Fig Fudge
Pinch cream of tartar 1/4 lb. chopped figs 1 lb. brown sugar Pinch salt 1 tablespoonful Crisco 1 cupful water 1 teaspoonful lemon extract Wash and dry figs, then chop them. Put sugar and water into saucepan, and dissolve, add Crisco and cream of tartar, and when it boils, add figs, and boil to a soft ball when tried in cold water, or 240 degree F., stirring all the time. Remove pan from fire, add lemon extract and salt, cool five minutes, then stir until it begins to grain, and quickly pour into Criscoed tin. When half cold mark in squares.
A straightforward brown-sugar fudge with chopped figs, from one of the Crisco-sponsored cookbooks of the 1910s. The chemistry is sound; only the brand names and the pan size need translating.
- The hinge: stop stirring, then stir hardStir while the syrup boils to 240F, then take it off the heat, let it sit five minutes undisturbed, and only then beat it until it dulls and "begins to grain." Beating too early gives coarse crystals and a gritty fudge; beating too late means it sets in the pan before you can pour it.
- 240F is not optional240F, or the cold-water soft-ball test — the recipe offers both. A thermometer is easier to read than the colour of a brown-sugar syrup, and a few degrees past 240F will give a noticeably firmer, harder set.
- CriscoPlain vegetable shortening, and the book it comes from exists to promote it. Unsalted butter substitutes at one tablespoon, though it will brown slightly and read less neutral.
- "Criscoed tin"A greased pan. Line an 8x4 loaf tin or a 6-inch square pan with parchment and grease that instead o fmuch cleaner release.
- Cream of tartarThe pinch inverts a little of the sugar, which keeps the crystals fine. Do not increase it, or the fudge will stay soft and be reluctant to set.
- The figsDried figs, not fresh. Stem them and chop small; large pieces sink and make the fudge hard to cut.
- Lemon extractOne teaspoon of an alcohol-based extract, added off the heat so it does not flash off. Grated zest is a reasonable substitute but will speckle the fudge.
- YieldAbout a pound and a quarter of fudge, roughly 24 to 30 small squares. Mark the squares when it is half cold, as the recipe directs, and finish cutting when fully cold.
This comes from the era when a shortening manufacturer would commission a whole cookbook to establish its product as an ordinary pantry staple, and Crisco, introduced in 1911, was among them hence its appearance in a fudge recipe where any fat would do. The fudge itself belongs to the American late-nineteenth-century tradition of boiled sugar candies made at home rather than bought from a confectioner, generally traced to women's colleges in the 1880s, where the technique spread quickly because it needed nothing more than a saucepan and a source of heat. Dried figs, cheap and shelf-stable, were a standard way of adding fruit to sweets outside the fresh-fruit season. Whatever the original's arrangement may suggest, there are no eggs in it.