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Dessert

Fudge Filling

A sweet chocolate filling made from cane sugar, cream, butter, and chocolate, optionally flavored with vanilla or lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Fudge Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fudge base

  1. In a clean pan, combine the sugar, cream, and butter over medium heat.

  2. Melt the mixture together, then pour some over the chocolate to melt it.

  3. Add the melted chocolate back to the pan and cook until it forms a soft ball in cold water.

Cool and finish

  1. Remove from heat and do not stir; let it cool completely.

  2. Once cool, beat the mixture until smooth and thick enough to spread.

  3. Add vanilla or a little lemon for extra flavor, if desired.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Walnut + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,730 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Cane sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks, the body that sets the fudge.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the filling a smooth, rich texture.
Chocolate
Supplies the main chocolate flavor and fat that firm the filling as it cools.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother mouthfeel and richer flavor.

The step that matters

Remove from heat and do not stir while cooling. Stirring a sugar mixture as it cools encourages crystals to form, which makes fudge grainy. Letting it cool undisturbed keeps the texture smooth before beating.

“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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