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Dessert

Fig Bar

A sweet bar made from figs and sugar, cooled and cut into pieces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,241 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fig Bar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fig mixture

  1. Cook 4 pounds of sugar in a pot until it reaches a thread stage.

  2. Add the chopped figs to the sugar and stir.

  3. Continue cooking until it reaches a large thread stage.

  4. Remove from heat and mix in ½ pound of powdered sugar.

Set and finish

  1. Rub the sides of a pan with sugar and pour the mixture into it.

  2. Spread the mixture evenly with a palette knife.

  3. Allow to stand for several hours before cutting into bars.

  4. If desired, cover the top with melted fondant and spread evenly.

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. Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 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

Figs
Provide the main fruit flavor and body of the bars.
Sugar
Cooks into a thread-stage syrup that sets firm as the bars cool.
Powdered sugar
Stirred in off the heat to add sweetness and help the mixture firm up.

The step that matters

Cooking to the large thread stage. Sugar syrup must reach the correct concentration before it cools. Too little cooking leaves the bars soft and sticky, while overcooking makes them hard and brittle.

“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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