugar into caramel or applying caramel to food. The term is most natural in British English, although the spelling caramelized is preferred in American English. The word is useful because it identifies a specific cooking transformation and the flavour and colour that result: sweetness balanced by deeper roasted notes rather than simple sugariness.
Made with caramel, coated in caramel, or cooked until sugars have browned to produce a caramel-like colour and flavour.
"We added caramelised walnuts to the salad."
Common in food and culinary writing. The British spelling is especially frequent in British English and Commonwealth varieties.
Cook food until its sugars brown through caramelisation, or coat it with caramel.
"He caramelised the apples in a heavy pan before adding them to the pastry."
Usually used in the active voice in the past tense or as a past participle.
Caramelised is the British spelling of caramelized, but the transformation it describes is more than browning: heat turns sugar into a complex mixture of hundreds of aromatic compounds.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does caramelised come from?
The base word caramel was borrowed into English from French, whose term in turn comes from Spanish caramelo. English formed caramelised by adding the productive suffix -ise to this root, with the -s spelling following British convention. The related American spelling caramelized reflects the use of -ize, while forms such as caramelization and caramelize belong to the same modern English word family.
Related word forms
How caramelised is actually used
The spelling with -s is standard British English and is also understood in American English, where caramelized, with -z, is more common. The word is especially common in culinary contexts and can be used literally or figuratively for a rich, warm brown colour.
Easily confused with caramelised
Caramelised food has been browned in sugar or coated with caramel, whereas candied food has been preserved or cooked in concentrated sugar syrup.