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I have a number of questions relating to fudge. Thank you in advance for your help. For anyone following this I have as requested broken the question into parts. My main question here is Why do some recipes put the butter ON the fudge once its hot whereas the professional videos (i.e. youtube mackinac fudge shops) seem to show the butter in the boiling mix?

Other questions I've opened:

If there are any professional fudgers I'd especially appreciate your response :o)

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Antony
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    Welcome to Seasoned Advice! It is preferred if you can post separate questions instead of combining your questions into one. That way, it helps the people answering your question and also others hunting for at least one of your questions. Thanks! – Catija Aug 15 '15 at 20:27
  • Hello and welcome! Catija is right, please ask these as separate questions. It is OK if the body turns out to be very short. You can leave the first one in this post and delete the rest, then post the rest separately - then we can reopen this one. Or post all 5 one anew, then this one can stay closed. – rumtscho Aug 16 '15 at 11:51

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I'm not a professional fudger, but here is my theory: one should add it to the boiling mixture. The reason is that butter has milk solids that are said to “burn” at low temperatures (somewhere in the range 120C-150C or 250F-300F) which just above the soft ball stage (113C or 235F) needed for making fudge. I interpret the burning to mean that those milk solids (sugars and proteins) get a chance to contribute to the Maillard reaction that gives caramel (and its grained cousin the fudge) its great and rich flavor. Given how unique and varied the flavors arising from butter are, I would not want to miss their contribution by adding them after the heat is gone.

papin
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