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Fig Filling

A fruit filling made from coarse ground figs, lemon peel and juice, and orange juice and peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Fig Filling

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Fig Filling

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the coarse ground figs with the grated lemon peel and lemon juice.

  2. Add the orange juice and grated orange peel.

  3. Mix well and omit any cream.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Fig + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 recipes

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

  3. 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 sweetness, body and moisture of the filling.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness of the figs.
Orange juice
Adds moisture and citrus flavour that blends with the figs.
Grated orange peel
Adds aroma from the fragrant oils in the peel.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, orange):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Blackberryfits better
  4. Figthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, orange. 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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