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Stewed Figs
1 pound figs. 1 pint water Wash the figs thoroughly and put them to soak over night in the pint of water. Bring them to a boil in the same water and let them cook until the syrup is reduced about one half.
The text as printed has run two things together: the fig instructions are complete enough to follow, but the quantity of figs is missing and the tapioca line belongs to a neighbouring recipe on the loose-leaf page. Read it as a method rather than a formula.
- The missing quantityNo weight of figs is given. For a pint of water, about 1 lb of dried figs is a workable ratio; they will swell as they take up the soaking liquid.
- Which figsThis means dried figs, not fresh. Fresh figs need no overnight soak and collapse in minutes. Dried Calimyrna or Mission figs both work; snip off the hard stem ends before washing.
- The stray tapiocaThe half cup of tapioca and the second pint of boiling water do not fit the fig method as written and may belong to an adjacent recipe on the sheet. They can be set aside here.
- No sugar is called forThe "syrup" is the fig sugars concentrating in the soaking water. If you want it sweeter, add sugar only after the figs have softened, since sugar added early keeps the skins tough.
- Keep it at a bare simmerA rolling boil bursts the figs and clouds the syrup. Once it reaches the boil, drop to a low simmer and let it reduce; reducing the liquid by half will take a good half hour or more depending on the pan and the heat.
- Soaking overnightRefrigerate the soaking bowl rather than leaving it on the counter. It costs nothing and the figs rehydrate just as well.
- Yield and servingA pound of figs gives about four servings. Serve warm or cold with cream, or as a breakfast compote; the syrup thickens noticeably as it cools.
- StorageThis is a stewed fruit, not a processed preserve. Keep it covered in the refrigerator and eat within a week.
Stewed dried fruit was standard winter fare in American kitchens well into the twentieth century, and figs sat alongside prunes, apricots and peaches in the same rotation — dry, cheap, shelf-stable, and edible again after a night in water. By the time this loose-leaf book was compiled, California growers had built a substantial dried-fig trade around the Smyrna and Mission varieties, and boxed dried figs were a grocery staple rather than a luxury. Loose-leaf cookbooks were printed as separable sheets so a cook could rearrange or replace them, though the garbled state of the page may as easily be a transcription artifact as anything to do with the format.