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Dessert

Butter Scotch

A caramel candy made from sugar, glucose, water, butter, and salt, cooled and cut into squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Butter Scotch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. In a copper kettle, combine sugar, glucose, and water.

  2. Set on fire and cook until the mixture reaches 300°F (150°C).

  3. Add butter and salt, stirring well.

Shape and finish

  1. Pour onto a greased marble surface between iron bars to form a 30-inch square.

  2. Spread evenly and mark into 2-inch squares with a caramel marker.

  3. Once cold, break apart and stack in pans on edge.

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. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 main structure of the candy and provides its sweetness as it cooks.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallization, keeping the candy smooth and glassy rather than grainy.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer flavor and a softer, less brittle bite.

The step that matters

Cooking to 300°F (150°C). Sugar syrup hardens as its temperature rises, so the final temperature sets the texture. Stopping early leaves a sticky candy, while overcooking makes it bitter and brittle. Watch the thermometer closely.

“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.

More butter scotch recipes

Pie 26Candy 12brittle 4Filling 3Squares 3 See all 152 →

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