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Dessert

Divinity Fudge

A sweet fudge made with sugar, corn syrup, water, egg whites, and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Divinity Fudge

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar, corn syrup, and water in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the mixture until it becomes brittle when dropped in cold water.

Whip and set

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg whites while continuously beating.

  3. Add walnuts and continue beating until the mixture is very thick.

  4. Pour the mixture into a buttered pan.

  5. Let the mixture cool.

  6. 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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Corn + walnuttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together349 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Corn + syruptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the sweet, crystalline structure of the candy as the syrup cooks and sets.
Corn syrup
Interferes with sugar crystallization, keeping the candy smooth rather than grainy.
Egg whites
Trap air when beaten, giving the fudge its light, airy, stiff texture.
Walnuts
Add crunch and texture that contrasts with the soft, airy candy.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup to the brittle stage. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set firm. Too little cooking leaves the candy soft and sticky; too much makes it hard. Cooking to the brittle stage ensures a proper set.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, corn, syrup, egg):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, syrup, egg. 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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