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Fig Syrup

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and fennel match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 175 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Fig Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the distilled water, prunes, and figs for 30 minutes, maintaining the water level.

  2. Strain the mixture through flannel and press to extract the liquid.

  3. Weigh the resulting product and dissolve twice its weight in sugar.

  4. Once cooled, add the oil of cinnamon, oil of fennel, spirit of chloroform, and distilled water.

  5. Mix well and store.

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 + fenneltop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together175 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

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

  3. Fig + fenneltop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cinnamon + spirittop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Swap the fennel

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, sugar, cinnamon, spirit):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Fennelthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, sugar, cinnamon, spirit. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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