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Dessert

Pickled Figs

Pickled figs preserved in a sugar and vinegar syrup with cinnamon bark and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Pickled Figs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place figs in jars with cinnamon bark and cloves.

  2. In a pot, combine sugar and vinegar to make a syrup.

Pickle and seal

  1. Boil the syrup and pour it into the jars over the figs.

  2. Seal the jars tightly.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Fig + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Serve as the main fruit that softens and absorbs the pickling liquid.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness to the syrup.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the figs and gives the pickle its tang.
Cinnamon bark
Adds warm aroma that flavours the syrup as it soaks into the figs.
Cloves
Adds a warm, pungent aroma that flavours the syrup and figs.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup and pour it into the jars over the figs. The syrup must be fully boiled so the sugar dissolves and the vinegar mixture is hot enough to help the jars stay preserved. Pouring it over the figs while hot lets the liquid penetrate the fruit evenly.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, clove, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Quincefits about as well
  3. Figthe original
  4. Applefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, clove, sugar, vinegar. 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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