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Dessert

Pickled Figs

Pickled figs are preserved in a vinegar and sugar solution with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Pickled Figs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine vinegar and sugar in a pot.

  2. Add a spice bag containing cloves, allspice, mace, and broken cinnamon.

Cook and jar

  1. Add figs to the pot.

  2. Boil slowly for 2 hours.

  3. Transfer to glass jars.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 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. Allspice + cinnamontop 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. Lemon + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Form the main body of the preserve, softening as they simmer in the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and helps keep the figs firm and preserved in the syrup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sweetness and helps preserve the figs.
Whole cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour to the syrup as it simmers.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for 2 hours. A gentle, steady simmer lets the figs soften and the syrup thicken and absorb the spices without the fruit breaking apart or scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, sugar, vinegar, lemon, clove, allspice, 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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