Skip to main content
Main

Tomato Figs

Preserved tomatoes dried with sugar, layered and sun-dried, then packed in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Tomato and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,667 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Tomato Figs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Scald and remove the skins from the tomatoes.

  2. In a porcelain kettle, layer the tomatoes and sprinkle thickly with sugar.

  3. Place over a moderate fire and stew slowly until the sugar penetrates the tomatoes.

  4. Carefully lift each tomato with a spoon and spread them on dishes.

Dry and pack

  1. Stand the tomatoes in the hot sun for one or two days to dry.

  2. Sprinkle with sugar several times during drying.

  3. When perfectly dry, pack them in jars with layers of sugar between.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ripe small tomatoes
Provide the fruit body that softens, releases juice, and dries into the chewy texture.
Granulated sugar
Draws water out of the tomatoes and preserves them, while adding sweetness.

The step that matters

Stewing until the sugar penetrates. Sugar must draw moisture out and soak into the tomato flesh gradually. Heating over a moderate fire slowly lets the sugar pull water from the cells without scorching, so the fruit becomes evenly sweet and firm enough to dry.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes