my father in law loves fudge and i made this for christmas for him... he loved it! and another friend said it was just like her moms!

The first time I made this I forgot to cover the pan and it came out great. The second time I did cover the pan and must've cooked it past the soft ball stage because it ended up dry and I had to throw it away. I found the reviews for this and the other old fashioned recipe helpful concerning avoiding sugar crystals and when to stir and not to stir. Also I tested for "soft ball" stage the old-fashioned way; it doesn't really form a ball by itself - you have to form it into a ball in the water, but you can easily flatten it when you remove it from the water. After this I ran out of unsweetened chocolate so I tried the other old-fashioned fudge recipe (the one using cocoa powder) and it took forever. I will make this recipe again!

The ONLY problem with this recipe is that it makes far too small a batch of fudge! The flavor is absolutely great. There were a couple of tips from previous reviewers that are worthwhile for any fudge recipe from scratch: heat it to boiling slowly, over medium or med-low heat; let it cool all the way before you begin beating it; wipe down sides before you beat it. I would add to these suggestions - make sure you don't cook it past the soft-ball stage or 234 degrees (I found boiling for 5 minutes was just a tad too long) and after it's cooled don't beat it *too* long - you can go past that perfect fudgey texture to something grainier if you do.

This recipe is really good. Make sure that when you let it cool you let it go all the way to 110 degrees F. Otherwise it will be grainy. Also, use a damp pastry brush or damp towel to wipe the sides down. If you pour the fudge out with the sides still all goopy it will not be as smoothe as it could be.

It took me 3 times to get this recipe right once I learned to heat up the fudge very slowly it worked perfect everybody loved this fudge.

I just got everything ready ahead and it didn't make it as hard to do...good taste..mine did turn out a little grainy..but it always does..