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To Preserve Figs

This recipe preserves figs by brining, boiling, and sweetening them in syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

To Preserve Figs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the figs

  1. Wipe the figs and cut them across the top.

  2. Soak the figs in a strong brine of salt and water for 10 days.

  3. Boil the figs in water until a pin easily pierces them.

  4. Soak the figs in cold water for 4 days, changing the water daily.

Make the syrup and preserve

  1. Clarify the sugar and add the figs while the syrup is hot.

  2. Heat the figs in the syrup three times, boiling them the last time until they look green and clear.

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

Figs
Their flesh softens during brining and boiling, then absorbs the syrup to become sweet and tender.
Loaf sugar
Forms a concentrated syrup that sweetens the figs and preserves them by drawing out water.
Coarse sea salt
Brine draws moisture out of the figs and firms their flesh before the sugar stage.

The step that matters

Heating the figs in the syrup three times. Repeated heating in syrup gradually replaces the water in the fig flesh with sugar. Boiling too early or too fast can toughen or break the fruit before it is fully preserved.

“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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