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Dessert

Marshmallow Fudge

A sweet fudge made with cream, powdered sugar, chocolate, butter, marshmallows, and pecan nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Marshmallow Fudge

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fudge base

  1. In a chafing dish, combine cream and powdered sugar, stirring gently to avoid scorching until it begins to boil.

  2. Add chocolate and stir until melted.

  3. Boil for about 10 minutes, testing a little in cold water.

  4. Add butter and stir until well mixed.

Beat and set

  1. Remove from heat and beat briskly for 5 to 10 minutes.

  2. Pour into a buttered pan containing cut marshmallows and chopped pecans.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Chocolate + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping form a smooth, soft fudge.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the cream to provide sweetness and body for the fudge.
Chocolate
Supplies chocolate flavor and fat, contributing to the fudge's firm, smooth texture.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and richness, giving a tender texture.
Cut marshmallows
Adds softness and chewiness that contrasts with the firmer fudge base.

The step that matters

Beat briskly after removing from heat. Vigorous beating while the mixture cools causes sugar to crystallize into fine grains, which gives fudge its smooth, creamy texture. Under-beating can leave it grainy or too soft to hold its shape.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, chocolate, butter):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Filbertfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, chocolate, butter. 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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