[Sca-cooks] Honeyed Plums (was Chinese honey)

[Alec Story]

Here's all the references of "honey" and "*Prunus mume*" together in the
same paragraph on ctext.org:

http://ctext.org/post-han?searchu=%E8%9C%9C%20%E6%A2%85

The first one <http://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=en&id=603973> is from *The
Record of the Three Kingdoms
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Records_of_the_Three_Kingdoms>*, published
in the 3rd century CE, but it's from the commentary not the original text.
I don't know when the commentary is from, although if Wu Li is this Wu Li
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Li>, it's just barely post-period.  It's
unclear, it could very well be a different Wu Li, since why would a painter
be commenting on a history book?  Wu Li might also mean "The History of Wu"
which could very well be a commentary book on this topic.  Isn't Chinese
textual analysis fun?

"
Wu Li says: [...Talking about Sun Quan, the lord of Wu
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Wu>, ~modern day Shanghai and
south...] After dawn they went to the western garden, and there ate
fresh *Prunus
mume*, and went to the yellow gate and fetched the honey stored there to
soak the *Prunus mume*.  The honey had been lost some to mice...
"

This paragraph is quoted in many later compendiums on honey and *Prunus
mume*, much to my frustration :)

The same story is repeated in the 14th century *historical fiction **Romance
of the Three Kingdoms* (which if you have played the video game *Dynasty
Warriors*, you'll be familiar with the plot) in vernacular of that
century.  They clarify that the honey was lost to mice droppings by this
author's interpretation, but don't add any more details about the plums.

The next references come from the ~1600 novel *Jin Ping Mei
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jin_Ping_Mei>*, and reference "boiling *Prunus
mume* in honey" but it's a little unclear because apparently one of the
characters is also named *Prunus mume* - the "mei" in the title - so it's
hard to tell what's referring to a plum literally, what's referring to the
plum literally but the character figuratively, and what's referring to the
character literally.

The Taiping Yulan <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_Yulan>, a Song
encylopedia has this <http://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=en&id=413409> quote
from the lost classical era (200 CE?) book *The Classic of Food*:

"To make incorruptible ginger: in honey, boil black *Prunus mume*, take the
dregs, and put it with them with the incorruptible ginger, and wait three
nights.  The color will become yellow-crimson, like amber."

The remaining references are post-period so I will omit them.

So we don't have much to go on other than "soak the plums in honey."  I
suggest experimentation!

- Thorfinnr