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Dessert

Tomato Figs Preserved

A method for preserving tomatoes by boiling, sugaring, and drying them.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and tomato work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Tomato Figs Preserved

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Dip the tomatoes in boiling water and peel them carefully.

  2. Place the tomatoes in an earthen jar with the crushed sugar and cover them.

  3. Set the jar in a cool, dry place for 2 to 3 days.

Make the syrup

  1. Drain the juice into a copper basin and boil it, skimming off the scum until clear.

  2. Let the syrup cool, then pour it over the tomatoes.

  3. Repeat this process three times in one week.

Dry and store

  1. On a sunny day, take the tomatoes out and place them on dishes to dry for 6 to 7 days, turning occasionally.

  2. Once dried, layer the tomatoes in boxes lined with white paper, sprinkling powdered sugar between layers.

  3. Cover the boxes and store them in a dry place.

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. Pear + tomatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pear + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,079 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,667 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

Ked pear tomatoes
Form the main body of the preserve, softening and absorbing sugar during the soaking.
Crushed cube sugar
Draws moisture out of the tomatoes and forms a syrup that preserves them and adds sweetness.

The step that matters

Skimming the boiled syrup until clear. Scum rising during boiling carries impurities that would cloud the syrup and can spoil the preserve. Removing it fully yields a clear syrup that keeps the fruit well.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pear, sugar. 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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