August 10, 2023 • 37 mins
This rich, sweet candy owes its smooth texture to sugar science – and stirring. All the stirring. Anney and Lauren don't fudge up the science and history of fudge.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lorn vocal Bam, and today
we have an episode for you about fudge.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, which Lauren and I discussed. I could have sworn
up and down we'd already done an episode on fudge.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I had to search our archives like twice to make
extra sure, but nope.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I think we've just discussed adjacent things like where we've
mentioned it Sundays.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, we did praylans or prawleens or prey lines mm hmm,
whichever of those you want.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
To say, yes we did, which brings me to I'm
actually not a big fudge person.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Me neither.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Every now and then I enjoy it, but it's definitely
not something I seek out. But as I mentioned in
the Prolein Paraline whatever episode there is, I come from
a tourist town. Uh, and there is a fudge shop
in that tourist town, which I'm actually not going to
(01:19):
shout out because I don't know the old owner used
to be not great. Oh oh that's fun. Okay, I
don't know who owns it now. I don't know the
full details, but I'm just not going to shut it out,
but there was a fudge shop there and it was
sort of a ride a passage. A lot of times
people would work there in high school and that's where
my dad would get those the turtles that we talked
(01:42):
about in that episode, which was just like becauns maybe
caramel caramel fudge on top, but it was just it
was a very big touristy thing. You would go there.
They had all kinds of fudge you could sample, and
that's like my biggest association with fudge.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, that that type of situation is definitely my biggest association,
Like that kind of like small tourist or like like
Disney World kind of situation where you just smell it
as you're walking down the street and then you see
the big window of someone making it, and like all
of the beautiful, bright candy colors and and just going like,
(02:22):
oh yeah, yeah, even though I don't even though I'm
aware of the fact that I'm not particularly going to
enjoy it that much. It's a little bit too sweet
for me. I'm like, no, I want some of that though.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Right, it smells so good? Yeah? Yes, Was there any
particular reason this was on your mind?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I guess I was trying to think of something summary
that I sort of associate with, Yeah, like summer vacation
and uh or who knows. I I feel like I
say every recording session that I'm having a long week,
but that's just been true lately. So here we are. Yeah, yeah,
(03:03):
it's Tuesday. It's already a long week.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
There you go. Tuesday is my least favorite day of
the week. Did you know?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
No? I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, because I feel like Monday you at least have
the bump of like a new week. Tuesday, you're like, oh,
I still have so much further to go the week.
There's a whole Seinfeld bit about this. Ah hey, yes, yes,
you can see our past episodes we've done on chocolate
(03:33):
things like taffy. I feel like it's the same same.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Absolutely absolutely. Also, yeah, National Fudge Day is June sixteenth,
so we've dead missed that one. Just absolutely about the
furthest away that we can get from being timely.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
And I had to think about it for a minute
because I no longer know what day it is. It
could be that's right around the corner. I don't know,
August now, got it. Wow, let's clarify something. Fudge what
(04:15):
is it?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Well, fudge can refer to a lot of things, actually,
but what we are talking about today is a type
of slab candy, usually made of sugar, cream, and butter
plus flavoring. It's thick and firm at room temperature, but
still easily sliced, and when you eat it it immediately
goes from like slightly chewy to just soft and creamy
(04:39):
and melt in your mouth. It can come in any
number of flavors, infinite flavors, I'm telling you, but the
classic is like chocolate fudge or vanilla fudge, with or
without chopped nuts in it. It's often made and sold
in small candy shops in walkable tourist areas, often with
the kitchen right up next to big windows to the
streets that you can watch it being. It's uh. It's
(05:02):
like if ice cream or shelf stable and a little
bit achingly sweet. It's uh. It is the smell of
small town tourism in the summer. It's uh. It's like
eating a Norman Rockwell painting, like nostalgic and rich and saccharin,
(05:22):
but but like still still good, still good good, Yeah,
somewhere in that range. M h yeah, yeah, uh okay,
So so yes, there are endless iterations of fudge flavored
with every kind of fruit syrup or nut, butter, or
(05:47):
kind of creamy thing or liquor or other like desserty
sweet to salty sweet concept that you can possibly imagine,
and probably several that you cannot. And I say that,
I mean I believe in your imagination skills, y'all, and
so like, it's a serious fudge world out there. You
can also mix in anything that's kind of dry and
(06:08):
shelf stable. Other candies and nuts are common. You can
make vegan fudge using non dairy butter and non dairy milk.
It can range from like fairly stiff to softer and creamier.
But the key, no matter what else you're doing, is
going to be that smooth melt in your mouth texture.
And the key to that is candy science.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Wah.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yes, okay, let's talk about sugar. So what we referred
to as table sugar, sucrose likes being a crystal at
room temperature. And you know that's how you most commonly
purchase it in a big bag of more or less
evenly formed crystals. If you ate a spoonful of those
(06:52):
crystals they'd be pretty crunchy, though, and this is not
what you want from your fudge. You might want crunchy
things in your fudge, but you want the fudge itself
to be nice and creamy. So making fudge is the
process of tricking a bunch of big sugar crystals into
like reconstituting themselves into a lot of tiny sugar crystals,
(07:15):
helped by and bound up in tasty, tasty fats, so
that the whole mass is smooth and creamy. You do
this by creating a supersaturated solution of water and dissolved sugar,
and then gently, carefully, slowly letting the sugar recrystallize with
help of the fats throughout to kind of mitigate the process,
(07:37):
all right. Candy making is all about controlling the saturation
of sugar in solution with water, and then controlling the
crystallization of that sugar out of the solution. You control
the saturation by dissolving the sugar into water and then
heating the solution up past the boiling point of water,
(07:59):
so the water starts evaporating out right, and thus the
concentration of sugar in the solution increases. When you've reached
whatever concentration you're going for. You let the solution cool
down again, and then the way that you treat it
at this stage will determine how all of those loosey
goosey sugar molecules form back up with each other and
(08:20):
any other stuff that you've got in the mix. If
you go all the way up to like a ninety
nine percent sugar concentration and then let it set real
still and slow, you've got a lollipop at ninety percent
sugar concentration. Depending on what else you add and whether
you mess with it or leave it still, you might
(08:41):
have nugat or you might have rock candy, respectively. It's
it's concentration and agitation that results in your final product.
For fudge, we're looking for about eighty five percent concentration
and a very specific pattern of agitation. All right, The
(09:04):
water content in your fudge comes from cream and butter
or whatever other kind of milk type stuff you're using.
So you solve your sugar in about an equal combined
weight of cream and butter. Maybe some recipes have you
hold the butter for later. I can't tell you what
to do. But then after the sugar dissolves without stirring
or otherwise messing with it any further. You heat the
(09:26):
solution to ride around two hundred and thirty five to
two hundred and forty degrees fahrenheit. That's one hundred and
twelve to one hundred and sixteen celsius. And I'm saying
it that precisely because fun thing. Actually, the concentration of
sugar in a solution directly correlates to the temperature of
a solution, and that temperature that I just quoted at
(09:48):
you is about eighty five percent concentration, or as you
would say in candy making the soft ball stage. And
at that point it'll it'll be a glossy like a
like a super saturated mass, and also very hot, so
be careful. You Then, as it starts to cool, either
manually or with a mixer, start slowly and steadily stirring
(10:12):
it again. Sugar is looking to be a crystal when
it's in a solution. Any little thing can set off
the crystallization process. That's why you don't want to stir
it or like scrape down the sides as you're cooking it,
because you could spawn crystal nucleation. The molecules will start
(10:33):
locking up together, and then suddenly you've got this grainy,
gritty mass. It is wild if you've never seen this happen.
It is wild to watch how fast this can happen
and how like relatively large the crystals can get very quickly.
But in the case of fudge, the fats that you've
added from the cream and butter are keeping a little
(10:54):
bit of elbow room between the molecules. Yeah, and then
stirring gently and steadily with that elbow room allows nucleation
to happen in a whole lot of places independently and
simultaneously throughout the mass. So each crystal only grows to
(11:14):
be tiny, and there are a whole lot of them.
At this point, the mixture will have lost its gloss
because of the way that tiny crystals are now scattering
light rather than kind of reflecting it, and it'll thicken up.
So you kind of sludge it out into a tray.
Let's smooth it out, let it cool and further crystallize
for another like eight hours or so, and then you
have fudge. Along In the stirring stage, you can add
(11:40):
flavors or mixins. You can sprinkle mixings on the top later,
but yeah, that's fudge. It is a little bit of work,
and I highly recommend having a candy thermometer if you're
going to embark on this yourself. Some recipes call for
other stuff that'll help prevent premature crystallization, like corn syrup
or a cream of tartar. But yeah, fudge.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah. My friends who worked at the store I mentioned,
I said it was very physical, like it was a
tiring process.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Oh sure, yeah, stirring. Man, never gonna estimate stirring.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Don't please, don't. Well what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
No, treats are nice, you know. It's it's sugar and
butter and cream. That's it's. It's colorkally dense. I eat,
eat a vegetable and some protein, and drink some water.
All three.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yeah, fudge in a vegetable, some water, and a protein
and approtein. Okay, a fully balanced meal. Yeah yeah, part
of your balanced breakfast for sure. Yes. Well, we do
have some numbers for you, Oh we do, Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
The Google trends graph for the search term fudge in
the United States is just one hilariously large spike every
December as people get ready for the winter holidays. It
is most searched in West Virginia, Kentucky and Maine. In
the US, however, it is by far the most popularly
searched in New Zealand, and then the UK, Ireland and
(13:26):
South Africa are all like closer to the US in
terms of search traffic. But I don't know what's happening
with fudge in New Zealand. Y'all have to write in
and let us now, because apparently it is a very
big thing.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I'm very curious.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, world record for you. The Guinness Record for the
largest slab of fudge was achieved in twenty ten in Canada.
It weighed two point sixty one metric tons that's about
five thousand, seven hundred and sixty pounds. It took a
week to make and contained like stripes or sections of vanilla,
(14:05):
chocolate and maple.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Mm. Wow. Just the thought of like, try it, piece
of that is making me. I feel like when I
have fudge, the first bite is nice and that's it,
like the too rich.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Too sweet, to sugary, too rich.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah, yeah, and it's it's not that I don't like it,
but that first bite is like you're like, well, that's
in your face. And if I'm seeing like stripes of
vanilla charta and maple inside the fudge, and it's a lot.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah yeah, I mean that's also like the weight of
like a large suv.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
So well, some people can eat a lot of fudge.
Do love it, seek it out. And one of those
places that people go to is Macinaw Island, which we're
going to talk about more in the history section. But
(15:09):
Macinall Island in northern Michigan is often viewed as America's
modern day fudge capital. It has a dozen fudge shops.
In the summer when tourists that are called fudgies come,
these shops may sell up to one thousand pounds a
day to meet demand, and some people live there. So yeah,
(15:34):
it is very wild.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Wow all right, hey, great, great o. Good for them.
I'm happy about it.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah. I was looking up some of the menus before
we got on, just to see you It's like, oh, yeah,
what kind of fudge are they selling Mackinall Island?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Was anything a stand up?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Not really, And I don't say that in any It
was just the lot of that I've seen. Yeah, I'm
sure like if I dug deeper there would have been.
But most of the stuff I was seeing on my
very short search was like, oh, yeah, yeah, I've seen that.
I've seen that. Yeah, yeah, it must be good people
go there.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah, I think I think the the the ones that
that really are the one that really surprised me as
I was kind of browsing around, Uh was I read
about some licorice fudge out of the UK, and I
was like.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Ah, huh huh.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, both of us are kind of making the same face,
which I hope throw our vocalizations is translating. But yeah,
it's just like, oh, how I feel about that being
in my mouth?
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Sure it's a mixed bag. Yeah, I saw a popcorn
one and that one I'm curious about, but I don't know.
I mean, listeners again, please write in.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Oh yeah, oh, if you have a favorite flavor, if
you've got yeah, a favorite shop. Yes, but okay, but
we are getting ahead of ourselves in the meanwhile, this
all had to start somewhere.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
It did. It did, and it was kind of a
surprising origin story for me, to be honest. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, and we are going to get into that origin
story as soon as we get back from a quick break.
For a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And we're back.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, Yes, and.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Again you can see our chocolate episodes taffy related. Sure
this one, sure, but yes, most sources claim that fudge
is a Baltimore original circa the eighteen eighties. One big
piece of evidence that's often cited was a letter out
(17:58):
of the nineteen twenties describing something that happened in the
eighteen eighties. In it, the writer claimed that her roommate
at Vassar whipped up this first bash of fudge, and
the students fortunate enough to try it loved it, loved it,
loved it. However, the same letter mentions a place in
(18:20):
Baltimore selling fudge for forty cents a pound as early
as eighteen eighty six, which really confused.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a little bit of a wibbly
wobbly timey, whymy things going on? And I think also
like write this letter indeed was from the nineteen twenties
describing things from the eighteen eighties, So yes.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Poop, yes boop. Indeed, early fudge recipes required exact measurements
and constant stirring as.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
They do today, but with the way that they didn't
probably have candy dermometors at the time. So there you go.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yep again from what I hear. The writer of the letter,
one Emmelin battersby Hattridge great name, loved fudge so much
that she made thirty pounds of it for an event
at Vassar. According to Mental Flass, fudge was so popular
on campus that, as printed in their Alumni magazine quote,
(19:20):
students would make it in the middle of the night,
dangerously diverting the gas from their lamps for the task.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, it was a whole student thing. Like it wasn't
being served to them in the cafeteria, it was being
made by them, often after hours. A poem published in
the college's yearbook in eighteen ninety three read, what purchase
us upon a chair to stir a saucepan held in air,
which tipping pours upon our hair fudges.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I do love this because there's something about the the
making and sharing of something that you love so much
doing it even despite difficulty, perhaps despite danger. After that,
(20:13):
I just really am endeared.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
By absolutely well, and especially for something as like relatively
wholesome as fudge as we see it today, Like today
it's such a kind of like old fashioned product that
it's like all.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Right, right, and like speaking to that point. From this instance,
fudge was spread, recipes were adapted, especially amongst women, and
in women's colleges. There were recipe spots, there were songs
that were sung, there were funds that were raised. Some
sources even suggest that women would make it in secret
(20:52):
as a form of rebellion.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, okay, so so so the rebellious part of it,
Like women's colleges at the time were really strict with
their students and at vasar vasar in particular, like curfew
was ten pm. In general, women weren't allowed to like
go out on the town and carouse like their dude
counterparts might have been, or like their dude counterparts might
(21:19):
have been, like a little bit less strictly watched, so
they could sneak out a little bit more easily, or
were kind of encouraged to a little bit. Also, like
due to food health kind of ideals at the time
that emphasized plain and simple foods, Like there was this
moral panic a little bit about rich and sugary treats.
(21:42):
We've talked about this ad infinitem in episodes about cereals mostly.
But yeah, so like sitting around and like grilling oysters
on a hat pin or making fudge standing on top
of your chair to get a pan up to the
(22:03):
gas light like doing that after curfew was indeed a rebellion.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Oh I love this idea. Really oysters and fudge, Oh
my god.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, well, Welsh rabbit was the other was the other
dish that I heard?
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Oh so good, so good. Well. Other sources report that
the invention of fudge was due to an accident. We
hear that story all the time, that a confectioner made
while trying to make chocolate caramel candies. Basically it was
a temperature mistake.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, temperature and stirring. I've heard that happened in France,
but I haven't read any sources backing it up. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
But whether or not that is true, A lot of
folks doing research in this space do think it probably
was an accident, which is interesting because, according to Jowhound,
the word fudge has been used to denote something foolish
or annoy since the nineteenth century, and Miriam Webster suggests
(23:04):
that in verb form it meant something to exceed proper
bounds or to cheat, perhaps as far back as the
sixteen or seventeen hundreds, So like the kid friendly insult
apparently came into vogue in the eighteen hundreds, and some
speculate that fudge got the name because someone fudged up.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Oh yeah, Yeah, it's a really interesting etymology because, like, definitely,
by the end of the seventeen hundreds, this usage of
fudge to mean nonsense, to refer to something like made
up on the spot, like you just fudged that up.
That was in fairly wide use by the end of
(23:47):
seventeen hundreds. So it genuinely seems like the name of
the candy came from this use of this word. Interesting,
the etymology behind that is a little bit more complicated,
and no one truly knows where it came from. People
think that it's like maybe it's based on a surname
that was based on another surname. I yeah, I didn't
(24:09):
write out notes. It just seemed it seems like the
word itself is a little bit nonsense and a mistake.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
So yeah, And I did think of several examples, Christmas
Story being prominent of them, of substituting that word for
a worse word when we're cursing. Yeah, yes, And it
sounds like it's just as you might suspect a sound based.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
At any rate. By the early nineteen hundreds, fudge was
no longer a fad at women's colleges and had begun
to spread two tourist spots.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yes, Mackinaw Island's fudge business allegedly got started alongside their
tours business in the eighteen hundreds. At the time, candy
was more of a treat than we see it as today,
and it was worthy of a trip, special thing to
seek out. By the nineteen twenties, downtown Mackinaw boasted several
(25:15):
fudge shops, and there is some speculation about why fudge
is such a touristy thing. Most tourist strips have fudge
As far back as nineteen oh one. A US pamphlet read,
people will stop to see almost anything done, especially if
(25:36):
the performance requires some particular knowledge. I love that, It's true.
I mean it like watching this. I think the smell
is a really key part of it. Oh yeah, the
smell and then getting to see it in the window,
and then getting the free sample, like they like pull
you in.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
They do, they do, and then you're like, oh, it's
like a venus fly trap.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Yes it is. I agree.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Oh and I didn't look I didn't look too deeply
into it, but I think that the Okay, So, the
creation and popularity of this type of fudge candy sort
of got mixed up in the popularity of ice cream
shops and soda fountain shops right around the same time,
like right around the turn of the century, and led
(26:29):
to a deliberately oversoft version of fudge meant to be
served warm being hot fudge.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Mm hmmm, yes, And that was my favorite dairy queen,
not a sponsor order when I was a kid. Hot
fudge someday.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Oh, I love a hot fudge. Gosh, I love a
hot fudge. Everything that I everything that I've been saying
about fudge, about how it's too sweet and whatever, whatever.
If you make it warm and you put it on
ice cream, I'm all in.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
It's like the mixture of like texture and temperatures. Though. Yeah,
it balances out in a way.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
You and you can use a little bit less sugar
and hot fudge because you don't need it to be
The sugar is what helps it firm up in solid fudge,
so it can be a little bit less sweet. Wow.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
I'm really curious to hear from listeners from from the
United States, because everything in our country seems like we
have references in certain regions, but outside of the country, Like,
I'm really curious what the fudge situation is in New
Zealand but also everywhere else. Yeah, yeah, curious. Is it
(27:40):
a tourist thing?
Speaker 2 (27:41):
I yeah, I know that it's a holiday thing pretty
much everywhere, and from from what I was kind of gleaning, yeah,
it's I don't know, it's so weird to me that
it is. It seems to be a very specifically English
speaking world, right, Yeah, I think that maybe there was
(28:04):
some like like one article that I was reading about
one of the big UK producers does export some to
like Germany, y'all let us know.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, I mean, it is a huge holiday thing. I
wonder if that's I'm sure it's part of it, but
I wonder if it's we're over complicating it and it's
just that it is really rich and was kind of
hard to make, and they're like, yeah, okade holidays, holidays. Yes, yes, Well,
listeners were counting on you to let us know. In
(28:36):
the meantime, that's what we have to say about fudge
for now. It is.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
We do already have some listener mail for you. Though,
and we are going to get into that as soon
as we get back from one more quick break for
a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
They we're back, Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you back
with listen. May Oh.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
I think I think I was really off key that time.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
I'm sorry, Oh, unforgivable. How could you be off key
over our wonky video calls when you can't hear what
I'm doing and you're depending on me. Just signal to you.
I don't understand. You're right, I'm a.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Failure school a school anyway. I'm more an apology to
the listeners. I hope, I hope I didn't just defend
your delicate sensibilities.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yeah, yeah, I love we listeners. We don't get to
hear this how it sounds until Andrew's super producer, Andrew
sends it to us, Yeah for listening before we publish,
and it's always you do a great job, super and
oh yeah, but it's a surprise to us as well.
(30:00):
M Sheldon wrote about our Quaker Oats episode in the
Memories that it brought back quote this time from a
long time ago, back in the late fifties. With Quaker Oats,
we were four kids, very close in age. The oldest
was six and the youngest was four. A set of
twins were in there. As you can imagine four kids
(30:21):
that close in age would be playing and laughing together
all the time. We had an old great great aunt
who we called Anti Margaret, a heavy set woman with
white hair. I don't remember much of her other than
her heavy set face, white hair. She wore a hat,
and that she said beautiful instead of beautiful. So one morning,
(30:44):
the four of us were sitting at the breakfast table
and the canister of Quaker oats was on the table.
My younger sister looked at it and said, look, it's
Anti Margaret. Crime same heavy face, the eyes were not
that clear on the older picture, and even a similar hat.
It did look just like her. If you look at
(31:04):
the eyes on the older pictures, it's easy to imagine
they are crying, as kids do. We started laughing and
laughing and couldn't stop. And then after that, every time
we would have oatmeal for breakfast, we would still look
at Anti Margaret crying. Now, almost sixty five years later,
(31:25):
the four of us still call that picture Anti Margaret crying,
even though the newer pictures look nothing like her. Amazing
how many times your shows bring back memories. I love this.
I I have similar memories where when you're a kid,
(31:45):
it seems so silly, but for some reason it's just
really really funny.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, it just tells you for whatever reason.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yes, And I have plenty of them around food. One
of my big ones is my dad, who was notoriously
not a good cook. He could do certain things, but
that realm was small. And one time he was tired
and he had to like make his dinner and he
(32:18):
that's making me a lot to think about it. Yeah,
there was this popcorn bowl that we used for popcorn
every night because I loved popcorn. We loved popcorn, and
it would have like the kernels in it, and it
would just sit out like we would and wash it.
We would just like use it again and again. So
it was just sitting out and my dad I really
(32:38):
wanted soup, and he got a can of Campbell soup
and he opened it up and he just poured it
into the the popcorn bowl. And for some reason, it
was like the funniest thing ever. And to this day,
like me and my siblings will I could just say,
like popcorn soup, and we all know what what I
(33:01):
was talking about. It sounds so like minor, but it
was just really really funny because it was like a
big popcorn ball. I'm not talking like a little individual.
I'm talking about like you're shareable popcorn. You just poured
this individual soup can.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah, I'm sure it was just like a tiny little
puddle of soup in the bottom of this clearly popcorn bowl. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
And he told me not to tell my mom, and
I immediately told her looking about this guy.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Did wow, wow's too funny. You weren't narking, you were sharing. Yeah, totally, Yes,
that's amazing, Auntie Margaret, sounds amazing.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
And I remember looking at those older pictures of the
Quaker oats dude and thinking, like, he looks sad, Like
I wonder why he's sad.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
He felt like I had a lot going on. Yeah,
that he was pondering. Yeah. Eric wrote about salt another
wonderful revisit. Salt is one of those things I prefer
to buy low salt stuff and always try to use
unsalted butter. I can then add the salt in a
way that suits me. Fun to hear the mention of Malden,
(34:22):
it is definitely a favorite of mine now. I finally
bought some a few months ago, and it is a
game changer when you need to add some salt at
the end, when pulling things out, or right before serving.
It really enhances things. If you have a pizza stone
and use a pizza peel and fresh dough, try throwing
some on the peel before putting the dough on and
throwing the pizza in the oven. That little bit of
(34:43):
salt on the bottom just opens everything up so much more.
I'm really curious as to what it might do with
a deep dish Detroit style. I think that would work
really well. I don't have any of the old Plaine
iodized table salt anymore. I use fine sea salt if needed,
keep coarse sea salt, kosher salt, and of course the Malden.
I also have a couple of blends I've been given
(35:03):
that work really well, and I'm always open to some more.
So I really want to visit beautiful briny Sea and experiment.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
You should you should.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah, yeah, they do have a website you can you
can mail order it and get it chipped right to you. Again,
not a sponsor, just buddies. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yes, those are like those small touches of basically adding
salt to the bottom of the crust of the pizza. Yeah,
they add so much so good.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, it's really it's salt is tasty. I don't know, man. Yeah,
but I agree with you on like like butter. Certainly.
I always buy on salted butter and then add my
own as necessary because I just don't want to, you know. Yeah,
I want to be able to trust my hand and
my eyes and how much salt content is going to
(35:56):
get in there.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yeah. I agree. I think it's better. It's easier to
put stuff in at the end as opposed to trying
to balance too much. There are ways to doot, but
trying to balance too much salt versus like I can
add it in and kind of control it and taste
it and be like yeah, okay, okay, yeah. Yes. And
(36:18):
then I had somebody in my life for a while
that I couldn't have too much salt, and so I've
become very cognizant of how much you're using where Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah, yeah, I've had that too. I have, on the
other hand, had a roommate who loved to cook and
fabulous human definitely had a higher salt tolerance than anyone
else in the house, and so it could get a
little bit intense. So somewhere the happy medium. I'm very
(36:52):
cautious with Salt and he's very heavy handed. So I
was like, we really need to meet in the middle
of my guy like that to learn from each other.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Right, you can add more later if you want for
your yet all the rest, yes, yes, well, thank you
so much to both of those listeners for writing in.
If you would like to write to us, you can
Our email is hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
We are also on social media. You can find us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saber pod, and we
do hope to hear from you. Save is production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts my Heart Radio, you can visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Thanks as always for our super producers Dylan
Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and
we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lorn vocal Bam, and today
we have an episode for you about fudge.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, which Lauren and I discussed. I could have sworn
up and down we'd already done an episode on fudge.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I had to search our archives like twice to make
extra sure, but nope.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I think we've just discussed adjacent things like where we've
mentioned it Sundays.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, we did praylans or prawleens or prey lines mm hmm,
whichever of those you want.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
To say, yes we did, which brings me to I'm
actually not a big fudge person.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Me neither.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Every now and then I enjoy it, but it's definitely
not something I seek out. But as I mentioned in
the Prolein Paraline whatever episode there is, I come from
a tourist town. Uh, and there is a fudge shop
in that tourist town, which I'm actually not going to
(01:19):
shout out because I don't know the old owner used
to be not great. Oh oh that's fun. Okay, I
don't know who owns it now. I don't know the
full details, but I'm just not going to shut it out,
but there was a fudge shop there and it was
sort of a ride a passage. A lot of times
people would work there in high school and that's where
my dad would get those the turtles that we talked
(01:42):
about in that episode, which was just like becauns maybe
caramel caramel fudge on top, but it was just it
was a very big touristy thing. You would go there.
They had all kinds of fudge you could sample, and
that's like my biggest association with fudge.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, that that type of situation is definitely my biggest association,
Like that kind of like small tourist or like like
Disney World kind of situation where you just smell it
as you're walking down the street and then you see
the big window of someone making it, and like all
of the beautiful, bright candy colors and and just going like,
(02:22):
oh yeah, yeah, even though I don't even though I'm
aware of the fact that I'm not particularly going to
enjoy it that much. It's a little bit too sweet
for me. I'm like, no, I want some of that though.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Right, it smells so good? Yeah? Yes, Was there any
particular reason this was on your mind?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I guess I was trying to think of something summary
that I sort of associate with, Yeah, like summer vacation
and uh or who knows. I I feel like I
say every recording session that I'm having a long week,
but that's just been true lately. So here we are. Yeah, yeah,
(03:03):
it's Tuesday. It's already a long week.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
There you go. Tuesday is my least favorite day of
the week. Did you know?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
No? I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, because I feel like Monday you at least have
the bump of like a new week. Tuesday, you're like, oh,
I still have so much further to go the week.
There's a whole Seinfeld bit about this. Ah hey, yes, yes,
you can see our past episodes we've done on chocolate
(03:33):
things like taffy. I feel like it's the same same.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Absolutely absolutely. Also, yeah, National Fudge Day is June sixteenth,
so we've dead missed that one. Just absolutely about the
furthest away that we can get from being timely.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
And I had to think about it for a minute
because I no longer know what day it is. It
could be that's right around the corner. I don't know,
August now, got it. Wow, let's clarify something. Fudge what
(04:15):
is it?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Well, fudge can refer to a lot of things, actually,
but what we are talking about today is a type
of slab candy, usually made of sugar, cream, and butter
plus flavoring. It's thick and firm at room temperature, but
still easily sliced, and when you eat it it immediately
goes from like slightly chewy to just soft and creamy
(04:39):
and melt in your mouth. It can come in any
number of flavors, infinite flavors, I'm telling you, but the
classic is like chocolate fudge or vanilla fudge, with or
without chopped nuts in it. It's often made and sold
in small candy shops in walkable tourist areas, often with
the kitchen right up next to big windows to the
streets that you can watch it being. It's uh. It's
(05:02):
like if ice cream or shelf stable and a little
bit achingly sweet. It's uh. It is the smell of
small town tourism in the summer. It's uh. It's like
eating a Norman Rockwell painting, like nostalgic and rich and saccharin,
(05:22):
but but like still still good, still good good, Yeah,
somewhere in that range. M h yeah, yeah, uh okay,
So so yes, there are endless iterations of fudge flavored
with every kind of fruit syrup or nut, butter, or
(05:47):
kind of creamy thing or liquor or other like desserty
sweet to salty sweet concept that you can possibly imagine,
and probably several that you cannot. And I say that,
I mean I believe in your imagination skills, y'all, and
so like, it's a serious fudge world out there. You
can also mix in anything that's kind of dry and
(06:08):
shelf stable. Other candies and nuts are common. You can
make vegan fudge using non dairy butter and non dairy milk.
It can range from like fairly stiff to softer and creamier.
But the key, no matter what else you're doing, is
going to be that smooth melt in your mouth texture.
And the key to that is candy science.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Wah.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yes, okay, let's talk about sugar. So what we referred
to as table sugar, sucrose likes being a crystal at
room temperature. And you know that's how you most commonly
purchase it in a big bag of more or less
evenly formed crystals. If you ate a spoonful of those
(06:52):
crystals they'd be pretty crunchy, though, and this is not
what you want from your fudge. You might want crunchy
things in your fudge, but you want the fudge itself
to be nice and creamy. So making fudge is the
process of tricking a bunch of big sugar crystals into
like reconstituting themselves into a lot of tiny sugar crystals,
(07:15):
helped by and bound up in tasty, tasty fats, so
that the whole mass is smooth and creamy. You do
this by creating a supersaturated solution of water and dissolved sugar,
and then gently, carefully, slowly letting the sugar recrystallize with
help of the fats throughout to kind of mitigate the process,
(07:37):
all right. Candy making is all about controlling the saturation
of sugar in solution with water, and then controlling the
crystallization of that sugar out of the solution. You control
the saturation by dissolving the sugar into water and then
heating the solution up past the boiling point of water,
(07:59):
so the water starts evaporating out right, and thus the
concentration of sugar in the solution increases. When you've reached
whatever concentration you're going for. You let the solution cool
down again, and then the way that you treat it
at this stage will determine how all of those loosey
goosey sugar molecules form back up with each other and
(08:20):
any other stuff that you've got in the mix. If
you go all the way up to like a ninety
nine percent sugar concentration and then let it set real
still and slow, you've got a lollipop at ninety percent
sugar concentration. Depending on what else you add and whether
you mess with it or leave it still, you might
(08:41):
have nugat or you might have rock candy, respectively. It's
it's concentration and agitation that results in your final product.
For fudge, we're looking for about eighty five percent concentration
and a very specific pattern of agitation. All right, The
(09:04):
water content in your fudge comes from cream and butter
or whatever other kind of milk type stuff you're using.
So you solve your sugar in about an equal combined
weight of cream and butter. Maybe some recipes have you
hold the butter for later. I can't tell you what
to do. But then after the sugar dissolves without stirring
or otherwise messing with it any further. You heat the
(09:26):
solution to ride around two hundred and thirty five to
two hundred and forty degrees fahrenheit. That's one hundred and
twelve to one hundred and sixteen celsius. And I'm saying
it that precisely because fun thing. Actually, the concentration of
sugar in a solution directly correlates to the temperature of
a solution, and that temperature that I just quoted at
(09:48):
you is about eighty five percent concentration, or as you
would say in candy making the soft ball stage. And
at that point it'll it'll be a glossy like a
like a super saturated mass, and also very hot, so
be careful. You Then, as it starts to cool, either
manually or with a mixer, start slowly and steadily stirring
(10:12):
it again. Sugar is looking to be a crystal when
it's in a solution. Any little thing can set off
the crystallization process. That's why you don't want to stir
it or like scrape down the sides as you're cooking it,
because you could spawn crystal nucleation. The molecules will start
(10:33):
locking up together, and then suddenly you've got this grainy,
gritty mass. It is wild if you've never seen this happen.
It is wild to watch how fast this can happen
and how like relatively large the crystals can get very quickly.
But in the case of fudge, the fats that you've
added from the cream and butter are keeping a little
(10:54):
bit of elbow room between the molecules. Yeah, and then
stirring gently and steadily with that elbow room allows nucleation
to happen in a whole lot of places independently and
simultaneously throughout the mass. So each crystal only grows to
(11:14):
be tiny, and there are a whole lot of them.
At this point, the mixture will have lost its gloss
because of the way that tiny crystals are now scattering
light rather than kind of reflecting it, and it'll thicken up.
So you kind of sludge it out into a tray.
Let's smooth it out, let it cool and further crystallize
for another like eight hours or so, and then you
have fudge. Along In the stirring stage, you can add
(11:40):
flavors or mixins. You can sprinkle mixings on the top later,
but yeah, that's fudge. It is a little bit of work,
and I highly recommend having a candy thermometer if you're
going to embark on this yourself. Some recipes call for
other stuff that'll help prevent premature crystallization, like corn syrup
or a cream of tartar. But yeah, fudge.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah. My friends who worked at the store I mentioned,
I said it was very physical, like it was a
tiring process.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Oh sure, yeah, stirring. Man, never gonna estimate stirring.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Don't please, don't. Well what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
No, treats are nice, you know. It's it's sugar and
butter and cream. That's it's. It's colorkally dense. I eat,
eat a vegetable and some protein, and drink some water.
All three.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yeah, fudge in a vegetable, some water, and a protein
and approtein. Okay, a fully balanced meal. Yeah yeah, part
of your balanced breakfast for sure. Yes. Well, we do
have some numbers for you, Oh we do, Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
The Google trends graph for the search term fudge in
the United States is just one hilariously large spike every
December as people get ready for the winter holidays. It
is most searched in West Virginia, Kentucky and Maine. In
the US, however, it is by far the most popularly
searched in New Zealand, and then the UK, Ireland and
(13:26):
South Africa are all like closer to the US in
terms of search traffic. But I don't know what's happening
with fudge in New Zealand. Y'all have to write in
and let us now, because apparently it is a very
big thing.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I'm very curious.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, world record for you. The Guinness Record for the
largest slab of fudge was achieved in twenty ten in Canada.
It weighed two point sixty one metric tons that's about
five thousand, seven hundred and sixty pounds. It took a
week to make and contained like stripes or sections of vanilla,
(14:05):
chocolate and maple.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Mm. Wow. Just the thought of like, try it, piece
of that is making me. I feel like when I
have fudge, the first bite is nice and that's it,
like the too rich.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Too sweet, to sugary, too rich.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah, yeah, and it's it's not that I don't like it,
but that first bite is like you're like, well, that's
in your face. And if I'm seeing like stripes of
vanilla charta and maple inside the fudge, and it's a lot.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah yeah, I mean that's also like the weight of
like a large suv.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
So well, some people can eat a lot of fudge.
Do love it, seek it out. And one of those
places that people go to is Macinaw Island, which we're
going to talk about more in the history section. But
(15:09):
Macinall Island in northern Michigan is often viewed as America's
modern day fudge capital. It has a dozen fudge shops.
In the summer when tourists that are called fudgies come,
these shops may sell up to one thousand pounds a
day to meet demand, and some people live there. So yeah,
(15:34):
it is very wild.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Wow all right, hey, great, great o. Good for them.
I'm happy about it.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah. I was looking up some of the menus before
we got on, just to see you It's like, oh, yeah,
what kind of fudge are they selling Mackinall Island?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Was anything a stand up?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Not really, And I don't say that in any It
was just the lot of that I've seen. Yeah, I'm
sure like if I dug deeper there would have been.
But most of the stuff I was seeing on my
very short search was like, oh, yeah, yeah, I've seen that.
I've seen that. Yeah, yeah, it must be good people
go there.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah, I think I think the the the ones that
that really are the one that really surprised me as
I was kind of browsing around, Uh was I read
about some licorice fudge out of the UK, and I
was like.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Ah, huh huh.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, both of us are kind of making the same face,
which I hope throw our vocalizations is translating. But yeah,
it's just like, oh, how I feel about that being
in my mouth?
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Sure it's a mixed bag. Yeah, I saw a popcorn
one and that one I'm curious about, but I don't know.
I mean, listeners again, please write in.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Oh yeah, oh, if you have a favorite flavor, if
you've got yeah, a favorite shop. Yes, but okay, but
we are getting ahead of ourselves in the meanwhile, this
all had to start somewhere.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
It did. It did, and it was kind of a
surprising origin story for me, to be honest. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, and we are going to get into that origin
story as soon as we get back from a quick break.
For a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And we're back.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, Yes, and.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Again you can see our chocolate episodes taffy related. Sure
this one, sure, but yes, most sources claim that fudge
is a Baltimore original circa the eighteen eighties. One big
piece of evidence that's often cited was a letter out
(17:58):
of the nineteen twenties describing something that happened in the
eighteen eighties. In it, the writer claimed that her roommate
at Vassar whipped up this first bash of fudge, and
the students fortunate enough to try it loved it, loved it,
loved it. However, the same letter mentions a place in
(18:20):
Baltimore selling fudge for forty cents a pound as early
as eighteen eighty six, which really confused.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a little bit of a wibbly
wobbly timey, whymy things going on? And I think also
like write this letter indeed was from the nineteen twenties
describing things from the eighteen eighties, So yes.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Poop, yes boop. Indeed, early fudge recipes required exact measurements
and constant stirring as.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
They do today, but with the way that they didn't
probably have candy dermometors at the time. So there you go.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yep again from what I hear. The writer of the letter,
one Emmelin battersby Hattridge great name, loved fudge so much
that she made thirty pounds of it for an event
at Vassar. According to Mental Flass, fudge was so popular
on campus that, as printed in their Alumni magazine quote,
(19:20):
students would make it in the middle of the night,
dangerously diverting the gas from their lamps for the task.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, it was a whole student thing. Like it wasn't
being served to them in the cafeteria, it was being
made by them, often after hours. A poem published in
the college's yearbook in eighteen ninety three read, what purchase
us upon a chair to stir a saucepan held in air,
which tipping pours upon our hair fudges.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I do love this because there's something about the the
making and sharing of something that you love so much
doing it even despite difficulty, perhaps despite danger. After that,
(20:13):
I just really am endeared.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
By absolutely well, and especially for something as like relatively
wholesome as fudge as we see it today, Like today
it's such a kind of like old fashioned product that
it's like all.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Right, right, and like speaking to that point. From this instance,
fudge was spread, recipes were adapted, especially amongst women, and
in women's colleges. There were recipe spots, there were songs
that were sung, there were funds that were raised. Some
sources even suggest that women would make it in secret
(20:52):
as a form of rebellion.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, okay, so so so the rebellious part of it,
Like women's colleges at the time were really strict with
their students and at vasar vasar in particular, like curfew
was ten pm. In general, women weren't allowed to like
go out on the town and carouse like their dude
counterparts might have been, or like their dude counterparts might
(21:19):
have been, like a little bit less strictly watched, so
they could sneak out a little bit more easily, or
were kind of encouraged to a little bit. Also, like
due to food health kind of ideals at the time
that emphasized plain and simple foods, Like there was this
moral panic a little bit about rich and sugary treats.
(21:42):
We've talked about this ad infinitem in episodes about cereals mostly.
But yeah, so like sitting around and like grilling oysters
on a hat pin or making fudge standing on top
of your chair to get a pan up to the
(22:03):
gas light like doing that after curfew was indeed a rebellion.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Oh I love this idea. Really oysters and fudge, Oh
my god.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, well, Welsh rabbit was the other was the other
dish that I heard?
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Oh so good, so good. Well. Other sources report that
the invention of fudge was due to an accident. We
hear that story all the time, that a confectioner made
while trying to make chocolate caramel candies. Basically it was
a temperature mistake.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, temperature and stirring. I've heard that happened in France,
but I haven't read any sources backing it up. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
But whether or not that is true, A lot of
folks doing research in this space do think it probably
was an accident, which is interesting because, according to Jowhound,
the word fudge has been used to denote something foolish
or annoy since the nineteenth century, and Miriam Webster suggests
(23:04):
that in verb form it meant something to exceed proper
bounds or to cheat, perhaps as far back as the
sixteen or seventeen hundreds, So like the kid friendly insult
apparently came into vogue in the eighteen hundreds, and some
speculate that fudge got the name because someone fudged up.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Oh yeah, Yeah, it's a really interesting etymology because, like, definitely,
by the end of the seventeen hundreds, this usage of
fudge to mean nonsense, to refer to something like made
up on the spot, like you just fudged that up.
That was in fairly wide use by the end of
(23:47):
seventeen hundreds. So it genuinely seems like the name of
the candy came from this use of this word. Interesting,
the etymology behind that is a little bit more complicated,
and no one truly knows where it came from. People
think that it's like maybe it's based on a surname
that was based on another surname. I yeah, I didn't
(24:09):
write out notes. It just seemed it seems like the
word itself is a little bit nonsense and a mistake.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
So yeah, And I did think of several examples, Christmas
Story being prominent of them, of substituting that word for
a worse word when we're cursing. Yeah, yes, And it
sounds like it's just as you might suspect a sound based.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
At any rate. By the early nineteen hundreds, fudge was
no longer a fad at women's colleges and had begun
to spread two tourist spots.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yes, Mackinaw Island's fudge business allegedly got started alongside their
tours business in the eighteen hundreds. At the time, candy
was more of a treat than we see it as today,
and it was worthy of a trip, special thing to
seek out. By the nineteen twenties, downtown Mackinaw boasted several
(25:15):
fudge shops, and there is some speculation about why fudge
is such a touristy thing. Most tourist strips have fudge
As far back as nineteen oh one. A US pamphlet read,
people will stop to see almost anything done, especially if
(25:36):
the performance requires some particular knowledge. I love that, It's true.
I mean it like watching this. I think the smell
is a really key part of it. Oh yeah, the
smell and then getting to see it in the window,
and then getting the free sample, like they like pull
you in.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
They do, they do, and then you're like, oh, it's
like a venus fly trap.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Yes it is. I agree.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Oh and I didn't look I didn't look too deeply
into it, but I think that the Okay, So, the
creation and popularity of this type of fudge candy sort
of got mixed up in the popularity of ice cream
shops and soda fountain shops right around the same time,
like right around the turn of the century, and led
(26:29):
to a deliberately oversoft version of fudge meant to be
served warm being hot fudge.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Mm hmmm, yes, And that was my favorite dairy queen,
not a sponsor order when I was a kid. Hot
fudge someday.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Oh, I love a hot fudge. Gosh, I love a
hot fudge. Everything that I everything that I've been saying
about fudge, about how it's too sweet and whatever, whatever.
If you make it warm and you put it on
ice cream, I'm all in.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
It's like the mixture of like texture and temperatures. Though. Yeah,
it balances out in a way.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
You and you can use a little bit less sugar
and hot fudge because you don't need it to be
The sugar is what helps it firm up in solid fudge,
so it can be a little bit less sweet. Wow.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
I'm really curious to hear from listeners from from the
United States, because everything in our country seems like we
have references in certain regions, but outside of the country, Like,
I'm really curious what the fudge situation is in New
Zealand but also everywhere else. Yeah, yeah, curious. Is it
(27:40):
a tourist thing?
Speaker 2 (27:41):
I yeah, I know that it's a holiday thing pretty
much everywhere, and from from what I was kind of gleaning, yeah,
it's I don't know, it's so weird to me that
it is. It seems to be a very specifically English
speaking world, right, Yeah, I think that maybe there was
(28:04):
some like like one article that I was reading about
one of the big UK producers does export some to
like Germany, y'all let us know.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, I mean, it is a huge holiday thing. I
wonder if that's I'm sure it's part of it, but
I wonder if it's we're over complicating it and it's
just that it is really rich and was kind of
hard to make, and they're like, yeah, okade holidays, holidays. Yes, yes, Well,
listeners were counting on you to let us know. In
(28:36):
the meantime, that's what we have to say about fudge
for now. It is.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
We do already have some listener mail for you. Though,
and we are going to get into that as soon
as we get back from one more quick break for
a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
They we're back, Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you back
with listen. May Oh.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
I think I think I was really off key that time.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
I'm sorry, Oh, unforgivable. How could you be off key
over our wonky video calls when you can't hear what
I'm doing and you're depending on me. Just signal to you.
I don't understand. You're right, I'm a.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Failure school a school anyway. I'm more an apology to
the listeners. I hope, I hope I didn't just defend
your delicate sensibilities.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yeah, yeah, I love we listeners. We don't get to
hear this how it sounds until Andrew's super producer, Andrew
sends it to us, Yeah for listening before we publish,
and it's always you do a great job, super and
oh yeah, but it's a surprise to us as well.
(30:00):
M Sheldon wrote about our Quaker Oats episode in the
Memories that it brought back quote this time from a
long time ago, back in the late fifties. With Quaker Oats,
we were four kids, very close in age. The oldest
was six and the youngest was four. A set of
twins were in there. As you can imagine four kids
(30:21):
that close in age would be playing and laughing together
all the time. We had an old great great aunt
who we called Anti Margaret, a heavy set woman with
white hair. I don't remember much of her other than
her heavy set face, white hair. She wore a hat,
and that she said beautiful instead of beautiful. So one morning,
(30:44):
the four of us were sitting at the breakfast table
and the canister of Quaker oats was on the table.
My younger sister looked at it and said, look, it's
Anti Margaret. Crime same heavy face, the eyes were not
that clear on the older picture, and even a similar hat.
It did look just like her. If you look at
(31:04):
the eyes on the older pictures, it's easy to imagine
they are crying, as kids do. We started laughing and
laughing and couldn't stop. And then after that, every time
we would have oatmeal for breakfast, we would still look
at Anti Margaret crying. Now, almost sixty five years later,
(31:25):
the four of us still call that picture Anti Margaret crying,
even though the newer pictures look nothing like her. Amazing
how many times your shows bring back memories. I love this.
I I have similar memories where when you're a kid,
(31:45):
it seems so silly, but for some reason it's just
really really funny.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, it just tells you for whatever reason.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yes, And I have plenty of them around food. One
of my big ones is my dad, who was notoriously
not a good cook. He could do certain things, but
that realm was small. And one time he was tired
and he had to like make his dinner and he
(32:18):
that's making me a lot to think about it. Yeah,
there was this popcorn bowl that we used for popcorn
every night because I loved popcorn. We loved popcorn, and
it would have like the kernels in it, and it
would just sit out like we would and wash it.
We would just like use it again and again. So
it was just sitting out and my dad I really
(32:38):
wanted soup, and he got a can of Campbell soup
and he opened it up and he just poured it
into the the popcorn bowl. And for some reason, it
was like the funniest thing ever. And to this day,
like me and my siblings will I could just say,
like popcorn soup, and we all know what what I
(33:01):
was talking about. It sounds so like minor, but it
was just really really funny because it was like a
big popcorn ball. I'm not talking like a little individual.
I'm talking about like you're shareable popcorn. You just poured
this individual soup can.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah, I'm sure it was just like a tiny little
puddle of soup in the bottom of this clearly popcorn bowl. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
And he told me not to tell my mom, and
I immediately told her looking about this guy.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Did wow, wow's too funny. You weren't narking, you were sharing. Yeah, totally, Yes,
that's amazing, Auntie Margaret, sounds amazing.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
And I remember looking at those older pictures of the
Quaker oats dude and thinking, like, he looks sad, Like
I wonder why he's sad.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
He felt like I had a lot going on. Yeah,
that he was pondering. Yeah. Eric wrote about salt another
wonderful revisit. Salt is one of those things I prefer
to buy low salt stuff and always try to use
unsalted butter. I can then add the salt in a
way that suits me. Fun to hear the mention of Malden,
(34:22):
it is definitely a favorite of mine now. I finally
bought some a few months ago, and it is a
game changer when you need to add some salt at
the end, when pulling things out, or right before serving.
It really enhances things. If you have a pizza stone
and use a pizza peel and fresh dough, try throwing
some on the peel before putting the dough on and
throwing the pizza in the oven. That little bit of
(34:43):
salt on the bottom just opens everything up so much more.
I'm really curious as to what it might do with
a deep dish Detroit style. I think that would work
really well. I don't have any of the old Plaine
iodized table salt anymore. I use fine sea salt if needed,
keep coarse sea salt, kosher salt, and of course the Malden.
I also have a couple of blends I've been given
(35:03):
that work really well, and I'm always open to some more.
So I really want to visit beautiful briny Sea and experiment.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
You should you should.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah, yeah, they do have a website you can you
can mail order it and get it chipped right to you. Again,
not a sponsor, just buddies. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yes, those are like those small touches of basically adding
salt to the bottom of the crust of the pizza. Yeah,
they add so much so good.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, it's really it's salt is tasty. I don't know, man. Yeah,
but I agree with you on like like butter. Certainly.
I always buy on salted butter and then add my
own as necessary because I just don't want to, you know. Yeah,
I want to be able to trust my hand and
my eyes and how much salt content is going to
(35:56):
get in there.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yeah. I agree. I think it's better. It's easier to
put stuff in at the end as opposed to trying
to balance too much. There are ways to doot, but
trying to balance too much salt versus like I can
add it in and kind of control it and taste
it and be like yeah, okay, okay, yeah. Yes. And
(36:18):
then I had somebody in my life for a while
that I couldn't have too much salt, and so I've
become very cognizant of how much you're using where Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah, yeah, I've had that too. I have, on the
other hand, had a roommate who loved to cook and
fabulous human definitely had a higher salt tolerance than anyone
else in the house, and so it could get a
little bit intense. So somewhere the happy medium. I'm very
(36:52):
cautious with Salt and he's very heavy handed. So I
was like, we really need to meet in the middle
of my guy like that to learn from each other.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Right, you can add more later if you want for
your yet all the rest, yes, yes, well, thank you
so much to both of those listeners for writing in.
If you would like to write to us, you can
Our email is hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
We are also on social media. You can find us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saber pod, and we
do hope to hear from you. Save is production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts my Heart Radio, you can visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Thanks as always for our super producers Dylan
Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and
we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!