Butterscotch

Butterscotch
Butterscotch sweets
TypeConfectionery
Place of originEngland
Region or stateDoncaster, Yorkshire
Main ingredientsBrown sugar, butter

Butterscotch is a type of confectionery whose primary ingredients are brown sugar and butter. Some recipes include corn syrup, cream, vanilla, and salt. The earliest known recipes, in mid-19th century Yorkshire, used treacle (molasses) in place of, or in addition to, sugar.

Butterscotch is similar to toffee, but the sugar is boiled to the soft crack stage, not hard crack.[1] Often credited with their invention, S. Parkinson & Sons of Doncaster made butterscotch boiled sweets and sold them in tins, which became one of the town's best-known exports.[2] They became famous in 1851 after Queen Victoria was presented with a tin when she visited the town.[3] Butterscotch sauce, made of butterscotch and cream, is used as a topping for ice cream (particularly sundaes).

The term "butterscotch" is also often used more specifically for the flavour of brown sugar and butter together, even if the actual confection butterscotch is not involved, such as in butterscotch pudding (a type of custard).

  1. ^ "The Cold Water Candy Test". Exploratorium. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  2. ^ Chrystal, Paul (2013). Confectionery in Yorkshire Through Time. Amberley Publishing Limited.
  3. ^ "Doncaster's Proud History". Doncaster Free Press. 7 October 2017. Archived from the original on 8 October 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2017.