Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Vassar Fudge
Ingredients
Directions
Make the fudge
In a saucepan, combine the chocolate, milk, sugar, and butter.
Boil the mixture until it forms a soft ball in water.
Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
Beat the mixture until it begins to grain.
Set and cut
Pour into a pan and let cool.
Cut into squares.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,020 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Dissolves into the liquid and, as it cooks and cools, forms the sweet crystalline body of the fudge.
- Baker's chocolate
- Provides the chocolate flavor and fat that give the fudge its rich, dense texture.
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that dissolves the sugar and carries it to a soft-ball boil.
- Butter
- Adds fat that softens the texture and makes the fudge smoother and richer.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture until it begins to grain. Beating a boiled sugar syrup as it cools encourages fine sugar crystals to form. Beat too little and the fudge stays runny; beat too long after it thickens and it can set hard and grainy.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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