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Dessert

Fig Caramel Icing

A caramel icing made with brown sugar, butter, cream, salt, and chopped figs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fig Caramel Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, butter, cream, and salt.

  2. Boil the mixture until it forms a soft ball when tested in cold water.

Cool and finish

  1. Remove from heat and let cool.

  2. Once cool, stir in the chopped figs and beat until spreadable.

Substitutions

  1. You can substitute dates or cooked prunes for 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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. 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

Brown sugar
Provides the sweetness and caramel flavour, and dissolves into the liquid as it boils.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, soft texture in the finished icing.
Cream
Supplies moisture and fat, helping the sugar cook into a smooth, creamy mixture.
Figs
Add fruity sweetness, flavour, and a slightly chewy texture to the icing.

The step that matters

Boiling to the soft ball stage. Boiling until the mixture forms a soft ball in cold water sets the sugar concentration. Stopping early leaves the icing too runny to hold, while boiling too long makes it stiff and grainy.

Swap the fig

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, cream. 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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