Name: Uncooked Fudge
Ingredients: 1 egg; 2 cups sifted powdered sugar; 4 oz sweet cooking chocolate; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons peanut butter; 1 tablespoon honey

Why it works: Chocolate and peanut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,279 recipes. Both carry 2-ethyl-3,6-dimethylpyrazine, which smells roasted, nutty. The science ↓

Uncooked Fudge

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fudge

Beat the egg well and add the powdered sugar.
Melt the butter and chocolate together, then add the peanut butter.
Blend the melted mixture into the egg and sugar mixture.

Set

Press the mixture into a buttered pan and chill.

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.

Chocolate + peanuttop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,279 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-ethyl-3,6-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Peanut + honeytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together420 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + honeytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,327 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Butter + peanuttop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,754 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg: Binds the sugar and melted mixture together, giving the fudge body and structure.
Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness and bulk, helping the fudge set firm as it cools.
Sweet cooking chocolate: Provides the main chocolate flavour and the rich, fudgy body once chilled.
Butter: Adds fat for smooth richness and helps the chocolate stay silky.
Peanut butter: Contributes nutty flavour and extra fat that softens the texture.

Swap the peanut

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

Almondfits better
Pecansfits about as well
Peanutthe original
Walnutfits about as well

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