162 stale recipes

This delicate soup, popular 100 years ago, is now unusual. On no account should it be liquidized at any stage, as that ruins the texture

French chocolate caramels made with real vanilla bean, melted chocolate, and butter cooked to the ball stage. Old-world confection technique with rich, chewy results.

Cranberry apple relish with cider-cooked apples, raw cranberries, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves. A ratio-based holiday condiment you can scale to any batch size.

Chocolate popcorn fudge: classic stovetop chocolate fudge cooked to soft-ball stage with chopped popped corn folded in for surprise crunch in every creamy square.

Old-fashioned chocolate caramels made with brown sugar, molasses, unsweetened chocolate, and condensed milk. Boiled to soft ball stage, studded with nuts, and cut into squares.

Maple-pecan pralines cook sugar, evaporated milk, and corn syrup to soft-ball stage with toasted pecans and maple extract. Creamy, melt-in-your-mouth Southern candy with a New England twist.

Santa's white fudge made with sour cream, corn syrup, and sugar cooked to soft-ball stage, then loaded with candied cherries and pecans. Creamy holiday candy in an 8x8 pan.

No-bake peanut butter fudge squares with marshmallow creme, evaporated milk, and sugar cooked to soft ball stage. Four ingredients, 64 pieces, pure candy-counter flavor.

French soft chocolate caramels made with four ingredients: sugar, cream, cocoa, and honey. Cooked to soft ball stage and cut on a marble slab. Classic confiserie.

Old-fashioned Southern caramel nut frosting cooked to soft-ball stage with browned sugar for deep caramel flavor. Pecan-studded, glossy, and made for layer cakes.

Buttermilk pecan pralines cooked to soft ball stage for a creamy, melt-on-your-tongue candy loaded with toasted pecan halves. The buttermilk and baking soda create a caramel flavor that plain sugar pralines can't touch.

Buttery cream cheese pastry cups cradle gooey brown sugar pecan filling in these bite-sized Southern tarts, baked with a two-stage method for extra flaky crusts.

Old-fashioned chocolate butterscotch fudge cooked to soft ball stage with sweetened condensed milk, crunchy walnuts, and a toffee-like richness you won't find in shortcut recipes.

Homemade chocolate fondant candies made from a sugar syrup cooked to firm-ball stage, kneaded with unsweetened chocolate, then finished with pecans or dipped in white chocolate.

Roasted Cornish hens brushed with olive oil, parsley, and thyme, served with pan-gravy mushrooms, glazed carrots, and Brussels sprouts. A rustic Sunday dinner plate, scaled small.

Vodka witch's brew is a Halloween punch with apple juice, lime, vodka, and lime sherbet floated in club soda. Eerily green, slushy, and easy to scale up for a crowd of 16.