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
Directions
Combine brown sugar, water, butter, and vinegar in a saucepan.
Boil the mixture for about 20 minutes until it hardens in cold water.
Pour the mixture into buttered tins and mark 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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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,513 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Brown sugar
- Provides the sweetness and the caramel flavour that defines butterscotch.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender bite in the finished candy.
- Vinegar
- Adds a little acidity that helps keep the sugar from crystallising too readily.
The step that matters
Boil until it hardens in cold water. Sugar candy sets according to how far its water has evaporated and how concentrated the sugar becomes. Boiling too briefly leaves it soft and sticky, while boiling too long makes it brittle or scorched. Testing a small spoonful in cold water shows when it has reached the hard-set stage.
“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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