The maltose-syrup glaze coating the skin is the secret. Slow roasted in an oven, the crispy, syrup-coated skin is so good that authentic eateries will serve more skin than meat, and bring it with pancakes, onions and hoisin or sweet bean sauce.

Other than flying or floating, this is the only way you want your duck.

Beijing Roast Duck

According to a Chinese saying, no visit to this city is complete if you miss seeing the Great Wall or dining on Roast Duck. As a famous and delicious food with very long history, Beijing Roast Duck is an excellent choice if you want to understand more about Chinese cuisine, culture and customs.

It is thought that the dish, like the tradition of roast turkey in America, owes its origin to the roast goose that is still popular in Europe on festive occasions. Westerners like Marco Polo brought certain European customs to China and may have introduced the concept of roasting poultry to their Chinese hosts during the Yuan Dynasty (1271 - 1368). Ducks had long been domesticated in China and the plump ducks proved to be an excellent substitute for goose in much the same way as the American colonizers found the native turkey to be. However, there is another school of thought based upon certain records that show it has a much longer history dating back as far as the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420 - 589). Up until the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 - 1279), ducks were roasted in the area around Jinling, today's Nanjing. However, the later Yuan Dynasty rulers moved their capital city to Beijing from Jinling and took with them their cuisine thus making this dish popular in the city that was eventually to make it its very own specialty.

The ducks were originally roasted in a conventional convection oven until Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911) when this dish became a delicacy in the imperial menu and were highly regarded by emperors and other members of the ruling classes. The ducks used during this period were a special breed namely the White Beijing Duck and a new method of cooking was employed, by suspending the ducks over the flame in an open oven. These two traditional methods of cooking have resulted in the two major present day schools of roast duck preparation.

The initial method has been perpetuated by very few restaurants among which Bianyi Fang (Convenient and Comfortable) Restaurant, established in 1861, is the most famous. There serves roast duck with a well-preserved traditional flavor. The second method is relatively well-known and used with great success by the Quan Ju De Restaurant. Today, Quan Ju De means this delicious food to many Chinese people as well as foreign visitors.

Over a long period of development exceeding some 140 years, a consummate and precise procedure for cooking this dish has been firmly established:

First, a suitable White Beijing Duck will be chosen for preparation. After the bird has been plucked, air is pumped between its skin and flesh. A small incision is made for the removal of the entrails.

Secondly, and once the bird has been thoroughly cleaned, a wooden skewer is inserted through it to facilitate its hanging and ultimate heating; the body cavity is filled with water and the incision that had been made is closed.

Thirdly, the skin of the duck is air dried and brushed with a layer of sugar.

Fourthly, the duck is then put into a large oven, using a smokeless hardwood fuel and heating to about 270 degrees Centigrade for 30 to 40 minutes. The duck is turned frequently during the roasting process to ensure even cooking.

Then the delicious dish is ready! It will be a shining date-red in color and unique in flavor; It is characterized by its crispy skin and tender texture. Besides the traditional one, many restaurants offer an All Duck Banquet - various dishes cooked with the offal and juices of the duck, surrounding the main dish. It will be sure to give you satisfaction and enjoyment when dining.

In addition, there are some points to which you need to pay attention when having this dish. The best seasons for eating it are spring, autumn and winter. The hot roast duck will be brought to the dining table by the chef where he will slice it into more than 100 thin flakes, each having its piece of crispy skin. The way to really enjoy the succulent meat is as follows: first take one of the small, thin pancakes provided and spread it with plum sauce, small slices of spring onions and then add some pieces of duck. Finally roll up the pancake and take a bite. You will be surprised by the terrific taste!

HOW PEKING DUCK IS MADE

I've had plenty of ersatz Peking duck in the States in the past, but this would be my first time tasting it in its homeland. I did a painstaking amount of research before heading to Beijing in deciding which restaurant to go to. I only had one shot at it, and I wanted to make sure that my RMB was well spent. A Peking duck meal will set you back around 200 RMB (about $32), before any additional side dishes or drinks. It's not expensive by New York or San Francisco prices, but it's on the higher end of the spectrum in a city like Beijing, where a cheap meal will cost you under a buck and you'd be hard pressed to spend more than ten or so.

Based on a couple of Chowhound threads, some tips from readers, and an article by Fuchsia Dunlop in the Financial Times, I was torn between the ultra-modern Da Dong, recommended by Dunlop, and the more classic Siji Minfu, recommended by Reuters' Beijing correspondent, Megha Rajagopalan.

Peking Duck appeared at early emperors' feasts but it wasn't introduced to the public until 1864, when Yang Quanren opened Quanjude restaurant where, according to Dunlop, the technique of hanging the ducks upright in an oven heated with fruitwood fire was introduced. Prior to that, ducks were roasted lying down in a closed oven. The hanging technique leaves more space for rendering fat to drain, resulting in crisper, drier skin.

That oven is not the only elaborate part of the process, which starts with a 100-day-old Pekinese duck that has been force-fed for the last several days of its life to plump up—at least, that's how the most highly regarded do it. Air is then forced into the neck cavity of the slaughtered, plucked duck, inflating its skinsort of like those lizard balloons in the first Shrek movie. The idea is to completely separate the skin from the meat underneath, which allows for the skin to render out fat from both sides, basting the meat as it cooks.

But we're not anywhere near the cooking phase yet. Next, the guts of the duck are removed. With American butchery practices, the guts are removed through the business-end of the digestive system. Ever notice how your chicken or duck has a huge cavity cut out at the bottom between the legs? With a Peking duck, presentation is of paramount importance, so the guts are removed through a tiny incision under one of the wings.

Next up, a couple branches of wheat or sorghum are inserted into the chest cavity to keep the skin stretched taut and away from the meat as it roasts. The prepared duck is then doused with boiling water (this helps tighten the skin up, as well as causing it to, paradoxically, dry faster), given a coating of maltose syrup—this is what gives it its rich, lacquered color—and left to hang and dry for at least 24 hours.

Finally, the duck is hung with its neck wrapped around a metal hook, boiling water is poured into its cavity, and it's and placed inside a tall oven heated by fruitwoods (Dunlop says that Da Dong uses a combination of apple, pear, and jujube wood). The water inside slowly boils away, steaming the meat, while the smoky fire renders the skin.

HOW TO ORDER

Your main options on the menu are the side dishes, and most restaurants offer a pretty vast array. If you want to go all duck, order some heart, liver, or tongue—all delicacies that you won't get to taste with the standard whole Peking duck.
Or, if you'd like to taste another of Beijing's typical dishes, get a plate of zha jiang mian, hand-pulled noodles served with a bowl of oily fermented soybean paste, along with an array of toppings—usually slivered cucumber and watermelon radish, along with bean sprouts and fresh soy beans. My mom used to serve us a dish she called "Peking noodles," which always tasted like a vaguely Chinese spaghetti Bolognese. The real stuff is much funkier, colder, fresher, and at least in Beijing, less meaty as well. The version at Siji Minfu had little chunks of crisp pork belly mixed into the sauce. Other versions I had around town had a bit of ground pork, or no meat at all.
One thing you'll quickly learn (or in our case, after five or six screw-ups): Those little bowls they helpfully hand to you at the beginning of the meal? They are not plates for sharing. They're for filling up on the thick, bland broth that they have floating around the restaurants in tea kettles (I have no idea what it is, but it tastes sort of like mildly thickened, unseasoned cabbage water).
When ordering the duck itself, you'll have the option to order a whole duck or a half duck, with the whole duck available at two different levels of quality, which relates to the duck's feeding—the pricier duck will have been raised and force-fed a bit longer, rendering it more succulent and fatty. You should pay the slightly higher cost (around 20 RMB) for the better duck, and definitely order a whole duck, which will guarantee that it's being pulled fresh and hot out of the oven for you.

HOW TO EAT

After that, just sit back and let the waitstaff carry you through your meal. Here's how it'll go.

Meals start with fresh seasonal fruit. In my case, cantaloupe, followed by your chosen starters and side dishes. When your duck is ready for you (and not the other way around), it'll be carted out into the dining room on a large platter by a knife-wielding chef.

The chef starts by cutting off the head and carefully splitting it in half, revealing the ducks brain—intended to be eaten at the end of the meal. He goes on, removing the skin from the breast of the duck in three wide strips. Watch carefully, because it takes literally seconds from start to finish.

The most incredible part is that the flesh underneath is completely undisturbed—you can clearly see the space where the inflated skin has pulled away from the meat.

Milan Tomic

Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.