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Dessert

Fig Pickles

Pickled figs made with sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Fig Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine brown sugar, vinegar, and spices in a spice bag.

  2. Boil the mixture together.

Cook and jar the figs

  1. Add the figs and boil until they can be pierced easily with a straw.

  2. Transfer the figs to jars and pour the hot syrup over them.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Fig + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main fruit body, which softens and absorbs the syrup as it cooks.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and thickens the syrup, and helps preserve the fruit.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the pickles.
Ground cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma to the syrup.
Cloves
Add a pungent, warm aroma that flavors the syrup.
Allspice
Adds a warm, mixed-spice aroma to the syrup.

The step that matters

Boil the figs until they can be pierced easily with a straw. Cooking too briefly leaves the fruit firm and under-flavored, while cooking too long can break it down into mush. The fruit should be tender enough to pierce but still hold its shape.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, allspice):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Orangefits about as well
  3. Quincefits about as well
  4. Figthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, allspice. 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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