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Dessert

Fig Whip

A baked dessert made with figs, egg whites, yolks, sugar, milk, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,026 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Fig Whip

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cut the figs into tiny bits.

Make the whip

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gradually add the sugar and salt to the egg whites, continuing to beat.

  3. Fold in the chopped figs gently.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a buttered and sugared baking dish.

  2. Place the dish in a larger pan filled with boiling water, ensuring the water does not boil during cooking.

  3. Bake until the center is firm.

  4. Serve hot with boiled custard or with cream and sugar.

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 + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 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. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Egg whites
Whipped into stiff peaks, they trap air and give the whip its light, airy structure.
Figs
Chopped figs add moisture, fruit flavor and sweetness to the whip.
Sugar
Sweetens the whip and helps stabilize the beaten egg white foam.

The step that matters

Folding in the figs. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the beaten egg whites. Stirring hard would deflate the foam, leaving a dense, flat whip after baking.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Lemonfits about as well

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