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Chocolate Fudge

A chocolate fudge made with sugar, cream, chocolate, butter, salt, optional nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Chocolate Fudge

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 ↓

Chocolate Fudge

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine sugar, cream, chocolate (or cocoa), butter, and salt in a saucepan.

  2. Stir over medium heat until melted, but do not boil.

  3. Cook until the mixture reaches the soft-ball stage when tested in cold water.

  4. If desired, add chopped nuts just before removing from heat.

  5. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  6. Stir until thick and creamy, then pour into a greased pan.

  7. Once cooled, 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Sugar + creamtop 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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks, forms the firm crystalline structure of the fudge.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the fudge a smooth, tender texture.
Chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavour and fat that help make the fudge rich and dense.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth mouthfeel and a softer, creamier set.

The step that matters

Cook to the soft-ball stage. Sugar concentration determines firmness. Cooking to the soft-ball stage gives the right amount of water loss, so the fudge sets soft and creamy rather than grainy or runny.

Swap the nuts

The recipe marks nuts as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, chocolate, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, 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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