Ah, Fudge

The leftover evaporated milk from last week's fudge-attempt sat in the refrigerator, begging, "Use me! Use me! Use me to prove to yourself that you can make fudge!"

So, before it spoiled, I indulged the little jar. (Me? NO! Don't you say, "Silly girl, you indulged yourself!" That would just make this whole venture, like, selfish, instead of, y'know, helping the little jar of evaporated milk to take pleasure in serving its neighbor. Yes, indeedy.)

I carefully tested the boiling candy in icy water without trusting my lyin' candy thermometer. Turned out that the candy reached softball stage at a whoppin' 225 (as opposed to the 236 that the thermometer should register for softball stage). No wonder the last batch was so terribly overcooked!

We let the fudge cool. Then I beat it. And I beat it. And I beat it some more. Hey! This should take a few minutes. But 30 minutes is NOT "a few minutes." And still the fudge refused to stiffen. Suddenly, we realized that a thermometer that's reading low would have lied to me about when the fudge had cooled enough to be beaten. Uh oh. When I had blisters on both hands from stirring and stirring with the wooden spoon, I quit.

How do you fix fudge???

I found loads of very unhelpful answers on the internet. But I did learn that it's not good to make fudge on a humid or rainy day.

Oops.

Given that my fudge had made a feeble little attempt at stiffening, and given that I knew the weather was a contributing factor in my failure this time, I decided to try something, anything. I buttered the sides of a fresh saucepan. I transferred the candy to the pot. I added 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar. I heated the candy and let it boil for another couple of minutes. I let it cool again. And when I beat it, this time the gloss dulled and the candy stiffened.

IT WORKED! I poured the fudge into the dish, and it set up nicely. It's smooth and creamy and ... well ... fudgy. Excellent!