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Dessert

Green Fig Jam

A jam made from figs, sugar, and optionally bruised ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 208 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Green Fig Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Cook figs in water until tender.

  2. Drain and pass through a mincing machine.

  3. Weigh the fruit and add an equal amount of sugar.

Cook the jam

  1. Cook rapidly for about an hour until the jam is clear and transparent.

  2. Stir frequently to prevent burning.

  3. Add bruised ginger 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 + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together208 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

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

  3. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Supplies the fruit body and main flavour the jam is built on.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and, with the fruit, helps it thicken as it cooks.

The step that matters

Stir frequently while cooking. As the mixture thickens, sugar concentrates and sticks to the base of the pan, where it can scorch. Frequent stirring spreads the heat and keeps the jam from burning.

Swap the ginger

The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe 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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