[Sca-cooks] Figs in Honey

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

With all the teaching stuff I'm doing (I was teaching and dealing with
administrative b.s. in my dreams this morning)  ;/  I haven't had much time
to cook.  However, next weekend is our Coronation, and a dear friend is
being elevated to the Laurel, and my apprentige is throwing a party for the
occasion.  The lady is Spanish by persona, and so the Cantigas de Santa
Maria are the decor theme.  I am donating a bottle of sherry for the wine
and cheese selection.  I am also making figs in honey and spices, basing it
on a couple of descriptions I'll paste in below.
I don't want to stew them, but I don't like what I'm tasting in the test
batch I did with uncooked figs covered with honey/spices (candied ginger in
the honey as it heated, cloves added in to steep once the fire was turned
off, and fresh saffron in the jar with the figs).
I can't find any recipes that say to just lightly blanch figs, it's either
stewed/ground up or dried or fresh.
Any thoughts?
Christianna

Fruits preserved in syrup with sweet spices are period.  For example,
the _Libre de Totes Maneres de Confits_ says to preserve dates in
honey with ginger and cloves.  I haven't come across a recipe for dates
in spiced syrup, though Apicius and Platina say that one can preserve
fresh figs by placing them in honey, not touching each other.
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)

To Eat Figs in the French Manner (de Nola)
Take dried figs, the sweetest that you can get, black and white, and remove
the stems and wash them with good white wine which is sweet; and when they
are very well-cleaned, take an earthenware casserole which is big enough,
which has a flat bottom, and cast them inside, stirring them a little; and
then put this casserole upon the coals, and well-covered in a manner that it
is stewed there. And when they are stewed, and they will have absorbed all
of the moisture of the wine, stir them a little, and cast fine spice on top
of them; and turn them, stirring in a manner that incorporates that spice in
them; and then eat this food; and it is an elegant thing; and it should be
eaten at the beginning of the meal.