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Sauce

Butter Scotch

A simple sauce made from molasses, sugar, water, butter, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar 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 ↓

Butter Scotch

Ingredients

Directions

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

  2. Heat the mixture over medium heat until it begins to boil.

  3. Add a pinch of baking soda before removing from heat.

  4. Stir well and let cool before using.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds deep, rich sweetness and the characteristic dark, caramel-like flavor of the sauce.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and helps the sauce thicken as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat for smooth richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses, causing foaming and lightening the sauce's texture.

The step that matters

Add a pinch of baking soda before removing from heat. Baking soda reacts vigorously with acids in molasses and can foam up and boil over if added to a very hot mixture or in large amounts. Adding it at the end, in a small pinch, keeps the reaction controlled.

“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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