Name: To Preserve Figs
Ingredients: Figs with stems; Coarse sea salt; Water; Sugar for syrup

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Preserve Figs

Ingredients

Figs with stems
Coarse sea salt
Water
Sugar for syrup

Directions

Gather figs just before they are ripe.
Soak figs in a mixture of salt and water for 12 hours.
Remove figs and place them in fresh water for 3 days, changing the water daily.
Make a thick syrup with sugar.
Add figs to the syrup and let them boil.

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.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,241 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Fig + syruptop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together114 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).