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Dessert

Butter Scotch

A sweet candy made from molasses, butter, sugar, vanilla, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Butter Scotch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. In a saucepan, combine molasses, butter, and sugar.

  2. Boil the mixture until it threads from the spoon.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and baking soda.

Set and cut

  1. Pour into buttered tins.

  2. Once cool, cut into squares.

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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Molasses + vanillatop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together732 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds deep sweetness and a dark, rich flavour that defines the candy.
Sugar
Sweetens the candy and hardens as the boiled syrup cools, giving it a firm set.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother bite and a rich, buttery flavour.
Baking soda
Reacts with the hot syrup to release gas, lightening the texture and making the candy less dense.

The step that matters

Boil until it threads from the spoon. The sugar concentration set by boiling determines how firm the candy becomes when cool. Stopping too early leaves it soft and sticky, while going too far makes it hard and brittle.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, sugar):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Applefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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

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