In older times Scotch was an adjective meaning 'of Scotland'. Nowadays the preferred adjective is Scottish, and Scotch usually means Scotch whisky. The remainder of this article is about the word.
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The adjective or noun Scotch is an Early Modern English (16th century) contraction of the word Scottish which was later adopted into Older Scots. It more or less replaced Scottish as the prevailing term in England, and may have been an attempt at a phonetic rendering of the Lallans (Scots language) pronunciation of "Scottish" where the "tti" is replaced by a glottal stop. Scots (the modern form of Older Scots Scottis1) predominated in Scotland until the 18th century when anglification became fashionable and Scotch was used in both England and Scotland.
From the early 19th century Scots or Scottish were the preferred usages among educated Scottish people, Scotch being regarded as an anglicized affectation. Scotch is sometimes still used by the working classes who often regard Scots as an anglicized affectation.
In modern usage the general term for things from or pertaining to Scotland is Scottish. Scots is usually reserved for the Scots language and legal system. Scotch remains in use only for phrases like Scotch broth and Scotch terrier, etc. One cynical joke is that Scotch can only be used for things which can be bought, such as whisky, eggs and politicians.
1. Inglis was the Older Scots for English and the modern form can still be found in Surnames and place names as Ingles or Inglis e.g. Ingleston or Ingliston etc.