Skip to main content
Main

Pickled Figs

Pickled figs preserved in a sugar and vinegar brine with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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. For every pound of figs, use ½ cup of brown sugar and 1 quart of cider vinegar.

  2. Stick a clove into each fig.

Make the syrup

  1. In a pot, combine the vinegar and sugar and bring to a boil.

  2. Add a handful each of cinnamon bark and allspice.

Cook the figs

  1. Add the figs and boil until clear, about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

  2. Pick figs while they are still in the milk state.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Form the body of the pickle and absorb the sweet spiced syrup as they cook.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve the figs while adding depth of flavor.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve the figs.
Cinnamon bark
Adds warm, sweet aroma to the syrup as it steeps into the figs.
Allspice
Contributes peppery, warm aroma that rounds out the spiced syrup.

The step that matters

Boil the figs until clear. Boiling lets the sugar syrup penetrate the fig flesh, so the figs turn translucent and take on sweetness. Stopping early leaves them opaque and less evenly flavored.

Swap the fig

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

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

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

You might also like

Ham in CiderHam in Cider10 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes