I don’t really do any canning, so I haven’t.

Yes this does help. I worded my post wrong. I just wanted to know why some recipes use water and some don’t and you did answer my question. I love the dry method without water. I think the Carmel is thicker. Thank you for your reply.

I don’t know of any caramel sauce that uses water in place of butter. Butter adds flavor and a thicker consistency to the caramel sauce. I do have another caramel sauce that uses some water, but it’s not really in place of the butter. There’s the wet method of making caramel and the dry method. This one uses the dry method, and my other caramel sauce uses the wet method. The dry method is a little more traditional, but the wet method is easier. They produce caramel that is very similar in consistency and flavor. I hope that helps!