Name: Butter Scotch
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; ½ cup cold water; ⅓ cup vinegar; butter the size of a butternut

Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Butter Scotch

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
½ cup cold water
⅓ cup vinegar
butter the size of a butternut

Directions

Combine sugar, cold water, and vinegar in a saucepan.
Add butter and pour the mixture into a buttered pan.
Allow to cool and set before serving.

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.

Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + butternuttop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together59 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Butter + butternuttop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together51 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,513 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).