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Maple Fudge

A sweet fudge made with brown sugar, maple syrup, sweet milk, butter, and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Maple Fudge

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 ↓

Maple Fudge

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, maple syrup, sweet milk, and butter.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook until a small amount dropped into a cool dish forms a soft ball.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in chopped walnuts until creamy.

  4. Pour the mixture into a buttered pan and mark into squares.

  5. Set aside to cool.

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.

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.

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

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

  2. Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Maple syrup + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together309 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Milk + walnuttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,236 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Sugar + maple syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and molasses flavour, and helps set the fudge's soft texture.
Maple syrup
Adds sweetness and maple aroma, and its sugars help keep the fudge smooth.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and richness, and its milk solids contribute to a creamy texture.
Chopped walnuts
Add crunch and nutty flavour that contrast with the soft, creamy fudge.

The step that matters

Cooking to the soft-ball stage. Sugar concentration determines the final texture. Cooking too little leaves the fudge runny, while cooking too long makes it hard and grainy. A small sample dropped into cool water or a cool dish shows when it has reached the soft-ball stage.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Pecansfits better
  2. Almondfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Nutsfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, maple syrup, 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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