Cocoa Fudge
Make the same as chocolate fudge, substituting three table spoons of cocoa for the two ounces of chocolate.
This is a cross-reference rather than a standalone recipe: it assumes you have the book's chocolate fudge in front of you, which in this period means sugar, milk or cream, butter, and a little vanilla boiled together and beaten as it cools. The substitution itself is sound, but a few things need translating.
- The hinge: temperature, not timeOld fudge recipes say "boil until it forms a soft ball in cold water," which is 234-240F on a candy thermometer. Under 234F it will not set; much over 240F it turns hard and crumbly.
- Three tablespoons cocoa for two ounces chocolateNote that this is a lighter substitution than the usual equivalence, which runs nearer three tablespoons of cocoa per ounce of chocolate, so expect a milder result. Two ounces of unsweetened chocolate also carries roughly two tablespoons of cocoa butter, which the cocoa does not supply; add about a tablespoon of extra butter to the pan or the fudge will be drier and grainier than the chocolate version.
- What "cocoa" meantAssume plain unsweetened cocoa powder rather than a sweetened drinking-cocoa mix; with a sweetened mix the sugar balance in the original will be wrong.
- Sift the cocoa with the sugarCocoa powder lumps stubbornly in hot milk. Whisk it dry into the sugar before any liquid goes in; recipes of this vintage often leave the step unstated.
- BeatingCool the cooked syrup undisturbed to about 110F, then beat until it loses its gloss and thickens. Beating while it is still hot produces large sugar crystals and a sandy texture.
- Pan and yieldA batch built on two cups of sugar fills an 8-inch square pan to about half an inch and gives roughly 30 pieces. Butter the pan and score the surface while the fudge is still warm.
Fudge belongs to a specific moment in American candy-making: cheap refined sugar, cheap canned and bottled milk, and a home cook who could suddenly boil a sugar syrup without a confectioner's training. It spread through women's colleges in the 1890s -- Vassar, Smith and Wellesley all have claims on early versions, though the attributions are traditional rather than documented -- and by the time cook books like this one were being sold, a candy chapter was expected. The cocoa variant is a thrift note as much as a flavor one. Boxed cocoa powder was cheaper by the ounce than block chocolate and kept far better in a warm kitchen.