Why it works: Butter and sugar 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 scotch
Combine butter, sugar, and water in a saucepan.
Boil until the mixture thickens.
Set and serve
Pour the thickened mixture onto a buttered dish.
Allow to cool and cut into squares.
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.
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + teatop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together703 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Sugar + teatop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,204 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds fat and rich flavour, and helps the candy turn smooth and tender rather than brittle.
- Sugar
- Dissolves and cooks into the sweet, firm body of the candy as the mixture thickens.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can cook evenly without crystallising too early.
The step that matters
Boil until the mixture thickens. Sugar syrup sets according to how far its water has boiled off. Stopping too early leaves it soft and sticky, while cooking too long makes it hard and brittle. Watch closely as it thickens.
“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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