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Stuffed Figs (For this use bag figs)
For this use "bag" figs, which have not been pressed. Cut a small slit in the stem end of each fig and work in two or more blanched almonds. Another mixture which is sometimes used is a mixture of almonds, walnuts and hickory nuts pounded to a paste with a few drops of sherry; for this a portion of the soft interior must be removed from each fig, using a penknife or the handle of a spoon and filling up with the nut paste. These prepared figs may be served with other bonbons for luncheon or dinner; they should be arranged on a fancy dish and passed after the dessert is served.
A no-cook confection that depends almost entirely on the quality of the dried figs. A few terms and assumptions need translating.
- "Bag" figsThese were whole dried figs sold loose in cloth or paper bags rather than the flattened, layered pressed figs packed in boxes. Look for plump whole dried Calimyrna or Smyrna figs; pressed supermarket blocks will tear rather than open into a pocket.
- Softening firstModern dried figs may be drier than the figs this recipe assumes. Steaming them briefly over hot water, or resting them in a covered bowl with a damp cloth for an hour, makes them pliable enough to slit without splitting.
- Blanching almondsCover shelled almonds with boiling water for a minute, drain, and the skins slip off between finger and thumb. Dry them well before use, and toast lightly if you want more flavour than the raw nut gives.
- Hickory nutsCommon in American kitchens of the period and rarely sold now. Pecans are the closest relative in flavour and texture; a mix of almond, walnut and pecan gives essentially the intended result.
- The pastePound or pulse the nuts to a coarse paste and add the sherry a few drops at a time. Too much liquid and the filling slumps out of the fig; it should hold together when pressed in the palm.
- Filling techniqueThe recipe specifies the stem-end slit for the whole almonds; for the paste it says only to remove some of the soft interior with a penknife or spoon handle. Working through the stem end for both keeps the fig looking whole on the dish, and the scooped-out interior can be worked back into the nut paste rather than discarded.
- Yield and keepingFigure two or three per person as an after-dessert sweet. They keep several days in a covered tin; roll in caster sugar before storing if you want to keep them from sticking together.
Stuffed figs belong to the late-Victorian and Edwardian category of "dainty dishes" o be passed with the bonbons at the close of a formal dinner, when the table had been cleared and the company lingered. Dried figs reached American kitchens largely from Smyrna in Ottoman Anatolia, at least for much of the nineteenth century, shipped in bags or pressed into boxed layers, and the recipe draws a distinction between the two forms. The pairing of fig and almond is far older than the cookbook: both are Mediterranean crops of long standing, and stuffing one with the other appears across Spanish, Italian and Levantine confectionery. What marks this version as of its moment is the sherry, the fancy dish, and the insistence that the figs be passed after the dessert rather than as part of it — the choreography of the course mattered as much as the food.