Skip to main content
Dessert

Fig Tart

A tart made with sliced figs stewed in milk, butter, and sugar, baked in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Fig and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 238 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fig Tart

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Stew the figs

  1. Slice the figs and place them in a bowl.

  2. Add enough milk to just cover the figs.

  3. Cover with a plate and place in a 350°F (175°C) oven to stew slightly.

  4. Stir in a small piece of butter and sugar to taste.

Fill and finish

  1. Line a soup plate or patty pans with puff pastry.

  2. Fill with the fig mixture and finish like mince pies.

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 + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together238 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Fig + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together763 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main filling, with soft texture and natural sweetness once stewed.
Milk
Keeps the figs moist and softens them during gentle stewing.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded fat flavour to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the tart figs.
Puff paste
Forms the flaky, crisp pastry case that holds the filling.

The step that matters

Stewing the figs under cover. Gentle heat softens the fig flesh and breaks down its fibres, while the covering traps steam so the figs cook evenly. Milk can scorch or boil over if the heat is too high, so keep the stew slight and check it.

Swap the apple

The recipe marks apple as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, milk, butter, sugar, lemon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits about as well
  3. Blackberryfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, milk, butter, sugar, lemon. 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.

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes