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Dessert

Stuffed Figs

Figs are split, filled with nuts, steamed, and optionally rolled in sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and nuts work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 154 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Stuffed Figs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split one side of the figs.

  2. Fill the figs with chopped nuts and press them together well.

Steam and finish

  1. Steam the figs until they are plump.

  2. When they begin to cool, roll them in granulated sugar if desired.

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. Fig + nutstop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together154 recipes

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

  2. Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 recipes

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

  3. Nuts + sugartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,228 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Form the soft, sweet base that holds the filling and becomes tender when steamed.
Chopped nuts
Add texture and a rich, slightly oily flavor contrast to the soft fig.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and a light, crisp coating on the outside of the figs.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, sugar. 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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