Name: Fig Mould
Ingredients: ½ pound figs; ¼ pound loaf sugar; ½ pint water; rind of ½ lemon and a little juice; ⅓ cup cream

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Fig Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

Wash the figs well in two or three waters.
Boil the figs with all the other ingredients, except the cream, until soft.

Set and serve

Dish the figs into a mould.
Reduce the syrup to ⅓ cup and pour it over the figs.
Press the figs down and leave them until cold.
Whip the cream and serve it with the fig mould.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Fig + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together763 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,241 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Fig + creamtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together523 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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: Soften during boiling to form the body of the mould and carry most of the sweetness.
Loaf sugar: Sweetens the figs and syrup, and helps the reduced syrup thicken and set as it cools.
Lemon rind: Adds a bright aroma that balances the sweetness of the figs and sugar.
Cream: Adds richness and a soft, cooling contrast when whipped and served with the set figs.

The step that matters

Reducing the syrup to ⅓ cup. Too little reduction leaves the syrup watery, so the mould will not hold together. Over-reducing makes the syrup too concentrated, and it can turn stiff or sticky as it cools. Sugar concentration controls how the syrup sets.