Aw, Fudge!

Did you know that evaporated milk and condensed milk aren't the same thing?

I didn't!

Why is this startling fact important? Well, if you try to make fudge with evaporated milk, it doesn't work! As I discovered tonight after purchasing the following in an attempt to make fudge:

A pot (a nice shiny, new pot)
A little baking tray thing for the fudge to cool in
A set of 2 spatulas - 1 wooden, 1 wooden with a rubber spatula bit
Butter (unsalted)
Sugar (soft brown)
EVAPORATED milk (big tin)

Listed my ingredients on a forum I was on, and someone replied saying "Evaporated milk? I thought it had to be condensed?"

Checked up... and discovered that evaporated and condensed milks were NOT just the same thing with a slightly different name. So my batch of what was basically fudge sauce, because it wouldn't set, was poured down the loo.

My brother was heading out to Tesco tonight, so I got a run there with him, and returned with:

CONDENSED milk (big tin)
and Sugar (soft brown Fair Trade)

ready for Fudge MkII (I still had some butter left).

Not checked it in a while, but I fear that this time we might have gone past Fudge, and veered into Toffee territory...

The really annoying thing is when I think how many bars of Orkney Fudge I could have bought for the money it's cost me to try to make a few bits!

Maybe from now on I'll leave the culinary things to the Delia Smiths of this world? I just wanted to do something fun and a bit different to take my mind off today!