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Dessert

Fudge or “plowed Field.”

A chocolate fudge made with butter, sugars, molasses, cream, chocolate, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Fudge or “plowed Field.”

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix brown sugar, white sugar, molasses, and cream in a bowl.

  2. Melt the butter and add it to the mixture.

  3. Bring to a boil and boil for two to three minutes, stirring rapidly.

  4. Add grated or scraped chocolate and boil for five minutes, stirring rapidly at first, then more slowly.

  5. Remove from heat and add vanilla.

  6. Stir until the mixture thickens.

  7. Pour into buttered pans and let cool.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Brown sugar
Adds moisture and a deep, caramel-like sweetness.
White sugar
Provides sweetness and the crystal structure that the fudge sets around.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, tender texture.
Chocolate
Gives the fudge its chocolate flavour and firmness as it cools.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the fudge soft.

The step that matters

Stir until the mixture thickens. Stirring while the mixture cools and thickens encourages fine sugar crystals to form, giving a smooth texture rather than a grainy one. Stirring too early or too late changes the result.

“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.

More fudge recipes

Chocolate 85Maple 38Cake 30Marshmallow 18Divinity 15Peanut Butter 13 See all 48 →

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