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Dessert

Fig Salt Water Taffy

A chewy taffy made with figs, sugar, glucose, butter, and salt water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and fig are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,042 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Fig Salt Water Taffy

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 250°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the taffy base

  1. Combine brown sugar, water, glucose, and butter in a large pot.

  2. Cook until the mixture reaches the hard ball stage (about 250°F or 121°C).

  3. Add the fig paste.

  4. Continue cooking until the mixture reaches the hard ball stage again.

Cool and shape

  1. Pour the mixture onto an oiled slab.

  2. Sprinkle the mixture with salt.

  3. Fold the edges together as the mixture cools until it is cold.

  4. On a cool marble surface, form the taffy into a round mass.

  5. Pull the taffy into strips about the thickness of your thumb.

  6. Cut the strips into pieces about 1¼ inches long.

  7. Wrap each piece in wax paper, twisting the ends to seal.

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. Butter + figtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,042 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Sugar + figtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Provides the main sweetness and the caramel-like flavour of the taffy.
Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallisation, keeping the taffy smooth and chewy rather than grainy.
Figs
Add fruity flavour, body and moisture to the taffy.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer bite and richer flavour.

The step that matters

Second cook to the hard ball stage. Cooking to the correct temperature controls the moisture left in the candy. Too little cooking leaves the taffy soft and sticky, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Peachfits about as well
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter. 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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