Cajeta de Celaya, Registro Hacienda

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide copper cazo, 6 to 8 quarts, clean and bright inside
• •Long wooden cuchara or flat-edged wooden paddle
• •Candy thermometer, optional
• •Clean half-pint glass jars with lids
• •Wide-mouth funnel and ladle

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the cazo

   Use a wide copper cazo if you have it. The inside must be clean and bright. If you see green spots, stop and clean it properly before any milk touches it. The outside can be dark from years of work. That is different. Set clean glass jars on a towel near the stove and keep a long wooden cuchara ready. Hot cajeta burns badly, so clear the stove before you begin.

2. 2

   Warm the goat milk

   Pour the leche de cabra into the cazo and set it over medium-low heat. Add the canela. Warm the milk slowly for 15 minutes, stirring across the bottom so nothing catches. Goat milk has its own clean tang and a round sweetness. That is Celaya. If you use cow milk, you are making another sweet, not this one.

   In Celaya, older cooks talk about leche bronca, raw morning milk. In a home kitchen, use fresh pasteurized leche de cabra from a reliable dairy. Raw milk is not where you prove courage.
3. 3

   Dissolve the sugars

   Add the azúcar de caña and the chopped piloncillo. Stir until the grains dissolve and the piloncillo disappears into the milk. Do not let sugar sit on the bottom of the cazo. It will scorch there first and then the whole pot will carry that bitter taste. Piloncillo gives the hacienda register its mineral depth. Brown sugar does not do the same work.

4. 4

   Add the bicarbonato

   Dissolve the bicarbonato de sodio in the 2 tablespoons of water. Lower the heat and stir it into the milk. The mixture will foam upward, so do not use a small pot. The bicarbonato helps keep the milk from cutting and helps the color move from pale cream to amber. Measure it. Too much and the cajeta tastes soapy. No me vengas con atajos.

5. 5

   Reduce the milk

   Cook uncovered over medium-low heat, stirring every few minutes for the first 90 minutes. Scrape the bottom and the sides with the wooden cuchara. The milk will move from white to ivory, then to café con leche. The sound changes too, from a loose simmer to a thicker bubbling. This is the work the women in hacienda kitchens perfected: wide copper, patient fire, and a spoon that does not forget the bottom.

6. 6

   Stir to the point

   When the cajeta darkens and the bubbles grow heavier, remove the canela. Now stay with the pot. Stir constantly in slow figure eights, scraping the corners where sugar hides. The cajeta will thicken fast in the final 45 to 60 minutes. If you walk away now, it will scorch. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo.

7. 7

   Test the cajeta

   Drag the spoon across the bottom of the cazo. The path should stay open for two seconds before the cajeta flows back. Drop a little onto a cold plate: it should mound softly and move slowly when you tilt the plate. If you use a thermometer, look for about 104 to 106C at sea level, but Celaya sits high in the Bajío, so the spoon test matters more. The color should be deep amber like polished copper, not black. This is Registro Hacienda, not Cajeta Quemada de Santa Rosa.

   If the cajeta looks grainy, the heat was too high or sugar dried on the sides and fell back in. Keep the heat disciplined and scrape cleanly. Recetas probadas y garantizadas, but only if you do the work.
8. 8

   Fill the jars

   Ladle the hot cajeta into clean warm jars, leaving about 1/2 inch of space. Wipe the rims and let the jars cool for 30 minutes before closing. The cajeta will thicken as it cools. Do not water-bath can dairy cajeta at home. Keep it refrigerated. Así se hace y punto.

9. 9

   Serve and keep

   Serve the cajeta with obleas, bolillo, queso fresco, ate de guayaba, or spooned over natilla in clay tazones. It also belongs on a feria table beside charamuscas and jamoncillo, not on a fine plate with dots of sauce. Refrigerated, it keeps about one month. Warm the closed jar in hot water if you want it pourable again.

Chef Tips

• •Leche de cabra is not a suggestion. Cow milk can make a good dulce de leche, but it does not make Cajeta de Celaya. If the goat aroma bothers you, buy cleaner goat milk from a better dairy. Do not change the animal.
• •The copper cazo is not decoration. It spreads heat wide and evenly, so the milk reduces before the sugar scorches. If you must use stainless steel, use the widest, heaviest pot you own and accept the compromise.
• •Respect the Celaya denomination in the jar: goat milk first, slow reduction, no canned condensed milk, no corn syrup shortcut. Ask the women at the mercado what brand they trust. They will tell you faster than any label.
• •Do not make it black to prove you worked hard. Registro Hacienda is deep amber and rounded. Cajeta Quemada de Santa Rosa is another discipline. Confuse them and a señora from Celaya will correct you, as she should.
• •Use a wooden cuchara with a flat edge if you have one. A round spoon misses the bottom curve of the cazo, and that is where scorching begins.

Advance Preparation

• •Cajeta can be made up to one month ahead and kept refrigerated in clean jars. Use a clean spoon every time. Milk sweets do not forgive dirty habits.
• •For a pourable texture, set the closed jar in a bowl of hot water for 10 minutes, then stir. Do not microwave the jar with a metal lid.
• •Do not water-bath can cajeta for shelf storage in a home kitchen. It is a dairy preserve, and the safe answer is refrigeration.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 40g)