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Dessert

Honey Fudge

A sweet fudge made with white sugar, honey, brown sugar, vinegar, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Honey Fudge

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine white sugar and milk.

  2. Boil for a few minutes.

  3. Add honey and continue boiling until the soft ball stage is reached.

  4. Stir in vinegar and butter, then beat the mixture until creamy.

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. Honey + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  3. Honey + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

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

  4. Honey + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,327 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 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

White sugar
Provides the sweet, crystalline base that sets into the fudge's structure as it cools.
Honey
Adds moisture and sweetness, and helps keep the fudge soft and smooth.
Brown sugar
Adds moisture and a deeper, caramel-like flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps prevent the sugar from turning grainy.
Milk
Adds liquid and fat that give the fudge a creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the fudge smooth and rich.

The step that matters

Boiling to the soft ball stage. The sugar concentration at this point determines the final texture. Stopping too early leaves the fudge runny, while boiling too long makes it hard and crumbly once cooled.

“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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