Wild Boar, Sweet-and-Sour

History

Wild boar (cinghiale) is the emblematic game of Tuscany and its Maremma, where hunted meat was long dressed in a dolce-forte, a "sweet-strong" finishing sauce of raisins, pine nuts, candied peel, sugar, vinegar and dark chocolate. That agrodolce logic is old: sweet-and-sour seasoning ran through Roman cookery, sweetened then with honey rather than sugar, and was reinforced in the Middle Ages through Arab Sicily. The exuberant layering of candied fruit and nuts marks the dish as a survival of medieval and Renaissance taste, with the chocolate a later graft: cocoa crossed the Atlantic through the Columbian exchange and was only afterward folded into this Tuscan preparation. Cocoa reached the Medici court of Tuscany in the 1600s and was quickly domesticated, most famously in Francesco Redi's flavoured chocolates for the grand-ducal court; so by Artusi's day cioccolata was an established kitchen ingredient, not an exotic flourish. The record does not settle the dish's home, which is claimed for Tuscany yet also described as a Roman preparation. Artusi set the version down in 1891 as "Cignale dolce-forte," offering both the rich chocolate-and-fruit sauce and a plainer one of sugar and vinegar alone, advising that it be made a day ahead so the seasoning marries, and noting that hare may be cooked the same way.

Ingredients

• kg wild boar
• onion
• carrot
• ribs white celery
• parsley
• g fatty and lean prosciutto
• g raisins (uva passolina)
• g chocolate
• g pine nuts
• g candied peel
• g sugar
• vinegar

Instructions

1. Make a battuto of onion, carrot, celery, parsley, and prosciutto; chop fine and set beneath the boar in a casserole with oil, salt, and pepper.
2. Cook together until the meat colors; drain most of the fat, dust with flour, and finish with hot water added occasionally.
3. Prepare the dolce-forte in a glass: raisins, chocolate, pine nuts, candied peel, sugar, and a little vinegar.
4. Pass the pan juices, add the dressing, and boil again to blend; it is better made a day ahead.
5. For a simpler version use only sugar and vinegar; the same method suits hare.