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Stewed Figs
Put four ounces of sugar into a lined saucepan with the thinly-pared rind of a large lemon and a pint of cold water; stir over the fire until the sugar is dissolved; then move to the side of the fire, add one pound of dried figs and stew very gently for from two to two and a half hours. When the figs are quite tender, mix with them two wineglassfuls of sherry wine and the strained juice of a lemon; let them get cold, turn with their syrup onto a glass dish, and serve.
A straightforward dried-fruit compote, but written for figs far drier and tougher than anything sold today. The stated two to two and a half hours is the one figure to treat with suspicion.
- Weights and the wineglassFour ounces of sugar is about half a cup; one pound of dried figs is roughly 3 cups whole. A wineglassful in this period is usually reckoned at about 2 fluid ounces, so two glasses of sherry is about half a cup.
- Cooking timeVictorian and Edwardian dried figs were sun-dried hard and often stored for months. Modern Mission or Calimyrna figs are generally sold soft and moist and may be tender in well under an hour. Test at half an hour rather than committing to two hours.
- "Move to the side of the fire"On a coal range this meant the coolest part of the top, away from the firebox. It translates to the lowest burner setting or a diffuser: the syrup should barely tremble, not simmer, or the figs burst and the liquid boils away.
- A lined saucepanThe original means tinned or enamelled rather than bare copper, because lemon juice and wine attack unlined metal. Any nonreactive pan works; avoid untreated cast iron or aluminium, which will dull the colour and tint the flavour.
- Paring the rindTake the yellow zest only, in wide strips with a vegetable peeler. White pith turns the syrup bitter over a long stew. Fish the strips out before serving, or leave one or two on the dish for looks.
- Sherry added off the heatThe wine and lemon juice go in after the figs are tender, and they are not meant to be cooked further. Boiling at this stage drives off the sherry's aroma, which is most of what distinguishes the dish from stewed figs in syrup.
- Syrup consistencyA pint of water reduced slowly should end up lightly syrupy. If it is still thin when the figs are done, lift them out and boil the liquid down before adding the sherry, then pour it over.
- Yield and servingServes four to six as a dessert. Serve thoroughly chilled in a glass bowl as directed, with cream, thick yoghurt or a plain sponge; it will keep for several days refrigerated.
Stewed dried figs belong to a large family of hotel and household compotes that filled the dessert course when fresh fruit was out of season, sitting alongside stewed prunes, pears and apples: a kitchen in February had dried fruit, sugar, lemons and wine, and little else in the way of fruit. Turkish and Mediterranean figs reached groceries in pressed layers or strung on raffia, dry enough to need long gentle stewing to reconstitute, which probably accounts for the length of the original time. The finishing splash of sherry is a common feature of the period's fruit desserts, in the same idiom as prunes stewed in port. Serving the whole thing turned out into a glass dish, syrup and all, suits the late-nineteenth-century taste for glassware at table.