Today’s retro deep-dive is a masterclass in secret ingredients. “Velveeta” and “fudge” are two words you might never expect to hear uttered in tandem — and yet, Velveeta fudge was once a popular dessert. Why stir a brick of almost-cheese into your batch of fudge? For the texture, apparently. According to the recipes of yore, the processed cheese taste gets masked by the chocolatey fudge, imparting Velveeta’s signature ultra-creamy, luscious texture without any weird cheesiness. In fairness, it isn’t an extreme stretch from other popular sweet-savory treats, like Chicago’s caramel-cheese Garrett popcorn. Here, Velveeta brings a silky, melt-in-your-mouth fat component, with a mild enough flavor to (maybe) pull this off undetected. Shelf-stable Velveeta also reportedly helps keep the fudge moist and chewy days later.
One Reddit thread posts a picture of a Velveeta fudge recipe in the vintage “‘Taste & See that the Lord is good’ Baptist Community Cookbook.” Perhaps surprisingly, the comments are filled with a resounding “don’t knock it ’till you try it” consensus. Historically-minded, sweet-toothed foodies chime in “This is a pretty well known and well liked recipe, believe it or not,” and “I’ve had this. It’s actually delicious. It’s definitely a ‘trust the process’ recipe though.” Predictably, receptions are a tad mixed (“My grandpa used to make this […] I personally think it’s horrible), but most commenters seem to argue that the secret ingredient is, in fact, largely undetectable after all (“Dude, it’s a whole thing and it’s delicious. Been around forever”).
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Velveeta fudge was a real thing, and a lot of folks seemed to dig it
Slab of homemade fudge sliced into cubes – this_baker/Shutterstock
While exact recipes vary, retro Velveeta fudge follows standard fudge prep steps and some combination of semisweet chocolate chips or cocoa powder, powdered sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and chopped pecans or walnuts. To assemble, the Velveeta, butter, chocolate (or cocoa powder), and vanilla get melted together in a saucepan on the stove, stirring until smooth. Then, the powdered sugar and nuts get beaten in, and the mixture is transferred to a baking dish and chilled to set up. That’s it. A 12-ounce brick of Velveeta is enough to make a 9×13 baking dish worth of fudge. Or, half the brick (six ounces) is enough to fill an 8×8 or 9×9 baking dish. The leftover half of the Velveeta brick can be used to whip up a quick queso dip — that is, if the juxtaposed pairing doesn’t weird you out.
Another vintage cookbook recipe for Velveeta brownies appears in another Reddit post, positing that the recipe might be especially popular in the South. Either way, a 1976 New York Times article heralded Velveeta as a “worldwide favorite,” and by 1996, U.S. Velveeta sales hit a whopping 8.75 pounds per capita, as reported by Smithsonian Magazine — which dates Velveeta brownies as another head-scratching culinary phenom to come out of the 1980s. Hungry for more lore? We’ve rounded up 11 more snacks from the ’80s that no one remembers anymore.
Read the original article on Tasting Table.
