By Caroline Schaller

[This Month's Recipe] [World of Chefs] [www.thuries.fr]

The Mediterranean

The Greeks made the fig a dish of choice. The famous twins Remus and Romulus (the founder of Rome) were sheltered in their childhood under a fig-tree. Mythology or reality, the fig always played a real cultural and gastronomic role in the Mediterranean. And it continues again today: who doesn't know Escartefigue, this picturesque character of the famous Marseillais trilogy of Marcel Pagnol? For the same reason as the olive, the fig is Mediterranean, fleshy and full of sun.

More to the North, the fig knew a real success from the reign of Louis XIV and this until the end of the 19th century. Fragile and therefore untransportable from the beaches of the big blue, it was produced out of Paris, in the township of Argenteuil, where fig trees were planted on small hills with full southern exposure. This production, small but of high gustatory quality, has disappeared today but gave its name to some varieties, such as "the Argenteuil Red," more known as "Dauphine."

Varieties of Figs

Here is one fact that makes the fig most original. To be simple: Some trees are male, some are female. The first shelter some blastophages (winged and minuscule bugs responsible of the pollination of the fig tree). The other, also named domestic fig trees, can produce as many as two harvests per year, according to the variety.

In July, the trees produce fig flowers. These figs come from very small fruits produced the previous year. The fig flowers can capacity to ripen without pollination.

From mid-August through November, the second figs appear a result of pollination. They represent the major part of the French production. They have a sweeter taste than the flower figs.

Among the most famous varieties, there is the Violet of Sollies, cultivated in Var. It represents more the third of the French production. Its skin is purple, thick and very fleshy. White, yellow and green figs also exist, the most valued being the fig of Marseille.

The Fig and Gastronomy

Cheese, honey and fig is a gustatory trilogy that the ancients venerated. Today it goes over again well, as well as all possible variants: mesclun, féta and figs perfectly agree with a feature of lemon juice; so do yogurt, figs and honey.

As hors-d'oeuvres, main course or dessert, the raw or baked fig always finds a place. Fig and raw ham; raw salmon, fig and pomelo. Duck or chicken with the figs and citrus fruits; guinea fowl stuffed with figs in Maury sauce; chicken liver, figs and sherry vinegar; rabbit, cutlets of pork or lamb. Cake with figs and walnuts; compote of figs and prunes. 

The Wild Fig

The wild fig comes not from a tree but of a fat, thorny plant from the American subtropics. When the Europeans arrived in the New World, they discovered this fig in the present Mexico and they called it tunas. 

Imported into Europe, it acclimatized very well to the Mediterranean basin and notably in North Africa. Its resemblance to the tree fig gave it its European name: the wild fig.

The wild fig has a skin with small thorns that make harvest laborious. It is why one uses tongs the to pick up the fruits. 

Under this skin hides an orange pulp sprinkled with small seeds of dark color.

Did You Know?

• The fig-tree produces an acidic sap. It is an acid close to that produced in man’s digestive system. Our forebears used this sap to tenderize raw meat, by wrapping the meat in fig leaves. This sap can be used to curdle milk. On the other hand, it should not be consumed, because the taste is very bitter.

• The expression "half-fig, half-grape" has its origin in a beautiful swindle dating the 15th century. Indeed, the Corinthians concealed among their superb raisins small pieces of dried figs dried, which weigh more, and sold them to the Venetians.