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Dessert

Fig Candy

A sweet confection made by cooking sugar and water, adding vinegar and butter, and pouring into pans lined with split figs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and fig are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,042 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Fig Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat.

  2. Stir until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens.

  3. Add a few drops of vinegar and a lump of butter.

Set the candy

  1. Pour the mixture into pans lined with split figs.

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. Butter + figtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,042 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + figtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + figtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together243 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks into syrup, the body that sets the candy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps keep the sugar smooth rather than grainy.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the texture and gives a richer mouthfeel.
Split figs
Provide the main flavour and texture, and form the base of each piece.

The step that matters

Stop stirring once the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar is dissolved, further stirring can encourage sugar crystals to form, which makes the candy grainy. The small amount of vinegar helps prevent this by partly breaking sucrose into glucose and fructose.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Strawberryfits about as well
  3. Apricotfits about as well
  4. Figthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, 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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