No. 3661

Brandy Figs

Figues a l'Eau de Vie

Have some white even-sized figs; prick and leave them to soak for twelve hours in salted water. Parboil them properly, keeping them firm, then drain and refresh by throwing them into a plentiful supply of cold salted water and leave them to steep for two or three days; now put them in a copper pan and cover with a hot twenty-two degree syrup so that they macerate for six hours; afterward drain off this syrup, add to it more sugar and let cook to twenty-five degrees; when this is cold pour it over the figs; repeat this operation until the sugar attains thirty degrees. Drain the figs well, put them into glass jars and cover with brandy; let macerate for six weeks, then add for every quart of brandy two gills of thirty-degree syrup.

← No. 3660 Brandy Cherries Preserves & Conserves No. 3662 Brandy Greengages →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a confectioner's bench: a syrup hydrometer, an unlined copper preserving pan, and green figs picked before they soften. The method still works, but almost every number in it needs translating.

The hinge: raise the syrup slowlyThe whole point of the ladder from 22 to 30 degrees is osmotic. If figs go straight into a heavy syrup the sugar draws water out faster than it moves in, and they shrivel into leathery beads. Each step should be no more than a few degrees, with the fruit resting in the cooled syrup between rounds.
"Degrees" means Baumé"Degrees" means Baum u a syrup hydrometer, on the scale credited to the French chemist Antoine Baum ughly: 22 degrees Baum out 40 Brix (a medium syrup, roughly 1 1/3 lb sugar to a quart of water), 25 degrees about 46 Brix, and 30 degrees about 55-57 Brix, a heavy syrup. A cheap refractometer or a Brix hydrometer reads the same property.
GillsA gill is half a cup, so "two gills of thirty-degree syrup" per quart of brandy is one cup of heavy syrup to four cups of spirit. That final addition sweetens the liquor and stops the brandy leaching more sugar back out of the fruit.
The copper panNineteenth-century preserving pans were unlined copper, valued for even heat and for the green tint it gave fruit. Acidic sugar syrups dissolve copper, and modern practice is to use stainless steel or an enamelled pan; unlined copper is not appropriate here.
The salt water is unquantifiedRanhofer never says how salty. A light brine, on the order of a tablespoon of salt to a quart of water, is a reasonable working reading; it firms the flesh and helps draw off the milky latex. Take the concentration as genuinely unspecified in the original and rinse the fruit thoroughly before the syrup stage.
"White figs" means unripe"White figs" -- Most likely small, firm, pale-skinned figs; in French usage "figues blanches" describes a variety, and preserving recipes of this kind generally call for fruit picked before it sweetens and splits. Ripe supermarket figs will collapse during the parboil and are unlikely to survive repeated rounds of syrup.
Parboil and prickPricking each fig several times with a fork or trussing needle lets syrup in through the tough skin. The parboil is brief, only until a needle meets slight resistance; boiled soft, the fruit is finished before the syrup ever reaches it.
Brandy strength and storageUse a spirit of at least 40 percent alcohol by volume. Once diluted by the syrup and the fruit's own moisture the alcohol level drops, so keep the jars sealed, cool and dark, and make sure the figs stay fully submerged.
Yield and servingThe original gives no weights or volumes, only the ratio of syrup to brandy at the end. Reckon on a quart jar holding about a pound of small figs with brandy to cover. Serve a few figs with a spoonful of the liquor after dinner, or over ice cream; the six weeks Ranhofer gives is a minimum, and they improve over several months.

A Little History

Fruits à l'eau-de-vie -- cherries, greengages, apricots, figs put up in sweetened spirit -- were a standing item in French provincial households and in the confectionery department of many grand nineteenth-century kitchens, which is why this fig recipe sits between brandy cherries and brandy greengages in Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the compendium of his years as chef at Delmonico's in New York. Green figs are the awkward case in that family: the skin is tough, the unripe flesh carries a bitter latex, and the fruit has little acid of its own, which explains the days of salted water and the patient climb through heavier and heavier syrup -- 22, 25 and 30 degrees, repeated until it holds at 30 -- before the brandy is ever poured. The graduated syrup is confectioner's technique rather than home cookery, and the hydrometer readings show how far Ranhofer expected his readers to work like professionals. Preserving in spirit was also the least fussy method available before reliable home canning: sugar and alcohol together did the work that sealed jars and a thermometer do now.