Zeke's Butterscotch

Zeke’s Butterscotch 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.

What do we mean by real

Butterscotch?

The History Of Butterscotch

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 Butterscotch