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Turkish Asuree
Five ounces of wheat starch, one quart of water, one pound and a half of sugar, one-half of a pound of seeded raisins, one-quarter of a pound of blanched almonds cut fine, two ounces of candied angelica, one teaspoonful of vanilla, one tablespoonful of orange flower water, a little yellow color paste; mix the cornstarch with one cupful of the water. Put the remainder over the fire with the raisins, almonds and angelica; bring to the boiling point and pour over the dissolved stock. Stir until it thickens, then place over the fire, add the sugar and stir until it boils. Cook for five minutes, let it stand covered until the first heat has passed off, add the flavorings, color with a little yellow paste. Finish as in the preceding recipe. "FUDGE."
The confection known variously as fudge, "chocolate fudge" and "Vassar fudge," is made in the following simple manner: Put in a porcelain-lined saucepan two cups of granulated sugar, six sections of unsweetened chocolates (broken into bits), two heaping tablespoonfuls of butter, and one cupful of milk. Cook all together, stirring constantly to prevent burning, for twenty minutes. At the end of that time dip out a little of the mixture and try it by putting it on a cold plate. If it is done, it will form a soft paste. Flavor with vanilla, beat hard for a few minutes and turn the "fudge" into greased candy pans. Cut into squares while warm. Many persons eat this popular delicacy while still hot, at which time it is particularly delicious.
Two confections run together on one page: a starch-set Turkish paste in the lokum family, and an early printed fudge. Both are straightforward, but the first recipe contradicts itself and the second gives no temperature.
- Wheat starch or cornstarchThe ingredient list says wheat starch and the method says cornstarch. Either will set the paste; cornstarch is generally said to give a softer body, wheat starch a chewier one. Use five ounces by weight of whichever you choose — a little over a cup of cornstarch — and keep it consistent.
- The hinge: slurry before heatThe starch must be fully dispersed in the cold cup of water before the boiling liquid goes in, and the pouring is done into the slurry, not the reverse. Dropping dry starch into hot syrup gives lumps that no amount of beating will clear.
- "Finish as in the preceding recipe"The cross-reference is lost here. Pastes of this type are poured about an inch deep into a pan lined with a heavy dusting of cornstarch and powdered sugar, left uncovered overnight to firm, then cut and rolled in the same dusting mixture.
- Long, patient cookingFive minutes at a boil is what this recipe calls for; longer, gentler cooking is what gives the translucent, tender chew associated with Turkish delight. The mixture will pull away from the pan sides when ready.
- Candied angelicaThe candied green stems of Angelica archangelica, once a standard decorating sweet and now sold mainly through baking suppliers. Candied citron or chopped candied orange peel substitutes without much loss.
- Yellow color pasteA period confectioner's coloring. Any modern gel food color works; the recipe says only "a little", so a very small amount is intended.
- Orange flower waterDistilled orange blossom water, still sold in Middle Eastern groceries and pharmacies. It is potent — a tablespoon in this quantity is assertive but correct for the style. Rose water is the other traditional choice.
- "Six sections of unsweetened chocolate"A "section" is one square broken from a cake of baking chocolate. These were commonly scored at about an ounce, so six sections is probably around six ounces, though cake sizes and scoring varied by maker.
- Fudge by temperature, not clockTwenty minutes is a rough guide that depends entirely on your pan and burner. Use a thermometer: soft-ball stage, 234–240F, is what the cold-plate test is looking for. Under it, the fudge will not set; over it, it turns hard and crumbly.
- Beating and coolingLet the syrup cool to about 110F before beating, which is the step that makes fudge smooth rather than grainy. Beating while it is still very hot, as the phrasing here suggests, gives large sugar crystals.
- YieldThe Turkish paste makes roughly two and a half pounds. The fudge fills a small square pan and comes to somewhere between one and one and a half pounds.
The Turkish original, aşure, is a grain pudding of boiled wheat berries, pulses, dried fruit and nuts eaten on the tenth of Muharram, and is commonly called Noah's pudding on the strength of the tradition that Noah made it from whatever was left aboard the ark. What this book prints is a confectioner's translation: the fruit and nuts survive, but the wheat berries have become wheat starch and the dish has been reworked into a firm cut paste of the lokum or Turkish-delight family, which American cooks of the period knew from imported boxes. The fudge that follows is more interesting as evidence than as a formula — it appears in print in the 1890s and early 1900s already carrying the name "Vassar fudge," the confection being widely credited to women's college students who made candy over gas jets and chafing dishes in their rooms, and who spread the recipe by letter between campuses. The instruction that it is best eaten hot from the pan belongs to that context rather than to the professional candy kitchen.