[2] Its inexpensive, unrefined qualities made it popular among people looking for an alternative that fell between expensive candies and the cheapest sweets.

[2] The increase in fudge's popularity was partly due to the accessibility of its production process: ordinary people were able to make it in their homes without any specialized equipment.

[2] In a letter written by Emelyn Battersby Hartridge, a student at Vassar, she recounts purchasing of a box of fudge for 40 cents a pound in 1886 in Baltimore, Maryland.

[6] An 1893 letter from a Vassar College student Adelaide Mansfield describes "fudges" as containing sugar, fruit, chocolate, milk, and butter.

[8] Despite describing the confections as "Vassar chocolates", the recipe given comprises sugar, milk, butter, and vanilla extract.

Before the availability of cheap and accurate thermometers, cooks would use the ice-water (or cold water) test to determine the saturation of the confection.

Butter is then added to the mixture and the fudge is cooled and beaten until it is thick and small sugar crystals have formed.

Hot fudge sauce is a chocolate product often used in the United States and Canada as a topping for ice cream in a heated form, particularly sundaes, parfaits and occasionally s'mores.