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Dessert

Magnet Butter Scotch

A hard candy made from brown sugar, water, salt, butter, cream, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Magnet Butter Scotch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Combine brown sugar, water, salt, Magnet butter, Magnet Separator cream, and cream of tartar in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture while stirring continuously over low heat.

Test and pour

  1. Test the mixture by dropping a small amount into cold water; it should form a hard crack.

  2. Once ready, pour the mixture onto a well-greased platter or marble slab.

  3. Flavor with vanilla before it cools.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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 sweetness and the caramel flavor that defines butterscotch.
Magnet butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender bite in the finished candy.
Magnet separator cream
Adds dairy fat and milk solids for a creamier, softer texture.
Cream of tartar
Acidity that helps prevent sugar crystals from forming, keeping the candy smooth.

The step that matters

Cooking to a hard crack stage. Sugar syrup must reach the hard crack stage in cold water to set firm and brittle when cooled. Undercooking leaves it sticky; overcooking makes it bitter and hard to handle. Stirring over low heat helps prevent scorching while the sugar concentration rises.

“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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