Butterscotch

Butterscotch sounds as though it should come from Scotland, but the earliest records link it with Doncaster, in Yorkshire, where it was made and sold in tins in the 19th century and presented to royalty.

What butterscotch is

Butterscotch is made mainly from brown sugar and butter. Some recipes add cream, vanilla or salt, and the earliest known recipes, from Yorkshire in the mid 19th century, used treacle instead of, or as well as, sugar. It is similar to toffee, but it is boiled only to the soft crack stage rather than to hard crack, which gives it its own texture and flavour: see toffee.

Why is it called butterscotch?

Food historians have several theories, but none has been proven. One is that scotch meant to cut or score, because butterscotch has to be cut into pieces, or scotched, before it hardens. Another is that scotch is a form of scorch. In 1855 F. K. Robinson's Glossary of Yorkshire Words described butterscotch as a treacle ball with butter mixed into it.

Doncaster butterscotch

The earliest mentions of butterscotch link it with Doncaster. In 1848 the Liverpool Mercury printed a recipe for Doncaster butterscotch: a pound of butter, a pound of sugar and a quarter of a pound of treacle, boiled together.

By 1851, rival Doncaster confectioners were selling it commercially: S. Parkinson and Sons, Henry Hall, and Booth's, with agents elsewhere in Yorkshire. Parkinson's, often credited with inventing it, made butterscotch boiled sweets and sold them in tins, which became one of Doncaster's best known exports. It used Doncaster's church as its trademark and advertised the sweet as Royal Doncaster Butterscotch and the Queen's Sweetmeat, and even as the best soothing remedy for the chest in winter.

The royal tin

Parkinson's butterscotch became famous in 1851, when Queen Victoria was presented with a tin during her visit to the town. It went on to hold a royal appointment, and was presented to Princess Elizabeth, then Duchess of Edinburgh, in 1948, and to Anne, the Princess Royal, in 2007. The original Parkinson recipe is still made today.

Butterscotch around the world

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the British sweet became popular in the United States. Today the word is often used simply for the flavour of brown sugar and butter together, in butterscotch sauce, butterscotch pudding, ice cream and biscuits, even when no real butterscotch is involved. The little translucent yellow butterscotch discs sold in many shops usually get their taste from butterscotch flavouring.

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