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Dessert

Fig Preserves

Preserves figs in a sugar syrup, optionally flavored with ginger, mace, cinnamon, or lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fig Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the figs

  1. Soak the figs in a weak baking soda solution for 15 minutes.

  2. Dry the figs.

Make the syrup and cook the figs

  1. Combine the sugar with enough water to create a syrup.

  2. Bring the syrup to a boil.

  3. Add the figs to the boiling syrup.

  4. Cook the figs until they look clear.

  5. Remove the figs from the syrup.

  6. Let the figs sun dry for 2 hours.

  7. Return the figs to the syrup.

  8. Boil the figs in the syrup for a short time.

  9. Remove the mixture from heat.

Add flavourings

  1. If using lemon, slice the lemon.

  2. Remove the seeds from the lemon.

  3. Boil the sliced lemon in a small amount of water until tender.

  4. Add the boiled lemon and its water to the syrup.

  5. If using lemon oil, add the lemon oil to the syrup after removing from heat.

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Fig + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  3. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main fruit body and texture of the preserve after cooking in syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and thickens the syrup, helping preserve the figs.
Baking soda (in the method)
Softens the fig skins during the initial soak so they take up syrup more readily.
Lemon
Adds acidity and a bright aroma that balances the sweetness of the syrup.

The step that matters

Cook the figs until they look clear. Heating the figs slowly in syrup lets sugar replace the water inside the fruit, so they keep their shape and become translucent. Overcooking can break them down and make the preserve mushy.

Swap the ginger

The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, sugar, mace, cinnamon, lemon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, sugar, mace, cinnamon, lemon. 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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