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Dessert

Fig Marmalade

A preserve made by cooking ripe figs with sugar and water until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

Fig Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 220°F (105°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the figs

  1. Remove all stems from the figs and treat them with a scalding soda solution, then rinse thoroughly.

  2. In a pot, cook no more than 8 pounds of figs at a time.

Cook the marmalade

  1. Add enough water to start cooking (about ½ cup) and crush the figs.

  2. Heat the mixture to boiling, then add the sugar.

  3. Cook rapidly until the temperature reaches 220°F (105°C).

  4. Pack and process the marmalade like preserves.

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 + sugartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Provide the main body, flavor and natural pectin that help the marmalade thicken as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the marmalade and, as it concentrates, helps it set into a spreadable gel.

The step that matters

Cooking to 220°F (105°C). Sugar and fruit pectin only set into a gel once enough water has evaporated and the sugar concentration is high enough. Stopping early leaves a runny marmalade, while cooking too long can make it stiff and dark.

“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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