Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Butter Scotch
Ingredients
Directions
Make the candy
Boil sugar and water in a kettle.
Add butter and vinegar, then boil for 20 to 30 minutes.
Add flavoring, preferably vanilla.
Set and mark
Pour into buttered tins, ensuring the candy is no more than ¼ inch thick.
When partly cold, mark into butter scotch strips.
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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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,513 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Forms the bulk of the candy and, once boiled, sets into a firm, brittle sweet base.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the candy a softer, smoother bite.
- Vinegar
- Acidity helps prevent sugar from crystallizing, keeping the candy smooth rather than grainy.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be boiled evenly before it thickens.
The step that matters
Boil for 20 to 30 minutes after adding butter and vinegar. Cooking the sugar syrup to the right concentration determines whether the candy sets firm rather than sticky or soft. Boiling too briefly leaves it tacky; boiling too long can make it hard or burnt-tasting.
“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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