How Rum Makes Fudge Better

• Adding rum to fudge makes the flavors more accessible to human taste buds. The alcohol carries aromas readily and helps your aroma receptors absorb the smells and flavors more effectively. Rum bonds with the fat in chocolate and dairy products as well as the water-soluble flavor compounds. This makes it easier for your aroma receptors, which respond to fat molecules, to absorb the taste of the fudge.

Your Fudge Won’t Get You Tipsy

• Most rum fudge recipes contain only a few tablespoons of alcohol in the whole batch. That’s the equivalent of one standard shot glass. If your recipe calls for adding the alcohol after you take the fudge off the heat, the finished product will contain almost all its original alcohol. If you add the rum with the other ingredients and simmer for about 15 minutes, the alcohol content drops by about 60 percent. No matter how you cook rum fudge, it always contains at least a little alcohol, but a piece or two won’t affect you much.

Lose the Booze, Keep the Flavor

• If you need to make fudge without alcohol, but want to keep the distinctive rum flavor, try using rum extract. Use one part rum extract plus three parts water as a direct substitute for the alcohol in your recipe. You lose the taste-amplifying benefits of liquor, but retain the rum flavor. Rum extract contains a trace amount of alcohol. This minute amount of alcohol is considered halal in baking and cooking Arabic dishes. Fudge made with rum extract might not be appropriate for recovering alcoholics or people with greater dietary restrictions.

Rum Substitutes for Teetotalers

• When you can’t use even a minute amount of alcohol in your fudge, consider substituting fruit juice. Use an equivalent amount of apple or white grape juice. Fruit juice will change the flavor profile of your fudge, but adds a similar sweet tanginess that contrasts well with chocolate.