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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

Prepare the figs

  1. Remove all stems from the figs.

  2. Treat the figs with a scalding soda solution.

  3. Rinse the figs thoroughly.

Make the marmalade

  1. In a pot, combine no more than 3 pounds of figs at a time.

  2. Add just enough water to start cooking (about ½ cup).

  3. Crush the figs.

  4. Heat the mixture to boiling.

  5. Add the sugar.

  6. Cook rapidly until the temperature reaches 220°F (104°C).

Pack and process

  1. Pack the marmalade.

  2. 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 bulk and flavor, and their pulp thickens as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the marmalade and, as it cooks, helps it thicken and keep.

The step that matters

Cook rapidly to 220°F (104°C). Boiling off water concentrates the sugar and fruit until the mixture sets. Stopping early leaves it runny and spoil-prone, while cooking too long makes it stiff and sticky.

“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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