Celebrating small-scale fig preserves

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

The principle behind making a preserve is to prevent and/or slow down the spoilage of a food product and maintain its safety, quality, and nutritional value for longer periods. Fruit preserves are like fruit jellies, with the exception that whole or larger pieces of fruit are used in making the preserve.

It is important to remember that uniformity in the raw product is required to ensure that the pieces will cook evenly. Large-sized figs can be cut into smaller pieces to ensure even cooking and so they are more spreadable in the final preserves. When using very small figs, they can be left whole.

Fresh figs can only be used for a period of 2 to 3 weeks under ordinary refrigeration conditions, and for this reason, they may be processed into frozen figs, dehydrated products, canned, or used in preserves. Dried figs are the major use for this fruit, and drying may be accomplished either through sun-drying or by means of mechanical dryers. Canned figs are mostly used in desserts.

Wonderfully versatile fig preserves

Preserving figs is a relatively simple process, but the end product has many uses:

• Fig preserves can be used for sweet and savoury dishes, as well as appetisers.
• Serve fig preserves with a cheeseboard. It pairs particularly well with creamy cheese varieties like goat’s milk cheese, Brie, and ricotta. It is also an excellent accompaniment to salty cheeses such as blue cheese, Manchego, and aged cheddar.
• Top toasted baguette slices or flatbread with fig preserve, goat’s milk cheese, or ricotta, and nuts, herbs, or prosciutto.
• Use fig preserves as a spread on grilled cheddar or Brie cheese sandwiches.
• To create a glaze for meat, mix balsamic vinegar with fig preserve and brush the mixture over pork chops, roasted chicken, or lamb during the last few minutes of cooking.
• Whisk fig preserves together with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper to create a quick vinaigrette to use as a salad dressing.
• Fig preserves can be used as a filling in baked goods. Use it to make thumbprint cookies, and as a filling for croissants and pastries.
• Fig preserves can be baked into a preserve cake, which is a very moist and flavourful cake. It can also be used as a filling for a cobbler.
• Create fruit tarts and pies by spooning the fig preserve onto the pie or tart crust, and by adding additional ingredients such as goat’s milk cheese, nuts, and chocolate.
• Fig preserves can be used as a topping for breakfast foods. Swirl fig preserves into oatmeal or yoghurt, and spread it on toast, pancakes, waffles, scones, or biscuits.
• Frozen dessert: Create a delicious frozen, swirl dessert by gently mixing fig preserve into softened vanilla ice cream and then refreezing the ice cream.
• To make fig cocktails, add a tablespoon of fig preserves to a cocktail shaker with rum, gin, or rye whiskey, and citrus juice, for a unique flavour.
• Fig-infused beverages are made by stirring fig preserves into spirits or other liquids to infuse a rich fig flavour.  

Making fig preserves

Follow these steps to prepare homemade fig preserves:

1. Sorting: Sorting is done to select the best suitable raw materials for producing the value-added end-product. For making the preserve, select 7 litres of firm, sound figs. No over-ripe or broken figs should be included in the raw material.
2. Pre-treatment: Sprinkle 1 cup of baking soda over the fruit, then cover the figs with approximately 7 litres of boiling water and let stand for 15 minutes. Drain the solution and rinse the fruit well with clear, cold water. Let the fruit drain.
3. Syrup: The syrup is prepared by adding 8 cups of sugar to 2,5 litres of water and boiling the mixture for 6 minutes. After boiling, the syrup is skimmed.
4. Cooking: Add the figs slowly and gradually to the syrup so as not to cool the syrup down. Cook the figs in the syrup for about 2 hours until the figs turn clear. After cooking, carefully lift the figs out of the syrup and place them in shallow pans. The formal definition of “cooking” is to expose a food product to hot water or steam for a pre-determined period.
5. Pre-treatment: Continue boiling the syrup if it is too thin until it reaches the desired thickness, and then pour it over the figs. The figs must be completely covered with the syrup and then allowed to stand overnight.
6. Bottling: Bottling involves preserving and sealing the final product in a glass bottle. After allowing the figs to stand overnight, the fruit is packed cold into sterilised jars. The figs must be packed in the jars so that all the stems point upward (if using whole figs). After packing, the jars are filled with syrup.
7. Final product: The filled jars are processed in a home canner at a simmering temperature for a period of 15 minutes. – Theresa Siebert, Agricultural Research Council, Natural Resources And Engineering (ARC-NRE)

For enquiries, contact Theresa Siebert at SiebertT@arc.agric.za