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Dessert

Nut Fudge

A sweet fudge made with brown and white sugar, molasses, chocolate, milk, butter, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Nut Fudge

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fudge

  1. Combine brown sugar, white sugar, molasses, sweet chocolate, sweet milk, and butter in a pot.

  2. Boil for about 20 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and beat hard until it begins to cream.

  4. Stir in the nuts and pour into a greased pan.

Cut and serve

  1. When nearly cold, cut into squares 1 inch wide.

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. Nuts + chocolatetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

White sugar
Provides sweetness and helps the fudge set firm as it cools.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, with molasses giving a deeper flavor and softer texture.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep flavor, and helps keep the fudge soft.
Sweet chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavor and fat that give fudge its richness.
Sweet milk
Adds liquid and milk solids that contribute to a creamy texture.
Nuts
Add crunch and a contrasting texture to the soft fudge.

The step that matters

Beating until it begins to cream. Beating the hot syrup as it cools causes sugar to crystallize into fine crystals, giving a smooth, creamy texture. Beating too early or too late changes the result.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, chocolate, 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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