Butterscotch

From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids

Butterscotch is a type of confectionery made by boiling sugar syrup, butter, cream, and vanilla. In many ways the ingredients for butterscotch are similar to toffee; the major difference is that the sugar is boiled to the soft crack stage for butterscotch and the hard crack stage for toffee.

Butterscotch can be bought in the form of individually wrapped, translucent hard candies. It is often used as a flavouring for items such as dessert sauce, pudding, and biscuits. To that end, it can be bought in "butterscotch chips", similar to chocolate chips.

Food historians have several theories regarding the name of this candy and its connection to Scotland; none of them conclusive. Some have documented that "buttery toffee" is often called butterscotch—Scotch being an old adjective for Scotland—which suggests it was invented in the country. However, the word was first recorded in Doncaster, a Yorkshire town of England, where Samuel Parkinson began making the candy in 1817. Parkinson's Butterscotch had royal approval and was one of Doncaster's attractions until it ceased production in 1977. The "Butterbeer" drinks in the Harry Potter series are thought to taste like butterscotch but "less sickly" as J. K. Rowling put it across.

Possibly the "scotch" part of its name derives from "scorch".

[edit] Trivia

• Butterscotch pudding has been taken into space as part of space programs. [1]

• The name of the South Park character Butters Stotch is a play on the word butterscotch.

[edit] External links

• Recipe for butterscotch sauce
• History of butterscotch
• Samuel Parkinson's of Doncaster