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Dessert

Magnet Butter Scotch

A candy made from brown sugar, water, salt, magnet butter, cream, and cream of tartar, flavored with 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 butterscotch

  1. Combine brown sugar, water, salt, butter, cream, and cream of tartar in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the mixture over low heat, stirring continuously with a spoon.

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

Set and flavor

  1. Once ready, pour the mixture onto a greased platter or marble slab.

  2. Flavor with vanilla to taste.

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 the sweetness and the caramel flavor that defines the candy.
Magnet butter
Adds fat for a rich flavor and a smoother, less brittle texture.
Magnet separator cream
Adds fat and dairy richness, softening the texture of the candy.
Cream of tartar
Acidity helps prevent sugar crystallizing, keeping the candy smooth.

The step that matters

Testing the hard crack stage. Sugar syrup must reach the hard crack stage to set firm and brittle when cooled. Undercooked mixture stays soft and sticky, while overcooking makes it bitter and hard to eat. A small sample dropped into cold water shows the stage clearly.

“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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