Peking Duck

There is a number of ways to roast a duck, but out of all the ways, the best, traditional, old and technical approach to cooking a duck is Peking duck. In case you are a lover of flavorful meat, then the dish Peking duck is something you will genuinely like. It is a traditional Chinese dish with a complicated day's long preparation, consist of thin pieces of tender, moist duck meat and crispy skin wrapped in a thin crepe, served with steamed flat buns, sweet bean sauce, scallions, and cucumber. It is a dish you will develop a severe craving for. It is said that when you go to the historic city of Beijing, there are two things that you must do; one to climb the Great wall and others to taste the famous Peking Duck which is also known as Beijing roast duck. It is one of the traditional dishes you can ever encounter. Once it was confined to kitchens of the palace but now served at thousands of restaurants in Beijing and around the world.   

Peking duck history

Today it is possible to enjoy Peking duck in numerous restaurants and has renowned both in China and abroad, but the time this dish was created was confined only to royalty. It says “Peking duck is one of the traditional dishes whose royal lineage dated back more than 700 years. About the Peking duck, on the official website of Beijing, it is stated that the Peking duck dish which is also known as Chinese roast duck or Beijing duck, had its beginning in the Yuan Dynasty (1271 to 1368). At that time, chefs from all over China moved to the city, Beijing, to cook for the rulers. Only the best cook was able to enter the palace kitchens, and the top chefs were able to reach the rank to prepare food for the minsters. It was in these kitchens where the palace cooks first created the Peking dish. However, later, the recipes were spread out into the streets of Beijing. With the fall of the Ching dynasty, the cooks who left the Forbidden City brought the Peking duck and other delicious dishes to restaurants around Beijing.  

In 1330, during the Yuan dynasty Hu Sihui, the royal dietary physician had first recorded the Peking duck association with the imperial court. However, Hu’s recipe of Peking duck was called for a rather elaborate preparation, in which the duck was roasted inside the stomach of a sheep.

Interestingly, although Peking duck is named after Beijing (‘Peking’ is an older spelling) but the birthplace of Peking duck is Nanjing, which lies in the eastern province of Jiangsu which was the capital at that time. Still, people in Nanjing enjoy their old habits of eating roast ducks. In the Ming dynasty, the imperial Ming Chengzu moved the capital to Beijing, along with the recipes of roast ducks. By then, Peking duck was a traditional staple of imperial menus. In the Qing dynasty, Peking duck gradually earned its fame and popularity and spread from the royal court to ordinary people and was finally served on the tables of all ordinary people. Also, the dish was much praised in the writings of scholars and poets.

Even today, this classic dish considered one of China's national dishes and the honor of being hailed as part of China’s culinary heritage. It inspired poetry and a staple for the imperial class for generations. The Peking duck has its museum in Beijing, A news report of NBC News title Peking Duck Museum Hatches at Beijing's Quanjude Restaurant explains that the monument built in honor of this duck “In a museum at Beijing a statue of giant gold duck greets the visitors. That is a tribute given to roast duck, and the statue sits on the top of the seven-story Quanjude restaurant.”

In addition to Peking duck's rich heritage, it has played a significant role in Chinese international relations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The diplomats and political leaders, for instance, Fidel Castro, Richard Nixon, and Henry Kissinger have all been famously wined and dined with the famous Chinese dish, Peking duck.

Peking duck dish

To prepare Peking duck, the chefs go through a long and lengthy process. The process starts with a couple of months old Pekin duck that, the breed of duck referred to as imperial Peking because of how it is raised. The ducks are allowed to roam free for the first 45 days of their lives and then confined and forced fed four times a day for the last 15 to 20 days of its life. The confinement ensures that the duck will grow fat, without developing tight muscles through exercise. Owning to forced feeding, the ducks are sometimes also called “Peking stuffed duck.” The ducks usually slaughtered after 65 days, at which point they weigh about 5 to 7 Kg. Once slaughtered, plucked, gutted, washed and boiled, then the air is pumped into the neck cavity of the slaughtered. Pumping air aims to completely separate the skin from the meat underneath, which allows for the skin to render out fat from both sides, basting the turkey as it cooks. Hang on; we are not near to the cooking phase yet. Next, the guts of the duck are removed through a tiny incision under one of the wings. Then a couple branches of wheat or sorghum are inserted into the chest cavity to keep the skin stretched taut away from the meat as it roasts. The prepared duck is then doused with boiling water which helps to tight the skin and dry fast, then the duck coated with maltose syrup which gives rich lacquered color and to make the skin extra crispy. The duck is then hung up in the air to dry before roasting in the oven until it is delicious on the inside and crispy on the outside. 

Finally, there are two ways to roast the duck, one is known as the traditional closed oven method, and the second known is the hung oven method which was developed in the 1860s. These two most notable Peking duck roasting methods represent two different roasting traditions in the restaurants of Beijing. However, it is a matter of dispute to say which one is superior and which one is inferior. In Beijing, the Quanjude restaurant uses the hung oven method created by Yang Quanren, the founder of the restaurant. In this technique of roasting, the duck is hung from a hook attached to the ceiling and roasted over burning wood.

Meanwhile, the renowned Bianyifang restaurant which was found in the 15th century uses the closed oven technique of roasting, in which the duck is cooked by the heat radiating from the oven’s walls. After roasting the skin becomes juicy and crispy. The duck is accurately cut into 120 slices and served with green onions, light pancakes, fermented bean paste, and sliced cucumbers. If you want to cook at home kitchen then it is possible too, you can come up with a decent Peking duck by watching the video Peking Duck in which opera singer Hao Jiang Tian and Martha Stewart, present an easy recipe of this renowned dish. However, the procedure did not include pumping the skin, but the result looks great.

Three ways of serving Peaking duck in the form of three separate dishes;

(1) The customers served with thin slices with a bit of the fat underneath, along with a dipping sauce.

(2) The customers served with the duck meat, with “mu-shi” the steamed flour pancakes or a steamed bun along with the plum sauce, hoisin sauce, and slivered green onions. They insert pieces of meat in the bun or put on the pancake with a bit of sauce and some green onion and roll it up to eat it.

(3) The remainder of the duck meat served to the customers in a stir-fry or noodle or in a soup.

Then again, for the first course, the skin of the duck may be served with pancakes, for the second course the meat served with vegetables and for the third course, a celery cabbage soup made from the duck bones served. In China or Chinese towns abroad you can also get the Peking duck as a parcel to the home you would then supply the additional bits to help with it.

What wine with Peking duck?

Master sommelier Evan Goldstein is quoted in the article What to Drink with Peking Duck suggesting the perfect pair of wine with Peking duck. The article indicates that Peking duck is a meal that deserves a proper drink. If you are going with beer, consider skipping the Tsing Tao and going maltier, either to an amber ale or a rich, pruney Belgian dubble. In case the Peking duck is served with plum sauce, the article indicates a slightly off-dry white wine instead of red wine, the more common choice with duck which has mostly red meat. In case you want to go with reds, the suggestion is to choose a fruity wine with very subtle tannins. Anyways, whatever wine you want is fine, as long as you give your duck the homage it deserves by savoring every bite.