Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Sea Foam Fudge
Ingredients
Directions
Cook and fold
Put sugar, chocolate and water in a saucepan, and boil without stirring until it spins a thread from the point of a spoon.
Pour this mixture over the well-beaten egg white, and stir until it begins to stiffen.
Drop from a spoon onto waxed paper in little bonbons.
Make the hard-ball syrup
Boil 3 pounds granulated sugar with 8 cups water, and 1 teaspoon cream tartar until the hard ball is reached.
Take from the heat, stir in a few drops of lemon essence, and sprinkle over, carefully mixing. Add 1 tablespoon powdered tartaric acid.
Pour on an oiled tin and keep warm.
Shape
Take a little at a time, make into small rolls, cut into bits, and roll each in the hands until round.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
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.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Tea + creamtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together463 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Sugar + teatop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,204 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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 the sweetness and, when boiled to a hard ball, the firm body of the candy.
- Egg white
- Its whipped protein traps air and sets the candy lighter and softer.
- Cream of tartar
- Its acidity helps keep the boiled sugar smooth rather than grainy.
The step that matters
Boiling to the hard-ball stage without stirring. Sugar syrup sets firmer as its temperature rises, so stopping at the wrong point changes the texture. Stirring can trigger crystallization, which makes the fudge 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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