Ever hear anyone exclaim, “Oh, fudge!” when they’ve screwed something up? Like the Slinky, the Post-It note, potato chips, and penicillin, the dense candy-like treat known as fudge is believed to have been a mistake. According to legend, a confectioner flubbed while trying to make caramel waaaay back in 1886, but ended up creating something just as delicious! We celebrate this happy accident on June 16, which is National Fudge Day. Fudge also has historical ties to female scholars in the late 19th and early 20th century, when recipes for it spread like wildfire among students at women’s colleges such as Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith. One student made 30 pounds of the stuff for the Vassar Senior Auction in 1890!
While chocolate is probably the most well-known flavor of fudge, but aside from chocolate and its myriad variations (chocolate peanut-butter, chocolate mint, chocolate cherry, chocolate walnut, German chocolate), you can pig out on pumpkin pie, maple walnut, vanilla, coconut, blueberry, cherry, raspberry cheesecake, cookie dough, gingerbread, amaretto, Kahlua…need we go on? Suffice it to say that unless you had your sweet tooth extracted by the dentist at a very young age, you’re going to find a flavor of fudge that appeals to you.
Perhaps because it’s closer kin to candy than to other treats like cookies or cakes, fudge has a reputation for being finicky and difficult to make. That may well stem from its late-19th-century history, when it often would have been made on a wood-fired stove and without the benefit of candy thermometers. Nowadays, we have precise temperature control, accurate measurement, and ingredients — corn syrup, marshmallow fluff and condensed milk — that make whipping up a batch of fudge a veritable snap.
Now that Covid restrictions are lifting and we’re all vaccinated, maybe you’ll want to plan a trip to Mackinac, Michigan. Why Mackinac? Because that’s where the biggest Fudge Festival in the United States is held every year! Mackinac Island, Michigan is 4.35-square-mile island that is home to over a dozen shops dedicated to fudge, even though its permanent population only hovers around 500 people. While the famous fudge destination’s celebration doesn’t coincide with National Fudge Day, it doesn’t need to. Plenty of folks make the trek every year to see the fudge-making process, try fudge-infused cocktails created by local mixologists, run in a sugar-sack relay race, or look for one of several “golden tickets” hidden inside boxes of fudge, which entitle winners to a free-vacation package. The festival occurs in April, plenty of time to book your tickets, and maybe get in a few extra hours on the elliptical in preparation.
Or heck, just go buy yourself some fudge and indulge!
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