Figs have been a popular food since ancient times, originating in the areas of the Mediterranean and Asia Minor.

[1] In the Middle Ages, the arab physician Ibn Butlan is recorded to have recommended eating figs with biscuits, or sugared bread—an early instance of what could be considered a fig roll.

[2] Fig rolls were popular with British immigrants in the United States in the late 19th century.

In 1892 James Henry Mitchell, a Florida engineer and inventor, received a patent for a machine that could produce a hollow tube of cookie dough and simultaneously fill it with jam.

Roser approached the Cambridgeport, Massachusetts–based Kennedy Biscuit Company, who agreed to take on production and sales.