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Dessert

Fig Paste Filling

A sweet filling made from softened figs, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and sugar 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 Paste Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Soften the figs

  1. Place the figs in a bowl.

  2. Pour boiling water over the figs.

  3. Let the figs stand until soft.

  4. Remove any small hard pieces.

Make the paste

  1. Chop the figs with scissors until they form a thick paste.

  2. Add the sugar and cold water to the fig paste.

Cook

  1. Cook over medium heat until thick and clear.

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 + sugartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 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
Provide the main body, bulk and fruity flavour of the paste.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it concentrates during cooking, helps the paste thicken and set.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat until thick and clear. Cooking drives off water so the sugar and fig pulp concentrate and thicken into a paste. Heat that is too high can scorch the sugar on the bottom of the pan before the mixture has thickened.

“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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