YOU may think of fudge as a quintessentially American sweetmeat. However, it has its roots firmly embedded in 18th century Mexico, in a dessert called Panochita, made simply with brown sugar and milk.
Essentially a crystalline candy that is firmer than fondant but softer than caramels, fudge is often traced back to America in the 1880s, with its name attributed to one English officer named Captain Fudge. Modern culinary historians, however, argue that a Mexican version of fudge called Panochita de leche appeared in 18th-century manuscript cookbooks and was sold by street vendors in the 1820s, eventually reaching the United States.
Unlike the American fudge, which includes ingredients like condensed milk, corn syrup, chocolate, vanilla, and nuts, Panochita de leche contains only two ingredients: brown sugar (Panochita) and milk (Leche). A typical recipe instructed dissolving two pounds of sugar in three quarts of milk, boiling it until it formed a well-formed thimble, then beating it until it formed a ball and shaping it into tiny tablets. As the mixture cooled, whisking induced sugar crystallisation, while the milk provided a smooth texture.
Panochita de leche relied on the quality of the sugar, known as panocha, panela, piloncillo, chancaca, or muscovado, depending on the region. This type of sugar incorporated molasses into the grains, resulting in a hard and solid mass with a strong molasses flavour and a medium to dark brown colour.
Crystallised Sugar: A New World Technique
Food historians state that the key technique of whisking the cooling sugar to induce crystallisation had no clear precursors in Old World confectionery. European cooks simply incorporated sugar into existing dishes, such as sugared almonds and sugared bread. On the other hand, Iberian cooks, influenced by Arab traditions, developed their own egg-based custards and candied fruits but did not have a confection similar to fudge.
In contrast to Europeans, cooks in the Indian subcontinent, with their long history of sugar making, developed a much wider range of sweets like Pedha and Barfi, which were commonly offered as temple treats in Bengal. The Ganges delta served as a historical centre for sugar production, where peasant households would process their own cane to make gur, a type of brown sugar resembling panocha. 18th-century Bengali sweets primarily consisted of crystallised sugar candies made by boiling sugar with water and allowing it to cool. Some sweets also combined sugar with coconut. The combination of gur and khoa, which is slow-cooked condensed milk, used in Indian sweets, differed significantly from the Mexican version of fudge.
As a result, historians attributed Panochita or brown sugar to the traditional methods of sugar refining and candy making in Mexico.
Tracing Panochita De Leche’s Path
The term "panocha" likely originated from the Spanish word for corn cob and raw sugar cones. In terms of cooking, panocha also denoted a particular phase during the boiling process of sugar confections.
During the early republic, Panochita de leche gained popularity and appeared in various cookbooks. Mariano Galván Rivera’s El Cocinero Mexicano (1831), an influential cookbook of the time, featured multiple variations of the candy referred to as bocadillos instead of panochitas. The basic recipe involved boiling the mixture until it formed ribbons, while other variations included ingredients like pumpkin seeds, almonds, and coconut.
Other cookbooks, such as Arte nuevo de Cocina y reposteria acomodado a uso mexicano(1828) and Diccionario de cocina(1845), also provided recipes for bocadillos de leche, with slight adjustments in language and quantities. The recipe for jamoncillo, a type of fudge made with ground pumpkin seeds, appeared in La cocinera de todo el mundo (1844), which instructed cooks to create a dense syrup and then beat it on the floor (suelo) until it reached the caramel stage. The recipe was later replicated in other cookbooks.
These cookbooks were predominantly authored by men, but panochita de leche recipes were also popular in domestic manuscripts and female-authored cookbooks, especially during the modernisation period of President Porfirio Díaz's rule in the 1890s. A charity community cookbook from Guadalajara in 1890, called Recetas prácticas para la señora, included multiple versions of panocha de leche, flavoured with orange blossom water, vanilla, almonds, or flour. The recipe also continued to be passed down in manuscript volumes.
The Colonial Connect
In the borderlands of what is now the southwestern United States, the Spanish cultural traditions surrounding panocha and Panochita de leche became intertwined with colonial society. The region's dry plains and river valleys provided an ideal environment for livestock and sugar production, which supplied confectioners with the necessary ingredients. Panocha also served as rations for mine workers and troops stationed in forts scattered across the borderlands.
When the United States annexed the region in 1848, Anglo merchants and settlers fuelled the demand for local sugar and candy makers. Alongside regional dishes like chilli con carne and tamales, Panochita de leche contributed to the emergence of a unique southwestern regional cuisine within the broader national culinary landscape.
While the exact spread of Panochita de leche to the northern borderlands cannot be precisely traced, it is believed to have circulated throughout the region by the late 19th century. Encarnación Pinedo, an author from an elite California family, included a Panochita de leche recipe in her cookbook El cocinero español (The Spanish Cook), published in 1898. This recipe was taken from the Nuevo cocinero mexicano, showcasing the influence of Mexican culinary traditions.
Both the Mexican population and Anglo settlers embraced the popularity and cultural significance of Panochita de leche in the region. Anglo-settlers sought to claim local culinary traditions as part of the southwestern identity. The novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson, set in pastoral California, played a significant role in promoting the region and its cuisine. Cookbooks like Mary E. Johnston's Spanish Cooking (1895) featured panocha as a dessert option, and the recipe was widely replicated and published in various publications. The confection was sold under different names, such as "Panocha Cream Candy" and "Cream Penuche," further solidifying its place in the culinary landscape of the region.
As Anglo Californians were claiming panochita as a specialty of their region, a different sweet treat called fudge was becoming popular in the eastern United States. This fudge, made with inexpensive industrial sugar and chocolate, gained popularity among elite women's colleges like Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith in the 1880s. Soon, various fudge recipes started appearing in New England regional cookbooks, featuring different flavours like Vassar Fudge, Chocolate Fudge, Walnut Fudge, and Maple Fudge.
These fudge recipes typically required more sugar than milk, which made them easier to prepare, especially in dormitories. The inclusion of maple fudge, sometimes mixed with granulated sugar, suggests a potential link to a traditional Québécois candy called sucre à la crème, which has been around since the early 19th century.
What propelled panocha into the broader American food culture was the introduction of the Penoche Syrup into daily food consumption. Log Cabin, a maple producer in the early 20th century, launched their signature Penoche Syrup, an amber-coloured syrup that tasted and looked like maple syrup but was made of cane sugar. The syrup was marketed to candymakers as a cheaper substitute for refined sugar.