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Fig Sandwich

A sandwich made with fig paste on buttered bread, rolled and wrapped.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fig Sandwich

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the figs

  1. Scrape out the soft portion of the figs and discard the skins.

  2. Rub the fig pulp into a paste.

Assemble and wrap

  1. Cut thin slices from the loaf of bread and butter them, removing the crusts.

  2. Spread the fig paste over the buttered bread.

  3. Roll the bread carefully, pressing to secure the roll.

  4. Wrap the roll in tissue paper, twisting the ends, or tie with a ribbon.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Fig + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,042 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the sweet, moist paste that fills the sandwich and gives it flavour.
Bread
Forms the thin soft wrapper that holds the fig paste in a rolled shape.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the bread and keeps the fig paste from soaking into it.

The step that matters

Roll the bread carefully, pressing to secure the roll.. If the bread is rolled too loosely or the edges are not pressed closed, the fig paste can squeeze out and the roll may unravel. Firm, even pressure keeps the filling inside and the shape intact.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter):

  1. Figthe original
  2. Applefits about as well
  3. Coconutfits less well
  4. Peachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter. 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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