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Dessert

Butter Scotch

A sweet candy made from brown sugar, butter, vanilla, water, corn syrup, and cream, boiled into a firm ball and cut into squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Butter Scotch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. In a large pot, combine brown sugar, butter, vanilla, boiling water, and corn syrup.

  2. Boil the mixture until it forms a ball slightly harder than fondant.

  3. Stir in the cream and boil slowly for about 5 minutes.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a pan with removable sides.

  2. When nearly cool, cut into squares using a large knife.

  3. For a treat, dip the squares in chocolate.

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla 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

Brown sugar
Provides the main sweetness and the caramel flavor of the candy.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture and buttery flavor.
Corn syrup
Helps prevent sugar crystals from forming, keeping the candy smooth.
Sweet cream or evaporated milk
Adds dairy richness and softens the chew of the finished candy.

The step that matters

Boiling to the firm-ball stage. The mixture must reach the right sugar concentration to set firm. Stopping too early leaves it soft and sticky, while cooking too long makes it hard and brittle. Cutting while nearly cool keeps the squares clean.

“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.

More butter scotch recipes

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

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