This recipe is translated and adapted from Apicius' book De Re Coquinaria (on cooking).

Ingredients:

1 large duck
pinch of peppercorns
1 tsp dried onion
large pinch of lovage (or young celery leaves)
pinch of cumin
pinch of celery seeds
70g stoned damsons (or prunes)
50 ml Mulsum (honey wine, made by adding half a cup of honey to a bottle of dry white wine)
50 ml red wine vinegar
50 ml Liquamen (this is fish sauce, the closest modern equivalent being Thai Nam Pla)
50 ml Defritum (thick fig syrup or young white wine or grape juice sweetened with honey and heated to reduce it to a third of its volume)
200g flour
olive oil

Method:

Make a batter from the flour and enough olive oil to bind the flour together. Season this with salt and pepper and use to entirely cover the duck in a layer of pastry. Place in a roasting tin and roast for 2 hours at 170C.

Meanwhile place all the herbs in a mortar and grind with a pestle. To this add the Mulsum, red wine vinegar, Liquamen, Defritum and 30 ml of olive oil. Mix together and place in a pan. Add the chopped damsons and cook until they are tender.

Strain the sauce and pour over slices of the duck. Serve immediately.