Apple sauce for goose and pork
Apple sauce for goose and pork is a plain English accompaniment: cooked apples pulped with water, then sweetened with sugar and finished with a little butter.
Butterscotch sauce
Butterscotch topping · Butterscotch syrup
A pourable dessert sauce of brown sugar, butter and cream, with a little corn syrup and salt. It is the sauce form of the butterscotch confection and is made without water, unlike caramel.
Butterscotch, the confection and the sauce
Butterscotch is first a confection: a hard sweet made mainly from brown sugar and butter, boiled to the soft crack stage rather than the hard crack stage used for toffee. Wikipedia describes the sauce as a single step further, in which brown sugar is cooked to about 240 F (116 C), then mixed with butter and cream.
The word butterscotch also names the flavour itself, as in butterscotch pudding, and the sauce is one of its uses. This record covers the sauce only.
Sources for this section
Why it is not a caramel
Caramel starts from white sugar and water. The butterscotch sauce starts from brown sugar and butter, with no water, and then takes cream. The brown sugar gives the sauce its character. The two sauces are kept as separate records in the database for this reason.
The earliest known butterscotch recipes, from mid-19th century Yorkshire, used treacle or molasses instead of or alongside sugar, according to Wikipedia. Brown sugar is the nearer modern equivalent.
Sources for this section
How the method works
The butter is melted first so that the sugar dissolves into a fat base. The cream then goes in once the sugar has melted, and the sauce is brought to a foamy boil before it is taken off the heat. The source warns that the butter should not brown, and that the cream should be warm, so that the sauce does not split.
The source says that the sauce is ready when it coats the back of a spoon, and that it thickens further as it cools and is refrigerated.
Sources for this section
Origin and uncertainty
The origin of butterscotch is not settled. Wikipedia says food historians have several theories about the name and origin, and that none is conclusive. Samuel Parkinson of Doncaster is often credited with the sweet. An 1848 Liverpool Mercury item is cited for a Doncaster butterscotch recipe, and by 1851 several Doncaster firms were selling it. The claim that Queen Victoria was given a tin in 1851 rests on a local newspaper video, and the claim that Parkinson's original recipe is still made is disputed.
No source read dates the sauce. The garlicandzest page gives no history beyond popular attributions of the name, which it does not confirm.
Sources for this section
Storage and handling
The source keeps the sauce in a glass jar with a tight lid for about two weeks, or more, in the refrigerator, and freezes it for 2 to 3 months in an airtight container. It advises defrosting overnight in the refrigerator and reheating over medium heat, stirring to recombine any separated parts, or in the microwave in short bursts.
A sauce of sugar, butter and cream is a perishable dairy product. No room temperature storage is recorded in the sources, and none is proposed here.
Sources for this section
History
The butterscotch confection has disputed origins in 19th century Yorkshire, and the sauce is a later use of the same brown sugar and butter base. The sources read do not date the sauce itself.
Ingredients
Yield 8 serving · Scaling: source batch only
Light brown sugarThe source allows dark brown sugar instead.
237 mL1 cup as recorded
Unsalted butterMelt in a heavy saucepan over medium heat without browning.
59 mL¼ cup as recorded
Flaky sea saltAdd with the sugar.
4.9 mL1 tsp as recorded
Corn syrup (optional)Add with the sugar.
15 mL1 tbsp as recorded
OptionalHeavy creamWarm before adding; pour in when the sugar has melted.
177 mL¾ cup as recorded
Vanilla extractStir in after removal from the heat.
4.9 mL1 tsp as recorded
Method
Risks and precautions · Standard risk
Hot sugar and cream
The mixture bubbles vigorously when the cream goes in, and the source warns of splitting.
Hazard sourceWarm the cream before adding it, pour it in steadily, and whisk warm cream in a spoonful at a time if the sauce splits
Control sourceThe source gives about two weeks in the refrigerator in a sealed glass jar, or more, and 2 to 3 months frozen. No room temperature storage is recorded.
- Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan over medium heat without letting it brown.
- Add the brown sugar, the corn syrup if used, and the sea salt, and whisk. The sugar will look gritty at first.
- Keep stirring until the sugar melts and the mixture starts to smooth.
- Pour in the cream. The mixture bubbles vigorously. Stir until it forms a cohesive sauce.
- Scrape the bottom and sides so nothing sticks, and continue until the large bubbles settle into a foamy boil. Remove from the heat.
- Stir in the vanilla until blended.
- Transfer to a glass jar with a tight lid, cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. The sauce thickens as it chills.
Conditions
Yield8 serving
Active time10 min
Places
Doncaster and Yorkshire
Documented preparation · Region evidenceWikipedia links early butterscotch mentions to Doncaster but treats the origin claims cautiously. This places the confection, not the sauce.
United States
Documented use · Country evidenceWikipedia says the British sweet became popular in the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It does not give a dated history of the sauce.
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Sources
Garlic and ZestMethod · Storage · Safety
Butterscotch Sauce RecipeIngredients: 1 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup unsalted butter, 1 tsp flaky sea salt, 1 tbsp corn syrup (optional), 3/4 cup heavy cream, 1 tsp vanilla.
Melt butter over medium heat without browning; add sugar, corn syrup, salt and whisk until melted; pour in cream; stir to a foamy boil; remove from heat; stir in vanilla; cool and refrigerate, sauce thickens as it chills.
Refrigerate in a glass jar with a tight lid for two weeks (or more); freeze 2 to 3 months; defrost overnight and reheat over medium heat or in the microwave in 20 second bursts.
The page does not give a definitive history of butterscotch.
Cited in: Butterscotch, the confection and the sauce; How the method works; Origin and uncertainty; Storage and handling
WikipediaHistory · Method
ButterscotchButterscotch is a confection made mainly of brown sugar and butter, boiled to soft crack stage.
Butterscotch sauce is brown sugar cooked to 240 F (116 C), then mixed with butter and cream.
Earliest known recipes are from mid-19th century Yorkshire and used treacle; origin claims are disputed.
An 1848 Liverpool Mercury item gives a Doncaster butterscotch recipe; by 1851 several firms sold it.
The British sweet became popular in the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Kate Hopkins, Sweet Tooth, 2012, p. 170).
Cited in: Butterscotch, the confection and the sauce; Why it is not a caramel; Origin and uncertainty