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Fig Filling

A sweet filling made from soaked figs, sugar, egg white, and orange juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Fig Filling

Why it works: Fig and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 407 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fig Filling

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Soak the figs in warm water until soft, then chop them finely.

  2. Beat the egg white to a stiff froth.

  3. Add the beaten egg white and orange juice to the chopped figs and sugar, then mix well.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Fig + eggtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,406 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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
Form the bulk of the filling and provide moisture and natural sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the texture of the filling.
Egg white
Adds lightness and body when beaten to a stiff froth.
Orange juice
Adds acidity and a bright citrus aroma that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Beat the egg white to a stiff froth. Whisking egg white traps air in its proteins, creating foam that gives the filling lightness. Vigorous mixing afterward can knock that air out, so fold gently once the foam is in.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Datesfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, sugar, egg. 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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