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Dessert

Molasses Fudge

A sweet fudge made with sugar, milk, butter, molasses, baking soda, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Molasses Fudge

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the mixture

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, milk, butter, molasses, and baking soda dissolved in a little milk.

  2. Cook over medium heat until a drop in cold water forms a soft ball.

Finish and set

  1. Let the mixture cool slightly, then stir in vanilla.

  2. Beat until thick and pour into buttered pans.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and forms the crystal structure that gives fudge its body.
Milk
Adds moisture and dairy fat for a smoother, creamier texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, melt-in-the-mouth texture.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep flavor, and dark color, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acidity to lighten the color and soften the texture.
Vanilla
Adds aroma that rounds out the sweetness and molasses flavor.

The step that matters

Cook to the soft-ball stage. Cooking sugar syrup to the right concentration sets the texture. Stopping too early leaves fudge soft and runny, while cooking too long makes it hard and grainy. The cold-water drop test shows when the syrup has reached that point.

“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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