Faye Hammonds would love to name her delicious fudge recipe in recognition of the kind soul who gave her the recipe 19 years ago. Trouble is, she doesn’t know his name.

Their paths crossed at the Federation’s 1983 annual meeting, when the man dropped in on a gathering of the State Board of Directors members’ wives. (Faye’s husband, Cloyce, had just been elected to what would become a 10-year stint on the board.) Anyway, the mystery man came bearing gifts for the leaders: bags of beautiful shelled pecans.

The oohs and aahs over the pecans led to talk of favorite recipes for fudge, divinity and other pecan-filled goodies—and to Faye’s revelation that, in all her years of cooking, she had yet to make a single decent batch of fudge.

“This man, whoever he was, said, ‘Ma’am, I have got a fudge recipe for you that I guarantee you will never fail; it’ll turn out perfect every time,’ ” Faye recalls. “And he just rattled the recipe out, right off the top of his head.”

Though skeptical, Faye jotted down the recipe. Today, she’s here to tell you: That man was speaking the truth. “I make it all the time, and I’ve never had it fail on me,” Faye says. “Every time I make it, I think about that man and wish so bad I’d gotten his name, so I could tell everybody who gave it to me.”

If you’re out there and you’re the mystery man, do Faye a favor and get in touch. Meanwhile, since we can’t put your name on it, we’ll just call it John Doe’s Fudge. It’s one of several favorites Faye shares with us from her Calhoun County kitchen, where she’s spent many an hour during the 42 years she and Cloyce have been married.

As you’ll see by a couple of the recipes, Faye likes to prepare a lot of one thing at one time and then freeze it in meal-sized portions so she can heat up a meal in a hurry. That’s been a lifesaver for her throughout her years working alongside Cloyce on their cattle, poultry and hay farm in Alexandria. It especially came in handy when she was raising their children, Bryan and Benita, and managing four chicken houses.

As for her fine cooking skills, Faye says she learned under a master: Cloyce’s mother, Edna. Faye has included Edna’s original and State-Cooking-Contest-award-winning sweet potato pie in this impressive collection of recipes, as well as a fruit salad recipe handed down by Edna’s mother. Enjoy!