How to Prepare Peking Duck

18Jan07

Taken off Wiki.

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 without muscle. 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) because of that.

In the United States, some picky Americans find the excessive fat under the duck skin unpalatable. The chefs there 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. Usually regular ducks are used for their lesser fat content. Thus, arguably, the Peking Duck served in the US is often not authentic due to Western consumer preferences.

I’m not sure exactly how one blows the air through a straw in order to separate the skin from the body, but it does sound like an important step. I think I can do it, cuz I don’t smoke.
I love duck soup.

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