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Dessert

Fig Jam

A sweet preserve made from white and black figs, sugar, lemon rind, cinnamon, and optional ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fig Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the white figs in halves if medium-sized, or in thirds if large.

Cook the jam

  1. In a kettle, combine the figs and 4 pints of sugar without adding water.

  2. Add the lemon rind and cinnamon stick, then gradually bring to a boil.

  3. Boil rapidly for 30 minutes, stirring constantly.

  4. Add the remaining 3 pints of sugar and boil for an additional 10 minutes.

Bottle

  1. Bottle and seal the jam.

  2. If desired, add a small piece of ginger root to each jar before sealing.

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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Fig + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  3. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

White figs
Form the bulk of the jam and provide its soft, fruity body as they break down.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it concentrates during boiling, helps thicken the jam and preserve it.
Lemon rind
Adds bright aroma and a touch of acidity that balances the sweetness.
Cinnamon stick
Infuses warm, aromatic flavour into the jam during cooking.

The step that matters

Boil rapidly while stirring constantly. Rapid boiling evaporates water and concentrates the sugar and fruit so the jam thickens. Constant stirring keeps the mixture from sticking and scorching on the bottom of the kettle, which would give a burnt taste.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

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