By Chef David “Smitty” Smith ·
Do you believe in coincidences? Oops, I think I read one time that you’re not supposed to start an article with a question. Actually, I think a long time ago I did this same thing. Could it be déjà vu?
I don’t remember getting a fat lip and my knuckles busted by my editor, so I’m guessing it wasn’t too bad, but if there is no article next week and you hear I’m in the hospital … No, my editor is wicked nice and would never smack me, right Kat?
Anyway, I usually write my article sometime between Friday and Sunday. The coincidences came on the last two Tuesdays. I was on my way to Reno and listening to “America’s Test Kitchen” when someone called in with a question that I had written about two or three days earlier. The articles weren’t out yet, but I thought maybe once was pretty wild but twice was just plain weird.
The first question was about the timing of seasoning a steak and the second was about rubs. Just so you know, my thoughts were right on with what they said about either seasoning at the time of cooking or more than four hours before with 24 hours being ideal. The second caller was saying he loved a certain rub but was having a hard time duplicating it. He said that the author mentioned that you had to add the ingredients in the exact order or it wouldn’t work, and the poor guy was confused.
On the show, they said the same thing I preach all the time: use the recipe as a guide. I think in my base I use 2 T salt, which a lot of people might cut back to start and add more to taste. It also has a nice, gentle heat due to the fresh ground pepper. The whole idea of a rub is to dry ingredients, so, of course, it is easy to add or subtract herbs and spices to suite your taste.
This week, I was going through some papers and found a recipe my sister sent me with a note saying I had to make this butterscotch sauce. It has been quite some time since I’ve done anything sweet, so I compared it to a recipe I have used in the past, and then went and looked up more recipes. The ingredients and even ratios are similar in almost every recipe I looked at, but there was one difference that stood out in all of them. Actually, it was one ingredient that was in about half the recipes and missing from the others – corn syrup.
The basic ingredients are butter, brown sugar, heavy cream and a pinch of salt with corn syrup and pure vanilla appearing in about half the recipes. The recipe I have used in the past did not contain corn syrup and did have some vanilla.
To check out the difference, I made a batch of each. By the way, you may ask what the difference is between butterscotch and caramel. To me, and I have to admit I didn’t look it up, but is just the way I look at it: Caramel is white granulated sugar that is caramelized before adding the other ingredients, and butterscotch is brown sugar simply melted in with the other ingredients.
What I found in making both recipes was that the corn syrup recipe was thicker and, once cooled, was almost as thick as a soft caramel. If you are putting it over ice cream, it should be warm or it will be harder to get just a little with your ice cream. The other sauce was thinner and could be used as a topping either hot or cold without as much thickening. Did I have a preference?
I have to say they were both good and, yes, I did like one slightly better, but I’m not going to tell you yet. I am going to include both recipes and would love to hear your thoughts of which one you liked and why.
Grandma Martin’s Butterscotch Sauce
(My sister’s grandmother-in-law)
2/3 C butter
2 C brown sugar
2 T light corn syrup
2/3 C heavy cream
Melt butter over low heat in a heavy pot. Add remaining ingredients, whisking well until the sugar is dissolved and bring to a low boil. Let boil gently for 5 minutes. Cool slightly and serve warm or cold.
Butterscotch Sauce without corn syrup
½ C butter
1 C brown sugar
1 C heavy cream
1 t salt
1 t vanilla
Melt butter on low heat in a heavy pot. Add the remaining ingredients except for the vanilla, and whisk until sugar is dissolved and it comes to a low boil. Boil gently for 5 minutes and let cool a little before adding the vanilla. Serve warm or cold.
Smitty is a personal chef specializing in dinner parties, cooking classes and special events. Trained under Master Chef Anton Flory at Top Notch Resort in Stowe, Vt., Smitty is known for his creative use of fresh ingredients. He has been a chef for PGA’s Memorial Tournament for more than 15 years and ran the main kitchen at the World Games. For more information and archived copies of Stir it Up, visit chefsmitty.com. Smitty welcomes questions and comments at smitty@chefsmitty.com, tmmsmitty@gmail.com or (530) 412-3598.
