Fig skin - Do you eat it?

[Mel!]

Do you always eat it, never eat it, eat it if the figs are cooked?

I was making pasta with figs last weekend. I was unsure whether to leave the fig skins on, when slicing them up and putting them in the sauce. I ended up peeling them, just in case.

[4meandthem]

My grandfather had a huge black mission fig tree in his yard. As kids we would climb it eat the figs right off the tree skin and all. I like the flavor of the skins with the friut.

[Luca Lazzari]

About figs and skins, we have a humorous old saying here in Italy:

"fare come gli antichi
che mangiavan la buccia
e buttavano i fichi"

It means to do something really silly. Literally:

"doing as the ancient ones
who ate the skin
and threw away the figs"!

[larry_stewart]

I definitely do eat the skins. That being said, I think the skin on the black figs are a little more 'earthy/ green' tasting to me than the yellow figs.

[kadesma]

skins on no other way to eaat them for me.
kades

[Dawgluver]

Huh. Good to know. Have never had the fresh ones, only dried, so I would probably have had the same question. I would bet the fresh are delicious!

[licia]

We have a very short fig season and when they are in I eat everything except the stem. I wish we could get them year round. We do have fig preserves the rest of the year.

[Mel!]

Originally Posted by Dawgluver

Huh. Good to know. Have never had the fresh ones, only dried, so I would probably have had the same question. I would bet the fresh are delicious!

Yes, the fresh ones are delicious. They taste different to the dried ones, but I like both. :)

I will certainly leave the skins on in future, after all the reassurance in the thread, and I won't just eat the skins and throw away the rest. :)

[ChefJune]

never thought about figs having "skins!" I've always eaten the whole thing.

[justplainbill]

Pretty tough to peel a well ripened fresh fig. Maybe Luca has some anecdotes he can tastefully share about the term figa secca?