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Dessert

Butterscotch

A sweet caramel-like confection made from sugar, molasses, vinegar, alum, baking powder, butter, and lemon extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Butterscotch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the butterscotch

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

  2. Add pulverized alum and baking powder, stirring well.

  3. Incorporate the unsalted butter until melted.

  4. Flavor with lemon extract and mix thoroughly.

  5. Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens.

Set and cut

  1. Pour into a greased dish and let cool before cutting into pieces.

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 + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. 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

Granulated sugar
Provides the main sweetness and forms the body of the candy as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds deep flavor and color and keeps the candy soft and chewy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps prevent the sugar from crystallizing too readily.
Unsalted butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the candy a smoother texture.
Baking powder
Introduces gas bubbles that lighten the texture of the cooked mixture.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens. Sugar syrups can scorch or crystallize if overheated or stirred unevenly, and the candy sets as it cools, so the cook must watch the thickening closely.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, vinegar, egg, butter. 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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