Why is fudge called fudge

Two years after discovering fudge, Battersby Hartridge got ahold of the recipe and made 30 pounds of it for the Vassar Senior Auction. In later editions, they made up for lost time, including recipes for rainbow fudge food colorings , Mexican fudge raisins, nuts, and coconut , maple fudge, and three types of chocolate fudge. Fudge is thought to be a descendent of tablet—a medium-hard confection from Scotland.

The two treats use similar ingredients, but fudge is richer, softer, and slightly less grainy than its European cousin. It reportedly took a full week to make, and while ingredients aren't available for this record, the previous record holder contained pounds of butter, pounds of chocolate, and gallons of condensed milk.

Early fudge recipes were prone to disaster, with one magazine explaining "fudge is one of the most difficult confections to make properly. Fudge is actually a drier version of fondant —not the stiff, malleable kind so often seen on cake decorating shows, but the kind found in candies like peppermint patties and cherry cordials. There are upwards of a dozen fudge shops on 4. The recipe was very popular at the school from that point forward. Later, Smith and Wellesley schools each developed their own recipe for fudge.

Skip to content Helpful Fudge Facts. Fudge History. Helpful Fudge Facts. Interesting results. As an American, if someone offered me a box of fudge, my first question would be "what kind? I don't have a good sense of what fudge is doing here. In classic American cookbooks there are often two kind of brownies: fudge brownies and cake brownies.

Fudge brownies are fudgier, yes more gooey. Cake brownies are more dry, more similar to chocolate cake in bar form. Further to the mention of the Scottish "tablet" above, I wonder if there is also variation in the texture that would be considered prototypical "fudge". What is sold in Roly's Fudge Shops is a crumbly, slightly dry, substance probably closer to tablet; whereas the centre of a Cadbury's Fudge bar is chewy and sticky, perhaps closer to the US and original?

I wonder, did the American fudge originate from someone taking a Scottish tablet recipe and adapting it to create a chocolate treat, or are they actually two completely separate recipes which have at some point converged under one name?

Traditional American fudge is like you'd get in Roly's. The stuff inside a Cadbury Fudge or in a "fudge" in a box of chocolates is a different kind of stuff.

Having had it many times it's quite honestly delicious, and actually when I was growing up there it was my prototypical instance of "fudge" in general. The most common homemade fudge I remember making and eating growing up in the Mid-Atlantic US was peanut butter fudge, but you could get all manner of varieties such as chocolate, pistachio, or maple walnut from specialty fudge shops. There's also an apparently unique kind of fudge from Lebanon, PA called Opera Fudge that isn't really fudge at all, but a kind of fondant enrobed in dark chocolate.

A traditional recipe for Scots tablet: two pounds of granulated sugar and three teacupsful of thin cream or milk - bring to the boil, stirring constantly. When it has reached about degrees F, put the pan into a basin of cold water and stir rapidly with a spoon, scraping down the solidified edges. When it is all sufficiently grained, pour it all in to a buttered shallow tin.

Allow to cool, cut into even slices. If it is too highly grained, it will not pour flat - practice makes perfection.

Worth a try during lockdown?! Touristy shops in picturesque parts of England usually sell fudge in a book-sized box with a local picture postcard on the lid - I expect it all comes from a single factory somewhere - and they make much of the amount of cream used in the recipe, which gives a sickly, tooth-coating consistency to the stuff, and yes, it can be stodgy.

The artisan version in high-class confectioners is more crystalline, perhaps closer to the Scots tablet. Still packed with sugar though. And I agree that Cadbury's fudge fingers are not the same at all. As an American, I would assume the mid-tan vanilla fudge pictured here to be peanut butter flavored.

My second guess would be caramel or butter scotch. White or off-white fudge I would assume to be white chocolate. The idea of vanilla fudge actually seems pretty weird. In the US at least, the ubiquity of fake vanilla flavoring has made "vanilla" become so associated with bland foods that it almost means no flavor at all.

Is this not true in the UK? I had never thought of 'basic' British fudge as being vanilla-flavoured. A quick search for recipes suggests that the basic ingredients are just sugar, butter and milk, though some include vanilla flavouring. Yes, 'vanilla' can be used to mean 'the basic variety', but, I think, more with reference to ice-cream.

Here in Australia, every good boy deserves Fruit! If you worked in the Herrell's building, does that mean you are a Smithie?? I came across your blog a few months ago in the course of hosting a Salon discussion about British and American cultural differences, and what a treat if I also happened upon another Smith alum.

I went there too :- long and winding educational road, here. There's a comment upthread that indicates another possible difference between British and American fudges. Louise Mabbs said in small part , "As for fudge I've realised I don't like the gritty taste of it at all It should be firm, but the sugar crystals should not be so large as to be noticeable which is one of the trickier things about making it.

Growing up in Atlantic Canada, we enjoyed fudge almost exclusively as a Christmas time treat. There was maple fudge, chocolate fudge, and fudge creme a sucre , all in a variety of textures from creamy to grainy depending on who made it.

I liked any fudge except the squares that slyly hid walnuts, little chunks of disappointment. A use of "fudge" not listed above is as part of "fudge factor", which Merriam Webster defines as "an arbitrary mathematical term inserted into a calculation in order to arrive at an expected solution or to allow for errors especially of underestimation". I've never heard of it "expected solution" version, but the second gets used when you're trying to make a guesstimate or rough order-of-magnitude calculation.

Interesting that you cite Michigan as the first use of the term in the U. I couldn't find as many brands offering fudge-colo u red paint in the UK, but the one that does seems to go in the vanilla fudge direction:. Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook.

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