I love fudge, and when I saw a recipe for Nutmeg Fudge in a hundred-year-old magazine I just had to try to try it.
The verdict—The fudge was wonderfully smooth and creamy. I noticed unexpected nutmeg undertones when taking the first nibble, but then the warm, spicy hint of nutmeg balanced nicely with the sugar to create a fudge that was less sweet than many fudges.
Nutmeg Fudge
2 cups light-brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoonful nutmeg
Combine brown sugar, milk, cream, and melted chocolate in a heavy saucepan. Using medium heat, heat until the mixture just begins to boil. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking without stirring until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage (235° F.). Remove from heat; then stir in butter, salt, and nutmeg.
Cool until lukewarm; then stir vigorously until the mixture becomes creamy and begins to thicken. Pour into a small buttered pan (6” X 6”). When firm cut into squares.
Adapted from recipe in Good Housekeeping (December, 1915)
Here’s the original recipe:
A Hundred Years Ago 
My mouth is watering and all we have in the house are a few leftover M&M’s. The dish you used to hold the fudge looks 100 years old. I am having a Second Hand Christmas this year. Instead of bringing my vintage: pre antique treasures to the Good Will, I have begun to put them on the dining room table and allowing guests to choose gifts. Youngest first. and so on.
Your blog helped to create the idea. So many people are down-sizing and those two words stick in my craw.
I did shop in the various stores where in the past I have purchased great gifts, but my mind turned to the drawers full of my treasures, soon to belong to others via Christmas gifts of THEIR choosing. Thank you for letting me share the idea.!
What a wonderful idea to let guests select their own gifts from your curated vintage treasures! It sounds like something that your family will really enjoy as they select their own very special gifts. I’m honored that my blog played some small role in helping you create the idea. I know that I greatly value the items that I have which once belonged to my grandmother.
Everyone is so excited. They are enlarging the photo to pick their gift ahead of time. I never thought of that when I posted the photo. oh me oh my!
What fun! When I read your post about the upcoming party, I also enlarged the picture to see if one of the bud vases and the fan were identical to items I have in my house. They were.
The fudge looks so good. I never heard of adding nutmeg. And while on the topic of inspiration from your blog, I started a small journal and plan to write a memoir with the highlights of my life. Yes, just an ordinary life, but as I research my ancestors, there are lots of questions I have that a diary would answer.
It’s wonderful to hear that A Hundred Years Ago helped inspire you to start a journal and write a memoir. Based on my experiences with my grandmother’s diary, I’m totally convinced that what seems ordinary or routine to a journal author can be of great interest to others. I feel certain that my grandmother never would have guessed that people would find her story interesting a hundred years later.
Exactly!
Oh, YUM! I so want to make this, but I’ve already gained four pounds 😦 over the Thanksgiving holiday. It’ll have to suffice to just look at your wonderful photo of those scrumptious looking pieces of candy.
Enjoying the fudge virtually sounds like to good way to go. It’s so difficult not to gain weight over the holidays.
I do not like very sweet fudge so this would be perfect for me 🙂
I think that you’d like this recipe.
super yum!
It’s a very nice fudge.
Looks great and all natural!
One nice thing about hundred- year-old recipes is that they generally call for natural ingredients.
Yes. That’s why I like them. They use real food.
Nutmeg and chocolate.. seems like an odd combination at first. I would like to try making it too!
It’s a surprisingly good combination–and recipe calls for a small enough amount of nutmeg that it isn’t overwhelming. I was surprised how quickly this fudge vanished at my house. My husband obviously liked it. 🙂
I just can’t conceive of nutmeg in fudge. But cinnamon? Oh, yes. I think I’ll try this with cinnamon substituting for the nutmeg. It shouldn’t make one bit of difference — except with the taste, of course. I would add pecans, too. You can’t have fudge without nuts!
I still have the heavy aluminum pan we used for fudge-making when I was a kid, and the very same candy thermometer. It’s time to pull them out.
Cinnamon sounds good–and pecans are always wonderful in fudge. If you make it let me know if you like the fudge with cinnamon.
It’s wonderful that you still have the old pan and candy thermometer. Sometimes I think that they don’t make cookware like they used to.
I usually find fudge too sweet, but love the idea of the nutmeg here!
I think that you’d like it with the nutmeg.
I do love nutmeg and I’m sure it cuts a lot of the sweetness.
Good for you for managing to successfully interpret this recipe from the original! Sounds delicious.
It is excellent.
oooh….. you saw me coming – didn’t you?!!!!
🙂
This sounds fabulous and it makes a small amount so I can’t over indulge. Thanks for sharing. I love making fudge for the Christmas holidays.
I was surprised how little fudge this old recipe made. When I made it, I buttered an 8 X 8 pan–and then realized that it was going to be very thin fudge, so switched to a smaller pan. I wonder if cooks a hundred years ago would have generally doubled this recipe.
I like the addition of nutmeg. Maybe we will add this to our cookies that get gifted during the holidays.
The nutmeg works nicely in this recipe. I think that you’d like it.
Oh Sheryl! What a wonderfully unique recipe! I must make this for Christmas! Thanks for posting!
I’m glad you like it.
This is a great idea! Most fudge is too sweet for my taste so I like hearing the nutmeg changes that.
I found it interesting how the slight nutmeg undertone really changed my perception of the sweetness of the fudge–though of course it still has lots of sugar.
Thank goodness – no raisins!
🙂
Love the sound of a not-so-sweet fudge. I’ll have to try this one.
I think that you’d like it. It’s a nice fudge.
I made your special nutmeg fudge recipe & loved every bite! Delicious is the word & I am so happy that there isn’t condensed milk in it! 🙂 MMMM! xxx
Thanks for letting me know that you made it. It’s wonderful to hear that it turned out well, and that you liked it.
ooh yes! Divine fudge! 🙂 xxx
I never heard of nutmeg fudge but it looks yummy!
I’ve made a lot of different hundred-year-old candy recipes over the years and Nutmeg Fudge is one of my favorites.
Well, it sounds delicious! I have never heard of brownies with nutmeg, but I’ll have to try it. I love old recipes, too! When my mother passed away almost a decade ago, one of my sisters offered me all of her old cookbooks and I declined them! She told me they were collectible. I didn’t realize this until 3-4 years ago. Oh well. By the way, I have never seen a 100 hundred year old cookbook. The oldest I have is from 1942.
May I repost this at the WorldChocolateDirectory.org website? We are looking to collect some great chocolate recipes
Yes, that would be okay. Thanks for checking.