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Stewed California Figs
Soak one and a half pounds fine dry California figs in cold water for four hours. Drain, then place them in an enamelled saucepan with one and a half ounces granulated sugar, the rind of a quarter lemon, a small piece cinnamon stick, a gill claret and enough water to nearly cover the figs. Cover pan and slowly boil for twenty-five minutes, remove pan to a table and let stand for thirty minutes. Remove lemon rind and stick of cinnamon, pour figs in a deep compotier and serve.
A plain dried-fruit compote that depends almost entirely on the quality of the figs and on keeping the liquid at a bare simmer. The quantities are small by modern dessert standards and the whole thing is better made a day ahead.
- A gill of claretA gill is half a cup, 4 fluid ounces. Claret is the old British term for red Bordeaux; any dry, moderately tannic red will do. Much of the alcohol will cook away over twenty-five minutes, though a covered pan retains some of it.
- Sugar by weightOne and a half ounces of granulated sugar is about 3 tablespoons. That is barely sweet against a pound and a half of figs, which carry their own sugar; taste the syrup near the end before deciding whether to add more.
- Enamelled saucepanThe instruction is about reactivity, not nostalgia. Wine, lemon rind and fruit acid will pick up a metallic taste from bare aluminium or unlined copper. Enamelled cast iron or stainless steel is the modern equivalent.
- "Slowly boil"Read this as a covered simmer with the barest movement in the liquid. A real boil breaks the figs apart and leaves you with jam rather than whole fruit in syrup.
- The half-hour restThis is the part people skip and it is where the dish is made. Off the heat, the figs go on absorbing the wine syrup as everything cools, and the syrup thickens slightly. Do not drain them early.
- California figsAt the time this was written, dried California figs would most likely have meant Mission figs from the Fresno/San Joaquin Valley districts; Smyrna-type (later marketed as Calimyrna) figs were only beginning to be grown commercially there. Either works. Modern dried figs are often softer and moister than the "fine dry" ones intended here; if yours are already supple, two hours of soaking is enough.
- CompotierA footed glass or china dish for stewed fruit. Any deep serving bowl serves. Traditionally sent to the table cool or barely warm, not hot.
- YieldA pound and a half of dried figs gives six to eight small servings. Cream, plain or whipped, goes well with it, though the recipe does not call for any.
Stewed figs in red wine belong to a long European tradition of dried-fruit compotes eaten at the close of a meal or served with cream, and the specifying of *California* figs points to a period when that origin carried weight with buyers. Commercial fig growing in the San Joaquin Valley expanded rapidly in the 1890s and 1900s, and California dried figs became a national grocery item cheap enough to treat as an everyday dessert fruit rather than an import. The method itself — soak, then simmer gently with sugar, lemon peel and a stick of cinnamon — is often said to be the usual treatment of the period for dried fruit generally.