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Dessert

Fig Candy

A sweet treat made by boiling sugar and water, adding butter, and pouring over split figs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and fig are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,042 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Fig Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil sugar and water over low heat until done.

  2. Add a small piece of butter and stir.

  3. Ensure the mixture is not too thick.

Finish

  1. Pour the mixture over the split figs.

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. Butter + figtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,042 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Sugar + figtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Dissolves into the water to form a syrup that sets into a sweet, firm candy coating.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the candy's texture and gives a smoother, less brittle bite.
Split figs
Provide the fruit base that the sugar mixture coats and is held in place by.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture from getting too thick. Sugar syrup thickens as water evaporates and cools. If it becomes too thick before pouring, it can set grainy or hard and will not coat the figs evenly, so it must stay fluid enough to pour.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Peachfits about as well
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter. 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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