Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Butter Scotch
Ingredients
Directions
Make the candy
Combine sugar and water in a saucepan.
Bring to a boil.
Add cream of tartar and continue boiling until it reaches a hard crack stage (330°F or 165°C).
Stir in the butter until melted, then let the mixture boil.
Set and score
Pour the candy into a greased pan.
Before it hardens, score the surface into squares with a knife.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Forms the candy base and provides sweetness as it cooks to a hard crack.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidity that helps prevent sugar from crystallising, keeping the candy smooth.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, softening the flavour and texture of the candy.
The step that matters
Boiling to the hard crack stage. Sugar must reach about 330°F (165°C) to set hard once cooled. Stopping early leaves a soft, sticky candy, while overcooking can taste burnt.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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