Food
According to history (although often disputed) fudge was accidentally created by a batch of failed candy; likely caramels, sometime around 1886. From this fouled up batch of candy came the phrase or the cooks' exclamation of 'oh, fudge!' The earliest written evidence of fudge was in a letter from New York. A student from Vassar College, Emelyn Battersby Hartidge, stated that a classmate's cousin made fudge. In Baltimore in 1886, the candy cost 40 cents a pound. Ms. Hartidge got the recipe a few years later and made 30 pounds for a Senior Auction at Vassar. Other colleges like Smith and Wellesley then created recipes of their own for this sweet confection.
Nearly everybody loves to eat rich, sweet fudge, but a lot of people assume it is difficult to make. Original recipes were quite difficult and rather vague. The degree of difficulty depended on the kind of ingredients, the quality of equipment used, which recipe and the patience taken in order to make it right. Also, being certain of the cooking time, accurate measurements and nonstop stirring were important to get the perfect fudge. Stirring at the proper time, and getting the ingredients to the proper temperature are both needed for the fudge to be creamy and smooth and not grainy. Moreover it could be extremely easy to under cook or over cook this sweet confection, which often results in it not setting up correctly or scorching.
Fudge by definition is a rich and creamy confection. It is a semi-soft candy, that is very smooth and made with sugar, corn syrup, fresh butter, sweet cream and often different delicious flavorings. Flavors can be butterscotch, chocolate, white chocolate, vanilla, flavored gelatin, peanut butter, buttermilk, kool aid, Kahlua, mint, bourbon, pumpkin or even maple. Fudge may contain various nuts, such as pistachios, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, roasted macadamia nuts, and almonds. Other possible ingredients that can be found in some of the more decadent or unusual fudge could be: popcorn, crackers, cheese, candy canes, pineapple chunks, coconut, candy bars, lime peel, espresso beans, chocolate chips, cookies, caramel, chunks of chocolate, marshmallows, or cherries and other dried or candied fruit.
In contrast with other sweets and candies that go back thousands of years, fudge is a relative new comer. Early fudge flavors were chocolate, vanilla and brown sugar penuche. Michigan has become the fudge capital of America. Now days, the flavors or mixtures of fudge ingredients are almost endless. A few of them are: vanilla caramel, lemon butter, maple walnut, chocolate cappuccino, raspberry coffee, vanilla cherry chocolate chip, chocolate cheesecake, peanut butter, dark chocolate and chocolate caramel pecan.
While the word fudge has other meanings, none of them are synonymous with the timeless family favorite, premium chocolate fudge. In the United States, the word fudge almost always means the wonderful, rich and creamy candy made with chocolate. At times you can find the word fudge used on the boxes of brownies or cakes, but this just means that they have some extra chocolate flavoring.
Author's Bio: Anna McAnthony is a content writer at Chocolate Gourmet Candy, and has been writing articles and researching chocolate for many years. Visit http://www.chocolategourmetcandy.com for more information.
