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Dessert

Burnt Almond Fudge

A caramelized sugar and almond confection made by boiling sugar, milk, butter, and almond extract, then adding toasted almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Burnt Almond Fudge

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the almonds

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Brown the blanched almonds, then chop them coarsely.

Make the fudge

  1. In a granite pan, brown ½ cup of granulated sugar.

  2. Add ⅔ cup of milk to the pan and stir until the sugar is dissolved.

  3. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 cup of granulated sugar, then boil for five minutes.

  4. Test the mixture in cold water; if it becomes creamy when stirred until cold, it is done; if not, boil for a little longer and test again.

  5. Remove from heat, flavor with 10 drops of almond extract, add the chopped nuts, and beat until well creamed.

  6. Pour the mixture into a buttered dish to a depth of 1 inch.

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

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

  2. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  3. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Browned sugar gives caramel flavor, and the sugar sets the fudge's sweetness and texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and dissolves the sugar, forming the base for a creamy fudge.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and mouthfeel.
Blanched almonds
Add nutty flavor and crunchy texture once browned and chopped.

The step that matters

Testing the mixture in cold water. Fudge sets by crystallizing sugar as it cools. Stopping too early leaves it soft and runny, while boiling too long makes it hard and grainy, so the cold-water test tells the cook when the sugar concentration is right.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Cocoafits about as well
  3. Pecansfits less well
  4. Peanutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, 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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