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Dessert

Figs for Cake

A method for preparing figs to use in cake batter or filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 763 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Figs for Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the figs

  1. Wash and cut figs into small pieces.

  2. Stew figs in a little water with 1 tablespoon of sugar until soft.

Use the figs

  1. For cake, roll the stewed figs in flour before adding to the batter.

  2. For filling, flavor the stewed figs with lemon juice before mixing with sugar or eggs.

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 + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together763 recipes

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

  2. Fig + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

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

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main fruit flavor, sweetness and soft, moist texture once stewed.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the figs soften and sweeten as they stew.
Flour
Coats the figs so they are less likely to sink through the batter.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet fig flavor.

The step that matters

Roll the stewed figs in flour before adding to the batter. Flour coating helps the fig pieces stay suspended in the batter instead of sinking to the bottom of the cake while it bakes.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, sugar, flour. 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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