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Dessert

Fig Conserve

A sweet preserve made from figs, citrus, raisins, walnuts, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Fig Conserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and cut figs in halves.

  2. Peel and cut grapefruit, lemon, and orange into small pieces.

Cook

  1. Add sugar and cook for 30 minutes.

  2. Add raisins and walnuts and cook for about 10 minutes longer.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Orange + grapefruittop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together233 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Grapefruit + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together184 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Fig + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together373 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Fig + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 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
Form the bulk of the preserve and provide its body and natural sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws out moisture so the mixture thickens as it cooks.
Orange
Adds acidity and aroma, and its peel contributes pectin that helps the preserve set.
Grapefruit
Adds bright acidity and bitterness, and its peel contributes pectin that helps the preserve set.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture to the preserve.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty, toasted flavor that contrasts with the soft fruit.

The step that matters

Cook the figs and sugar for the full 30 minutes. Sugar pulls water out of the fruit and concentrates it. Cooking long enough lets the mixture thicken into a spreadable preserve; stopping early leaves it thin and runny.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, sugar, orange, grapefruit, lemon, walnut):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Cranberryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, sugar, orange, grapefruit, lemon, walnut. 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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