02/13/2025
Hello!!
I decided to write down what it takes to make fudge season happen. It's a huge process. Pricing ingredients, butter went from $53.00 to $109.00; buying the ingredients, sourcing and buying the containers, paying shipping; buying the generic cooking tins, which tripled in price.
Massive amounts of cleaning and sanitizing (I bet you're happy I said that; I have my licenses, after all). Oh, I forgot: go back to the beginning, Vicini, get cottage foods license, get seller's permit, get business license.
Finally, setting up to cook, deciding what I need, setting up the pans ahead of cooking and ingredients because you have to continually stir - four hours for each batch, staggering the pots so they don't burn or clump, and stressing when pouring because you have to be quick, as it crystallizes if you don't move fast enough.
And watch out! Those other pots need stirring! Are they burning?! Get that poured, and whew! Then set up for the next type between checking everything and getting another new pan on to melt the butter if I'm doing a double batch (you shave off a couple of hours if you do this, though). Just need extra pans because it's against the license rules to wash any dishes while in the throes of cooking.
Don’t Panic
Finish the next pot, pour, stress, finish the next pour, stress, and finally, one pan left, and three pans with butter, and hopefully, I had time to set up the sugar and milk for the next step for those. And finally, after pouring that last pan, set up the chocolate chips, and then seal the first batch and mark it and put it in the fridge!
Then, if the others are cool enough, do those too, and get the generic tins ready for the upcoming cooking ones. Many 3 a.m. nights to make this happen.
Then, to cut! Oh my god, cutting takes forever! I got a fudge cutter, but it's more of a pain than a help, so I abandoned it. Hand-chopping with a little chopper. Get to the chopper! I set out all the fudge I mean to cut a few hours before I want to cut it because it cuts better.
I cut up all the regular, all the marshmallow, all the... so on, and put it back in its tin, piled in a specific order. And then, when that's all done, hours later... I set up the types of fudge in the same order every time, so I don't get confused when I start putting everything into the decorative containers.
But not yet! Why? Because each container needs tin foil in it! Yes, that's right; you forgot the tin foil. That takes another forever, and then actually putting the fudge into the boxes takes so long, it's like time stops. Time is an illusion, fudge boxing doubly so.. and I have to weigh each box and make sure each flavor has the same amount of that flavor in there.
So, six-flavor tins, each flavor has 2.66666 oz, so I always end with peanut butter, because people want a little extra PB, am I right? Anyway, five-flavor boxes get 3.2 oz, much easier.
Oh yeah, that reminds me: you have to pour the boiling fudge into generic tins in a big hurry, so it doesn't crystallize, but also make sure it's a whole pound, using a scale, which you have to tare the scale to zero with an empty pan, and then put your pan on there, and then go for it, and pour, and half the time, I over-pour and have to get a spatula and tap a bit out, or a lot, and I have a dedicated spatula for peanut butter; if I have to change the amount on peanut butter, I cannot use that spatula again on another flavor, because of allergies, and the same with the other nuts.
Oh, by the way, you can't just make peanut butter like the other flavors, which are easy, fun-loving flavors. Peanut butter likes to be a rebel, Dottie, a loner. I have to make half-pound pans and let those cool, and then a whole 'nother batch, come back, and pour the rest. The next batch? No, why not? That fudge is still hot! It can't get PB on it yet. I have to wait until I make fudge another day! Add the PB and finish the pound with the new fudge.
I'm a crazy person. Great, now YOU’RE crazy!
