Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Butter Scotch
Ingredients
Directions
Make the toffee
In a saucepan, combine the sugar and milk, then stir occasionally over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
Add the cream of tartar and the butter, a small piece at a time.
Boil the mixture until a drop forms a moderately hard ball in cold water.
Set and finish
Pour the mixture onto a greased baking sheet.
Once firm, mark into small oblongs or squares.
When cool, cut the sections and wrap each piece in wax paper, then in tinfoil.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Dissolves and sets into the firm, brittle body of the candy.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a rich texture and a softer bite.
- Milk
- Dissolves the sugar and adds creaminess and a milky flavour.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidity that helps prevent the sugar from crystallising into grainy candy.
The step that matters
Boiling to a moderately hard ball. Sugar candy sets according to its final temperature, which reflects how much water has boiled off. Stopping too early leaves the candy soft and sticky, while going too far makes it hard and brittle. Testing a drop in cold water shows when the concentration is right.
“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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