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Fig Paste Filling

A sweet filling made by cooking figs with sugar and water until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,241 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fig Paste Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Soften the figs

  1. Place figs in a bowl and pour boiling water over them.

  2. Let them stand until soft.

  3. Cut off any small hard pieces and chop the figs into small pieces with scissors.

Cook the paste

  1. Cook the chopped figs with sugar and cold water until the mixture is thick and clear.

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. Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the bulk, body and fruity flavour of the paste.
Sugar
Sweetens the paste and helps it thicken into a glossy mass as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cooking until thick and clear. As water evaporates and the sugar concentrates, the fig pulp thickens and sets. Stopping too early leaves a runny paste that will not hold its shape, while cooking too long can scorch the sugar.

“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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