Skip to main content
Dessert

Rhubarb with Figs

A sweet rhubarb and fig dessert simmered with candied lemon peel and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Rhubarb and fig share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 48 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Rhubarb with Figs

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the chopped figs and candied lemon peel over the rhubarb.

  2. Cover with the moist sugar and let stand overnight.

  3. Boil the mixture slowly for one hour.

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. Rhubarb + figtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Rhubarb + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together546 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

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

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

  5. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Rhubarb
Provides the tart base and bulk of the preserve.
Moist sugar
Draws moisture out of the fruit and sweetens and thickens the mixture as it cooks.
Figs
Add body and a mellow, sweet flavour to the fruit mixture.
Candied lemon peel
Adds bright citrus aroma and a bit of chewy texture.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture slowly for one hour. Sugar must dissolve and the fruit must cook down gradually. A slow boil keeps the sugar from scorching on the bottom of the pan and lets the pectin in the fruit thicken the mixture evenly without burning.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Quincefits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesRhubarb PieRhubarb Pie152 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes