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Dessert

Burnt Almond Fudge

A sweet fudge made with sugar, milk, butter, blanched almonds, and almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Burnt Almond Fudge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat oven and brown blanched almonds, then chop them coarsely.

  2. In a granite pan, brown ½ cup of granulated sugar.

Make the fudge

  1. Add ⅔ cup of milk to the browned sugar and dissolve completely.

  2. Stir in 1 cup of granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon of butter.

  3. Boil the mixture until it forms a firm ball when dropped into cold water.

Finish

  1. Flavor with almond extract and add the chopped brown almonds.

  2. Stir until creamy, then pour into pans and mark into squares.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  3. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Browns to add color and toasty flavor, and supplies the sweetness and structure of the fudge.
Milk
Dissolves the sugar and adds moisture and creaminess to the fudge.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender texture.
Blanched almonds
Add crunch and toasty flavor when browned and chopped.

The step that matters

Boil to a firm ball. The sugar concentration reached at the firm-ball stage sets the fudge's texture once it cools. Stopping early leaves it soft and runny, while boiling too long makes it hard and grainy.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, butter):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Cocoafits about as well
  3. Pecansfits less well
  4. Peanutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, butter. 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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