In the past we have had quite a number of recipes
featuring figs (see the list below), and figs have also appeared in a number of
other cakes, puddings, and desserts. But we have not, so far, had any figgy
beverages. I am going to remedy that right now.
In the Military
Dictionary (1863) by Henry Lee Scott the recipes are said to be taken from
Soyer’s Culinary Campaign. Here is a recipe
for Fig Water – a medicinal beverage, but surely very delicious even for the
healthy. The recipe is an adaptation of the preceding one in the book, so I
give you all:
French Plum Water. Boil 3
pints of water; add in 6 or 8 dried plums previously split, 2 or 3 slices of
lemon, a spoonful of honey 01 sugar; boil half an hour, and serve.
For Fig, Date, and Raisin Water, proceed as above, adding the juice of half a lemon
to any of the above. If for fig water, use 6 figs. Any quantity of the above
fruits may be used with advantage in rice, barley, or arrowroot water.
And of course, we must
have wine:
English Fig Wine.
Take
the large blue figs when pretty ripe, and steep them in white wine, having made
some slits in them, that they may swell and gather in the substance of the
wine. Then slice some other figs, and let them simmer over a fire in fair water
till they be reduced to a kind of pulp. Then strain out the water, pressing the
pulp hard, and pour it as hot as possible on the figs that are imbrued in the wine. Let the quantities be nearly equal, but
the water somewhat more than the wine and figs. Let them stand twenty-four
hours, mash them well together, and drain off what will run without squeezing.
Then press the rest, and if it be not sweet enough, add a sufficient
quantity of sugar to make it so. Let it ferment, and add a little honey and
sugar-candy to it: then fine it with whites of eggs and a little isinglass, and
draw it off for use.
The London art of
cookery, and housekeeper's complete assistant,
by John Farley, 1787.
I love that word
‘imbrued’! It means, as you can
guess, saturated or permeated (and also ‘stained.’) Forget marinating, I am resolved to do more imbruing in my kitchen.
English Fig
Wine.
Take
a quantity of ripe figs and cut them in slices, and let them simmer over the
fire in a small portion of water until reduced to a pulp, then strain the
liquor from it by compression, and to every gallon of the expressed liquid when
cold add two quarts of sherry, raisin, or currant wine, and as much loaf sugar
as discreet judgment will allow to sweeten it, and water to reduce it; after
which put the liquor into a cask sufficiently large to hold the quantity
intended to be deposited therein; let it remain a few days for a course of
fermentation, and when it has ceased and is thoroughly settled, rack it off and
fine it with isinglass; let it stand in the cellar four months, then bottle it
and keep the bottles in a cold temperature.
The spirit, wine
dealer's and publican's director,
1824
Fig Recipes from
Previous Posts.
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