Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Butter-scotch
Ingredients
Directions
Make the candy
In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, butter, water, and baking soda.
Cook over medium heat until it begins to harden when dripping from a spoon.
Set and serve
Pour the mixture into buttered pie pans.
As it cools, mark it into squares with a knife dipped in water to prevent sticking.
To serve, turn the pan upside down, knock on it, and the candy will release easily.
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.
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 main body of the candy as it cooks down.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, giving the candy a smoother texture and flavour.
- Baking soda
- Helps the sugar mixture lighten in colour and texture as it cooks.
The step that matters
Cooking over medium heat until it begins to harden. Sugar syrup hardens as its water boils off and its temperature rises. Stopping too early leaves a soft, sticky candy, while cooking too long makes it brittle or burnt.
“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
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.