First Lady Mamie Eisenhower’s recipe for million-dollar fudge, made with simple ingredients like sugar, butter, milk, marshmallow cream, vanilla, and chocolate, became a popular tradition during her husband’s presidency. Mamie was known for her frugality and lived on military bases around the world. The recipe is available in the Eisenhower Library’s online archive.
During US President Dwight Eisenhower’s tenure, between 1953 and 1961, First Lady Mamie Eisenhower suggested a recipe for a million-dollar fudge. Contrary to the ironic name, it’s a rather cheap way to mess up. Combining only sugar, butter, milk, marshmallow cream, vanilla and chocolate, Mamie’s fudge became a popular tradition despite her husband having a genuine interest in cooking.
According to a 2007 Tango magazine feature on former prima donnas, Army wife Mamie Eisenhower was notorious for her frugality, having lived on dozens of bases around the world, with and without her front-line husband. According to her biographies, she cut coupons for staff members. Though the million-dollar fudge recipe caught on and is still widely popular as of 2011, there’s little evidence to suggest that the first lady minded the culinary pursuits.
Eisenhower’s Library Recipe for Million Dollar Fudge, available in the library’s online archive, contains only convenient pantry ingredients in very precise amounts to properly form the texture of the fudge. First, 4.5 cups (about 1,000 g) of sugar is boiled with a “big can” of evaporated milk, 2 tbsp. (about 30 g) of butter and a pinch of salt. This is then poured over the 24 oz. (about 680g) of chocolate – half semi-sweet and half sweet – plus 2 cups (about 450ml) of marshmallow spread and 2 cups (about 450g) of chopped nuts such as walnuts, pecans or almonds.
The contents of the bowl are stirred vigorously until the chocolate melts completely and blends with the other ingredients. The million dollar fudge is then poured into a square pan and set aside to cool. The longer the fudge chills, the richer and harder it should be to divide. For easy dividing, fondant should be cut immediately after it has cooled, then allowed to harden further in a covered container, on the counter, or in the refrigerator.
Mamie Eisenhower approved menus for White House meetings. According to an exhaustive account of the famous first menus in the book Our White House, however, the National Children’s Book and Literacy Initiative says it was President Eisenhower who took an interest in cooking. Our White House doesn’t include a recipe for Million Dollar Fudge, although it does have a pretty complicated recipe for Ike’s Sherry-Coated Green Turtle Soup.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
