Why it works: Milk and cocoa work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 643 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Chocolate Fudge
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the fudge
Mix together 2 cups granulated sugar, 2 cups confectioner's sugar, 2 cups sweet milk, and butter the size of a walnut.
Boil together for five minutes.
Add 3 cups cocoa or grated chocolate, and boil for 3 minutes longer.
Take from the fire and beat until it thickens.
Pour and cut
Pour into buttered pans.
When nearly cold, mark into squares.
If nuts are wanted, stir them in after taking from the fire.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Chocolate | 1 oz (28g) semisweet | 155 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
-
Milk + cocoatop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together643 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
-
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Sugar + cocoatop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together956 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Granulated sugar
- Provides sweetness and, as it dissolves and recrystallizes, the grainy-smooth fudge structure.
- Confectioner's sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps produce a finer, softer texture in the set fudge.
- Sweet milk
- Supplies moisture and milk fat that make the fudge creamy and help it set.
- Cocoa
- Gives the fudge its chocolate flavor and dark color.
The step that matters
Beat until it thickens. Beating the cooked syrup as it cools encourages many tiny sugar crystals to form, giving a smooth, creamy texture rather than a hard or grainy one. Stopping too early or too late changes the result.
Swap the cocoa
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk):
- Cocoathe original
- Almondfits about as well
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Peanutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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