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Dessert

Fudge No III

A chocolate fudge made with sugar, milk, chocolate, butter, vanilla, and optional nuts or coconut.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Fudge No III

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the sugar, milk (or cream and milk), chocolate, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the mixture, stirring constantly, until it forms a soft ball when tested in cold water.

  3. Before removing from heat, add the vanilla.

  4. Beat the mixture rapidly until creamy.

  5. If desired, add chopped nuts or coconut.

  6. Pour onto buttered plates and cut 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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Vanilla + nutstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together638 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 forms the crystalline structure of the fudge as it cooks.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, dissolving the sugar into the mixture.
Chocolate
Gives the fudge its chocolate flavour and contributes fat for a smooth texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender texture and a rich mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil to the soft-ball stage. Sugar concentration determines the final texture. Cooking to the soft-ball stage, then beating while the mixture cools, yields a creamy fudge; undercooking leaves it soft and runny, while overcooking makes it hard and grainy.

Swap the nuts

The recipe marks nuts as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, chocolate, walnut, butter, vanilla):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Macadamia nutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

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

More fudge recipes

Chocolate 85Maple 38Cake 30Marshmallow 18Divinity 15Peanut Butter 13 See all 48 →

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