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Dessert

White Fruit Fudge

A sweet fudge made with sugar, milk, butter, and mixed chopped fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Dates and fig work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 318 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

White Fruit Fudge

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil sugar and milk until it reaches the soft ball stage.

  2. Remove from heat and add butter and chopped fruit.

  3. Beat the mixture and pour it into pans.

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. Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

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

  3. Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  4. Milk + figtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Dates + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together358 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Forms the fudge's sugar crystals, which set its sweetness and firm, creamy body.
Milk
Adds milk solids and water that give the fudge a soft, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the fudge smoother and richer in mouthfeel.
Mixed chopped fruit
Adds chewy texture, natural sweetness and bits of contrasting flavour.

The step that matters

Beating the mixture. Beating while the mixture cools encourages many small sugar crystals, giving a smooth texture. Beating too early or while it is still very hot can make the fudge grainy or hard.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Datesthe original

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