Fudge

[Michael Quinion]

Stephen Goranson wrote:

> FWIW, the Vassar archives has a note on Vassar Myths & Legends:

As Barry Popik has discovered, the first dated mention of fudge is in a
Vassar yearbook from 1893. The letter by Emelyn Battersby Hartridge, of
which I have a copy here, is indeed earlier, but is undated. However, from
internal evidence it must be later than 1888.

My interest is in the provenance of the odd story about it coming from a
spoiled batch of caramel on the (suspiciously precise) date of 14 February
1886, which the same year that Ms Hartridge said she first came across the
sweetmeat (though she doesn't confirm that she knew it by that name then).
Online writers presumably got the story and the date from somewhere, but I
haven't been able to find the source.


--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: wordseditor at worldwidewords.org
Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org

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