Why it works: Fig and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,241 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
To Preserve Figs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Gather figs just before they are ripe.
Soak figs in a mixture of salt and water for 12 hours.
Remove figs and place them in fresh water for 3 days, changing the water daily.
Make the syrup and cook
Make a thick syrup with sugar and water.
Add figs to the syrup and let them boil.
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.
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Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,241 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
- Figs
- Form the main body of the preserve, and their texture softens and firms through the salt soak and syrup.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the figs and, in a thick syrup, helps preserve them by binding water.
The step that matters
Changing the fresh water daily during the 3-day soak. Fresh water each day draws out the salt that the figs absorbed in the brine. Leaving the figs in stale or salty water would leave them too salty and could cause spoilage.
“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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