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Fig Marmalade

A sweet preserve made from figs, oranges, lemons, sugar, and optional ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon 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 Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the figs, pulp of the oranges, and pulp and rind of the lemons together.

  2. Cook the mixture in a pot over medium heat for 20 minutes.

  3. If desired, add ginger root to the mixture.

  4. Stir occasionally until the marmalade thickens.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

  2. Orange + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

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

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

  5. Fig + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together208 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Make up the bulk of the marmalade and give it its body and fruit flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as the mixture cooks, helps it thicken and keeps it preserved.
Lemons
Add acidity and natural pectin, which helps the marmalade set.
Oranges
Add citrus acidity and aroma to balance the sweet figs.

The step that matters

Stir occasionally until the marmalade thickens. The dense, sugary fig mixture can scorch on the bottom of the pot. It thickens as water evaporates and pectin sets, so stopping too early leaves it runny.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Rosemaryfits about as well
  4. Peppermintfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, orange, lemon, 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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