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Dessert

York Butter Scotch

A candy made from sugar, glucose, cream, butter, and bitter chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

York Butter Scotch

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 240°F (115°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the candy

  1. In a large pot, combine sugar, glucose, and cream.

  2. Cook the mixture over medium heat until it reaches 240°F (115°C).

  3. Add butter and bitter chocolate, stirring well.

  4. Continue cooking until the mixture reaches 250°F (121°C) or hard ball stage.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture onto a slab and spread it thinly.

  2. Cut into 1½ inch squares and wrap each piece.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + chocolatetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and forms the crystalline-free hard candy base as it cooks.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallization, keeping the candy smooth and less grainy.
Cream
Adds fat and milk solids for a rich, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, smooth bite.
Bitter chocolate
Contributes deep flavor and color, with cocoa solids adding bitterness to balance sweetness.

The step that matters

Cooking to the final temperature. Sugar candy sets according to how much water has boiled off, which the temperature reveals. Stopping early leaves it soft and sticky; cooking too far makes it brittle or scorched. Watch the thermometer closely near the end.

“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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