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Dessert

Candied Figs

Candied figs are figs cooked in a sugar syrup until tender.

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 ↓

Candied Figs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the figs in warm water and dry them with a cloth.

  2. Wet the sugar to make a syrup and heat it until just below candy height.

  3. Add the figs to the syrup when it is not too hot.

Cook and soak

  1. Boil the figs gently until tender, then place them in pots.

  2. If needed, add more sugar boiled to candy height to cover the figs.

  3. Let the figs sit in the syrup for a day or two.

Dry

  1. Remove the figs and lay them on glasses to dry.

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

Ripe figs
Provide the fruit that becomes tender and sweet as it cooks in syrup.
Loaf sugar
Forms the syrup that sweetens the figs and preserves them as they soak.

The step that matters

Adding the figs to the syrup. If the syrup is too hot, the figs can toughen or split, so the record advises adding them only when it has cooled somewhat.

“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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