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Dessert

Tomato Figs

A preserved tomato made by cooking tomatoes with brown sugar, drying, and storing in boxes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,667 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Tomato Figs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald and skin the tomatoes.

Make the syrup

  1. In a pot, cook the tomatoes with the brown sugar over medium heat without adding water until the sugar penetrates and the tomatoes are clarified.

  2. Remove the tomatoes and spread them on dishes, flattening them.

Dry and pack

  1. Dry the tomatoes in the sun, sprinkling a little syrup on them while drying.

  2. Pack the dried tomatoes in boxes, treating each layer with powdered sugar.

  3. Boil down any remaining syrup and bottle it for later use.

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. Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Small tomatoes
Provide the main body and flesh that becomes the chewy, candied texture.
Brown sugar
Draws out moisture and penetrates the tomatoes, sweetening them and helping preserve them.

The step that matters

Cooking the tomatoes with sugar without water. Without added water the sugar must draw moisture out of the tomatoes gradually. Medium heat lets the sugar penetrate and the syrup thicken without scorching before the tomatoes turn clear and tender.

“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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