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Dessert

Tomato Figs

A preserved fruit made by simmering fig‑tomatoes in a sugar‑lemon syrup and drying them.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,592 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Tomato Figs

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the syrup

  1. Make a syrup by combining sugar, lemon juice, water, and lemon rind in a pot.

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Peel the fig-tomatoes carefully, briefly soaking them in boiling water to loosen the skins.

  2. Simmer the peeled tomatoes in the syrup until they become clear.

  3. Place the tomatoes on a reverse sieve to cool.

Finish and dry

  1. Boil the syrup until it thickens.

  2. Return the tomatoes to the syrup and simmer slowly for 1 hour.

  3. Drain the tomatoes, flatten them, and dry in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C).

Pack and store

  1. Pack the dried tomatoes tightly in jars, sprinkling granulated sugar over each layer, and cover tightly.

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. Lemon + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lemon + figtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together763 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Fig + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together64 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + figtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Fig-tomatoes
Form the main body of the preserve, becoming clear and tender as they absorb the syrup.
Best sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, at high concentration, helps preserve the fruit by drawing out water.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and supports the preserve's keeping quality.

The step that matters

Simmering the tomatoes in the syrup. Simmering gently lets sugar slowly replace the water in the fruit. Boiling hard or rushing this can break the tomatoes apart and leave the syrup cloudy or thin.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, fig):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, fig. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

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