If you hail from Scotland, you will know exactly what Tablet is and you will no doubt pooh pooh what the English call fudge. If you hail from England, you won't necessarily understand what the Scottish mean by Tablet. We call our product, Tablet, but use the term 'fudge', because as we live and sell our product in England, we want our customers to understand what it is that we are selling.
Scots are very proud and justifiably protective about their tablet. It is generally a superior product (in our humble opinion) to the product that is called fudge over here. How often do you buy some fudge, thinking, 'Ooo, this looks like it will be nice,' only to be bitterly disappointed once you taste it?
So, why? What is the difference? Tablet and fudge base ingredients are butter, sugar, milk (in some form or another) but tablet is boiled to a hotter point than you would your fudge. So, before it turns to toffee but after is has reached a setting point. Tablet lovers like a firmer, crumblier bite where fudge lovers prefer a little more 'give' to their sweet treat.
We have some great fudge makers in England, but we also have more than our fair share of really disappointing offerings too.
Our fudge is certainly approved of by our Scottish neighbours, and many even get us to send some to them. But I say this quietly so as not to start a North-South divide. Luckily our fellow English are cottoning onto the fact that tablet-fudge is a great thing too! :-)
