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Dessert

Divinity Fudge

A sweet fudge made with sugar, syrup, water, egg whites, nuts, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Divinity Fudge

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil sugar, salt, syrup, and water until a drop hardens instantly in cold water.

Whip and combine

  1. Beat egg whites until very stiff.

  2. Slowly pour the hot syrup into the egg whites while beating constantly.

  3. Add nuts and vanilla, then continue beating until the mixture is almost hard.

Set and cut

  1. Spread quickly in buttered pans.

  2. When cold, cut into small 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.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Nuts + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together638 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  4. Syrup + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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
Forms the sweet syrup that sets into the fudge's firm, smooth structure as it cools.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the candy its light, airy, fluffy texture.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and helps prevent the sugar from crystallising into a grainy texture.
Nuts
Add crunch and texture that contrasts with the soft, airy candy.

The step that matters

Pour the hot syrup slowly while beating. Pouring the hot syrup in a thin stream while beating constantly lets it cook the egg white foam gently and blend evenly. Pouring too fast can deflate the foam and leave streaks of syrup.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, syrup, egg, vanilla):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup, egg, vanilla. 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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