Roast Wild Boar
from Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome by Patrick Faas

"Aper ita conditur: spogiatur, et sic aspergitur ei sal et cuminum frictum, et sic manet. Alia die mittitur in furnum. Cum coctus fuerit perfundutur piper tritum, condimentum aprunum, mel, liquamen, caroenum et passum."

"Boar is cooked like this: sponge it clean and sprinkle with salt and roast cumin. Leave to stand. The following day, roast it in the oven. When it is done, scatter with ground pepper and pour on the juice of the boar, honey, liquamen, caroenum, and passum." (Apicius, 330)

For this you would need a very large oven, or a very small boar, but the recipe is equally successful with the boar jointed. Remove the bristles and skin, then scatter over it plenty of sea salt, crushed pepper and coarsely ground roasted cumin. Leave it in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, turning it occasionally.

Wild boar can be dry, so wrap it in slices of bacon before you roast it. At the very least wrap it in pork caul. Then put it into the oven at its highest setting and allow it to brown for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4, and continue to roast for 2 hours per kg, basting regularly.

Meanwhile prepare the sauce. To make caroenum, reduce 500ml wine to 200ml. Add 2 tablespoons of honey, 100ml passum, or dessert wine, and salt or garum to taste. Take the meat out of the oven and leave it to rest while you finish the sauce. Pour off the fat from the roasting tin, then deglaze it with the wine and the honey mixture. Pour this into a saucepan, add the roasting juices, and fat to taste.

Carve the boar into thin slices at the table, and serve the sweet sauce separately.

Other Wild Boar Recipes from Apicius
from http://www.3owls.org/sca/cook/roman.htm

Other Apicius pork recipes for comparison; these tend towards plain roasts served with some kind of sauce.

I-2. Aliter in Apro. Wild boar. Boil in sea water with sprig of laurel until the meat is soft. Remove the skin. Serve with salt, mustard and vinegar.

I-3. Aliter in Apro. Wild boar. Grind pepper, lovage, oregano, seeded myrtle berries, coriander and onions. Pour honey, wine, stock and a little olive oil over them. Simmer and thicken with starch. Roast the wild boar in the oven and then pour the sauce over it. This recipe will serve for all sorts of wild game.

I-4. In Aprum Assum Iura Ferventia Facies Sic. Roast wild boar in hot sauce. Pepper and fried cumin, celery seed, mint, thyme, savory, saffron, roasted small nuts or roasted almonds, honey, wine, stock and a little olive oil.