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Dessert

Fig Mould

A chilled gelatin dessert made with figs, sugar, lemon, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 763 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Fig Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fig base

  1. In a saucepan, combine chopped figs, water, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest.

  2. Simmer until the figs are tender.

  3. Dissolve the gelatine in 3 tablespoons of water and add it to the fig mixture.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a large mold or several small molds.

  2. Chill until set and serve with whipped cream or custard sauce.

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

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

  2. Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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
Provide the main flavour and body, softening into a thick purée when simmered.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid fig mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the lemon.
Lemon
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sweet fig flavour.

The step that matters

Dissolving the gelatine. Gelatine must be fully dissolved before it is added to the fig mixture; undissolved granules leave gritty specks and uneven setting. Adding it to a mixture that is too hot can weaken its setting power, so the mixture should be warm rather than boiling.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, sugar. 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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