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
Prepare
Crush the maple sugar.
Make the fudge
Pour the hot milk over the sugar and add a pinch of baking soda.
Melt the sugar slowly, then bring to a fast boil.
When the syrup thickens on the end of a spoon, add 1 tablespoon of butter for each pound of sugar.
Once it boils again, pour into buttered pans.
Set and cut
As it hardens, cut into squares.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Maple sugar
- Provides the main sweetness and flavour, and forms the body of the fudge as it crystallises.
- Milk
- Dissolves the sugar into a liquid base and adds richness and creaminess to the fudge.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a smoother, softer texture and a richer mouthfeel.
- Baking soda
- Raises the mixture's pH slightly, which can soften texture and affect how the sugar browns.
The step that matters
Boiling and thickening the syrup. Sugar must reach the right concentration before cooling. Too little boiling leaves fudge soft and runny, while overcooking makes it hard and grainy. Stop when the syrup thickens on a spoon.
“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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