Figs, and the art of eating things at their peak

A fig is ready when it starts to bend at the neck and weep a little at the base. A day later it is jam.

Buy them the day you will eat them. Keep them at room temperature, stalk up, and eat them with something salty: ham, cheese, a few flakes of salt on their own.

Ripe for three days, perfect for one.

How to buy them

At the market, ignore the firm ones. A good fig gives under the lightest press of a finger, has a dull rather than shiny skin and may have a small split near the stalk. Smell them: a ripe fig smells faintly of honey, an unripe one of nothing at all.

Buy only what you will eat today. Figs do not ripen further once picked, they only soften, and the fridge dulls the flavour within hours.

What to do with them

Most of the time, nothing. Tear them in half with your hands rather than cutting them, so the seeds hold together, and eat them as they are.

If you want to cook, keep it short. Halve them, put them cut side up under a hot grill with a drizzle of honey for three minutes, and serve them warm with thick yoghurt. Or lay them on a board with soft goat’s cheese, a little thyme and black pepper. Anything more complicated hides the one thing that makes them worth buying.

When they are gone, they are gone until next year. That is the best thing about them.