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Dessert

Fig Frosting

A frosting made from sugar syrup, beaten egg whites, and chopped figs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and fig 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 Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Make a syrup by boiling 3 cups of granulated sugar and 1 cup of cold water until it threads.

Make the frosting

  1. Slowly pour the syrup onto the stiffly beaten egg whites and mix well.

  2. Add the finely chopped figs and stir until combined.

Assemble

  1. Spread the frosting between two layers of cake and on top of the upper layer.

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

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + figtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,406 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
Granulated sugar
Boiled into a syrup that sets and sweetens the frosting as it cools.
Figs
Add fruity sweetness, flavor, and a soft texture to the frosting.

The step that matters

Pouring the syrup onto the egg whites. The syrup must be boiled to the threading stage so it is hot enough to cook the egg whites. Pouring it in slowly while beating keeps the foam from deflating and lets the frosting stay smooth and stiff.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Figthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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