Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Fudge
Ingredients
Directions
Make the fudge
In a saucepan, combine sugar, milk, and butter. Bring to a boil.
Once boiling, add the grated chocolate and stir continuously until it thickens.
Remove from heat, add flavoring, and beat until creamy.
Set
Pour into buttered pans to set.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Chocolate + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,543 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Granulated sugar
- Provides sweetness and, as it dissolves and cools, helps form the fudge's fine crystalline texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and milk solids that contribute to a creamy, soft texture.
- Chocolate
- Adds chocolate flavor and fat, and thickens the mixture as it cooks.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, creamier mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Beating after removing from heat. Beating the hot mixture while it cools encourages small sugar crystals to form, which gives fudge its smooth, creamy texture. Beating too early or too late can result in a grainy or hard fudge.
“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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