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Dessert

Fig Sweetmeat

Fig Sweetmeat is a candied fig confection with almonds, butter, and icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 324 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fig Sweetmeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit and nuts

  1. Finely mince the figs and soak them in lemon juice.

  2. Blanch and split the almonds.

Assemble and press

  1. Butter a shallow tin.

  2. Layer figs, then almonds, and cover with more figs.

  3. Place oiled paper over the top and press down with a heavy weight for a day.

Ice and serve

  1. Turn out and ice with Vienna icing.

  2. Cut into strips or squares.

  3. To make Vienna icing, cream the butter, then beat in the icing sugar, vanilla, and boiling water.

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 + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together324 recipes

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

  2. Fig + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the bulk and sweetness, and bind together once pressed.
Almonds
Add texture and a crunchy contrast to the soft fig mass.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the Vienna icing become smooth and creamy.
Icing sugar
Sweetens the Vienna icing and gives it a fine, spreadable body.

The step that matters

Pressing under a heavy weight for a day. Pressure and time squeeze out excess moisture and help the minced figs and almonds bind into a firm block that can be cut cleanly. Pressing too lightly may leave the sweetmeat crumbly or soft.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Peachfits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, almond, butter, vanilla, 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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