Peking Duck
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Peking Duck, or more accurately, Peking Roast Duck (Simplified Chinese: 北京烤鸭; Traditional Chinese: 北京烤鴨; pinyin: Běijīng kǎo yā), is a famous duck dish from northeastern China. The name comes from the traditional, pre-Hanyu Pinyin anglicization of the name of Beijing. It is also known as Beijing Duck or Beijing Roast Duck.
The dish is mostly prized for the thin, crispy skin with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and little meat. Most Chinese restaurants will make two dishes out of one duck -- one with thin slices of skin with a small layer of fat, or none at all, underneath, and another one with the duck meat. The latter is often a stir-fry dish. The bones are boiled to make duck broth, either by the restaurant, or optionally, packed up for home preparation.
The history of the Peking Duck can be traced as far back as the Yuan Dynasty (1206 - 1368). By the time of the early 15th century it had become one of the favorite dishes of the imperial Ming family.
The two most famous restaurants in Beijing which serve this specialty are Quanjude and Bianyifang (便宜坊). Both establishments have a history of well over a hundred years and have an extensive network of chain stores.
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[edit] Preparation
Peking Duck requires a duck with its head still attached. First, it is inflated with a pump or other object, separating the skin from the body (in ancient times someone with strong lungs would achieve this by blowing through a straw). Then the skin is scalded with boiling water to make it drier and tauter and brushed with molasses so that it acquires a dark, rich color with the slight aroma of caramel during the subsequent cooking process. After drying for half a day, the duck is hung by its neck in a hot oven where it is roasted for an hour or more, during which time the copious fat of the duck melts off and the skin becomes crispy. Because a large oven is required, as well as other complicated preparation techniques, Peking Duck is not usually prepared at home; it is customarily eaten in a restaurant or bought already prepared at shops or restaurants and taken home to eat.
In China, a special breed of duck is reared in the North exclusively for this dish. The ducks are kept in individual cages and force‑fed so that they grow plump and that their muscles would remain tender. Peking duck is thus also called Peking stuffed duck (Simplified Chinese: 北京填鸭; Traditional Chinese: 北京填鴨; pinyin: běijīng tián yā).
The stuffed Peking duck is prized for its layer of fat. However, in the West, non-Chinese customers often find the amount of fat under the duck skin unpalatable. In addition, when regular ducks (as opposed to stuffed ducks) are used, or if the cooking technique is improper, the fat layer can remain congealed after roasting. Due to the unavailability of specially reared ducks outside China, regular ducks are often used. In addition, chefs find creative ways to either remove the fat during the skin separation step or cut strategically placed holes near the bottom of the duck to let the grease drip away during cooking. However, the removal of the fat will affect both the texture and taste of the duck.
[edit] Serving
Traditionally, the duck's crispy skin (with a small amount of meat attached) is shaved off at the table and served with steamed "lotus leaf pancakes" (Chinese: 荷叶饼; pinyin: héyè bǐng), slivered green Chinese onion, and sweet noodle sauce (Chinese: 甜面酱; pinyin: tiánmiànjiàng). Pieces of duck skin are placed on the pancake, along with the sauce and scallions. The pancake is then rolled up and eaten. the rest of the duck meat, as well as the extremities, are served separately. In restaurants, dripped grease from the duck and the remaining bones are prepared for the patron to take away and use in cooking at home. Alternatively, the bones can be used to make a broth.[1]
There is, however, now considerable variation in the serving of Peking duck. This is especially the case in the West, where the dish is often served by Cantonese restaurants. In carving the duck, some restaurants serve the skin separately from the meat. Mu xu pancakes (Chinese: 木须饼, pinyin: mù xū bǐng; or 薄饼, pinyin: báo bǐng, literally "thin pancakes") are often used in place of lotus leaf pancakes. Other restaurants use pocket bread or mantou (steamed bun) in place of pancakes. A piece of cucumber is sometimes served along with the scallions to balance the strong flavour and grease.
Some restaurants serve the duck "three ways". In addition to the pancake wrap and the broth, the remaining meat will often be simply stir-fried, or diced, stir-fried, and eaten wrapped in fresh lettuce.
[edit] Crispy aromatic duck
Crispy aromatic duck is a variant of Peking duck that originated in the Chinese community in the United Kingdom. In this version, the duck is rubbed with aromatic spices such as five-spice powder and then deep fried instead of roasted. This enables the meat to be flaked off the bone and shredded easily, a process which is usually performed in front of the patrons of the restaurant. This deep-fried shredded meat is then served with pancakes and the usual condiments.
[edit] Peking duck-style education
In China and other Asian nations, students often memorize books for public examinations without understanding the contents. Due to its similarity in stuffing a duck for Peking Duck, it is called "Peking duck-style education".
[edit] Variants
A form of 'Nanjing duck' (南京烤鴨) was made around Ming dynasty, where water is stuffed inside the duck during roasting.[1] This is believed to be the predecessor to the later Peking Duck, which also uses water in the same way. This technique was transmitted along with the imperial court when the capital was moved from Nanjing to Beijing in the Ming dynasty.
[edit] References
- ^ Liang, Shih-Chiu. "Roast duck" (烧鸭). in Jiang H. (ed.) Liang Shiqiu's Selected Proses (2000). Hangzhou:Zhejiang Literary Press. ISBN 7-5339-0562-9
