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Dessert

Plain Fudge

Plain fudge is a confection made from sugar, glucose, water, cream or condensed milk, stiff cream fondant, optional butter, and flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Plain Fudge

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fudge base

  1. Combine the sugar, glucose, and water in a copper pan.

  2. Heat the mixture, stirring until the sugar dissolves and begins to boil.

  3. Gradually add the cream or condensed milk and cook until it reaches the soft ball stage.

  4. Remove from heat and stir briefly.

Finish and set

  1. Add the stiff cream fondant and mix well.

  2. Add flavoring.

  3. Return to heat for a minute and stir until warm enough to pour easily.

  4. Pour the mixture onto a greased slab to cool.

  5. Mark the top.

  6. Glaze with white shellac or glacine.

  7. Once dry, break into suitable pieces.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the crystalline sweet body of the fudge as it cooks and sets.
Glucose
Interferes with sugar crystallisation, keeping the fudge smooth rather than grainy.
Cream or condensed milk
Adds fat and milk solids for a softer, richer texture and flavour.
Stiff cream fondant
Adds ready-made fine sugar crystals that help the fudge set creamy.

The step that matters

Cooking to the soft ball stage. Cooking temperature controls how much water leaves the sugar syrup and so how firm the fudge becomes. Stopping too early leaves it soft and runny, while overcooking makes it hard and crumbly.

“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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