Peanut Butter Fudge Day: A Celebration of American Confection Invention
The marriage of two American favorites: candy, and peanut butter-what could be sweeter?
Both fudge and peanut butter are American staples, and the sweet treat that we call fudge was birthed in the States. The history of fudge is a murky one, but according to Lee Edwards Bennings’ Oh Fudge!, the first written accounts of the creamy confection date to the late 1880s, and gained popularity through the turn of the century.
Fudge became a huge hit at female colleges, where girls would break the strict rules by making the gooey goodness over lamps in their dorms. The girls at Vassar even had a song that proudly declared “we love the sight of the fudge-pan bright.” The candy was so tied to the women’s institutions, that when Mary Parloa published Chocolate and Cocoa Recipes in 1922, three of the recipes for fudge bear the name of female colleges: Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith.
While these “fudge parties” later came to be seen as expressions of domesticity in the young women, Sherrie Inness disagrees. She claims that this zest for “making fudge was not preparation for the domestic sphere, but was an activity designed to socialize a student into the college community.” These after-hours snack sessions helped to create a bond between students, and the excitement of breaking the rules (even in what we would consider an innocuous way), cemented their status as progressive women. Rich food and late nights were considered the start of debauchery, and by peppering their diet with bootlegged fudge, the women snubbed traditional expectations.
Eventually, this treat made its way out of the dorm room and onto the streets. Tourist towns like Mackinac Island began to offer fudge at their candy shops, and some used marble slabs to cream their fudge in front of hungry eyes. Murdick’s is one of the oldest fudge shops on the island, and would even tilt their fans to the street so the sweet smell would lure in passers-by.
Since today isn’t National Fudge Day (that is in June), but National Peanut Butter Fudge Day, we can’t forget to mention the other half of the story: The Story of Peanut Butter.
The special ingredient in this fudge is something held dear to the hearts of school children across the country. It is estimated that the average American student will eat 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before graduating high school (and I’ll wager quite a few in their college dorms as well).
To find the history of peanut butter (like corn!) we have to look south. Peanuts have been cultivated in South America for thousands of years, and peanuts are common in motifs in jewelry and ceramics. The Incans likely made a paste out of the legume that they called inchic, making them the inventors of the first peanut butter.
In modern history, it was Kellogg, of cereal fame, who is credited with the popularity of the peanutty paste. A virulent vegetarian, Kellogg fed patients at his sanitarium and spa a spread of mashed, baked spread that he dubbed “peanut butter” and believed people would agree that it created “the most delicious nut butter you ever tasted in your life.” One of his employees went on to create appliances to help homemakers create their own peanut butter. Still, the creamy all-American favorite that we are all familiar with wouldn’t show up until the 1920s, when Joseph Rosefield hydrogenated the oil in peanut butter. This created something creamy and shelf-stable, and around this time sliced bread also shows up-and the lives of American schoolchildren are changed forever. Rosefield would go on to create Skippy, and WWII meat rationing made peanut butter a household staple.
To celebrate today’s iconic pairing, I am sharing my grandmother’s chocolate peanut butter fudge recipe. Similar to First Lady Mamie Eisenhower’s famous “Million Dollar Fudge,” grandma used marshmallow fluff for an easy way to achieve a creamy sweet texture.
4 ½ cups of sugar
1 can evaporated milk
2 Tablespoons butter
12 oz package chocolate chips
2 large Hershey bars (7 oz bars)
2 cups marshmallow fluff
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cups peanut butter
Bring sugar, butter, and evaporated milk to a boil, and stir constantly for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add chocolate chips, Hershey bars, fluff, and vanilla. Mix in peanut butter and pour into a buttered pan. Let set until firm.
Cut into slices and share with family and friends.
