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"The History Of
Butterscotch"
(according
to us...!)
Butterscotch and toffee are very similar
and often confused as they both began to
appear in England in the early
1800s. It is sometimes called
treacle but this is a misnomer as
treacle is an uncrystalized syrup
produced during refining.
The word butterscotch was first recorded
in the Yorkshire town of Doncaster in
England where Samuel Parkinson began
making it in 1817. It is often
assumed that it originated in Scotland
because of the “scotch” portion of the
name and that may be the case but most
candy historians will tell you that
“scotch” means to “score the candy into
squares with a knife before it hardens”.
Many recipes for butterscotch call for
lemon juice to be added at the end of
cooking but that just doesn’t make much
sense to me. It could be that
lemon juice (acidity) was used as a
preservative to keep the butter from
going rancid and now some recipes
(including ours) include vinegar, which
does the same thing. It also makes
the candy soften when it’s warmed and
that could be why no major candy
manufacturer makes REAL Butterscotch
anymore. It just doesn’t lend
intself to mass production.
Today we are the only candymaker that
produces and sells REAL Butterscotch
Candy throughout the United
States. This is likely due to the
fact that the candy is quite finicky and
when it sits on store shelves it tends
to slump together. Although we
used to sell Zeke’s Butterscotch in over
900 gourmet food stores across the
country, we now only sell it on our
website to nice folks like you. We
rely on “word of mouth”, literally, to
introduce this great candy to friends
and family of our many devotees.
Zeke's...
"The Gold Standard in
Butterscotch".
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Ingredients
Zeke’s Butterscotch gets its
unique flavor from the ingredients
themselves and not some artificial
flavoring that comes from a
laboratory. The reason for that
is that Zeke got his recipe from his
mother, Old Wuss as she was called,
who found it in a cookbook that was
published in Chicago around 1860, way
before imitation flavors were
invented. So REAL butterscotch
is made with real ingredients and it
is truly a treat. The main
ingredient, Hawaiian pure cane sugar
is essential. The cheaper beet sugars and
corn sweeteners each produce an
off-taste and lack the rich, robust
flavor we strive for in Zeke's. And
what would REAL Butterscotch be
without butter; we use only Grade AA Creamery
Butter and lots of it. The
other primary ingredient is fancy unsulphered
molasses and that’s what gives
Zeke’s Butterscotch its deep, rich
flavor. The apple cider vinegar
in the candy creates a chemical
reaction that softens the butterscotch
when it is warmed - as in your mouth,
and that’s when you’ll start
drooling. Oh my, it is so so
good that you’ll just want to chew it
to get more of that juicy, buttery
flavor. Two more minor but very
important ingredients are water (pure
and natural) and salt. So there
you have it. If I tell you any
more, you’ll know how to make it
yourself!
An important part of
enjoying Zeke’s Butterscotch is to
know how to suck on it. Novices
will bite it, then chew it into little
pieces before it softens and never get
the true flavor. Those with
patience will follow our advice and
suck on a piece until it’s gone.
True aficionados have learned to let
it warm up then rock it carefully
between their teeth to squeeze out
more of that fabulous flavor. We
don’t recommend that method, it’s just
what we’ve learned to do after pulling
lots of fillings.
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