roast duck
Recipes for duck have been known in China since ancient times, but it was only at the end of the Ming dynasty that the recipe for roast duck appeared. When it was presented in court, it quickly became all the emperors’ favourite. The technique for roasting duck is derived from pork roasting methods. During the last century the challenge for cooks has been to make duck skin soft and crackly at the same time, making it melt
in your mouth. Many things have to be taken into account to cook Beijing roast duck: the quality of the meat, black bean sauce, Chinese spring onions, cucumbers, flour for making corncakes, the type of wood used in the oven (it usually comes from fruit trees, mostly pear trees and peach trees: the fragrance the wood gives off is very important).
On the outskirts of Beijing, special duck farms fatten them up for 11 months and kill them when they weight 2.5 kilos. The duck is usually placed to one side of the table and there the cook cuts it up as if he were a surgeon. Expert cooks cut each duck up into 200 slices of meat and skin. The
slices of meat are placed at the bottom of the plates and the skin, delicately arranged, goes on top. To bring out the skin’s flavour, it is bathed in sesame oil and sugar sauce and then eaten straight away. Alternatively, the meat is bathed in black bean sauce and, mixed with finely cut onion and courgette, served in corncakes.
If you go to Beijing you have to try this dish. In some restaurants more than 2,000 ducks are served every day. More than 600 years have gone by since the first Beijing duck restaurant was opened. Nowadays it is definitely one of China’s tastiest symbols.
in your mouth. Many things have to be taken into account to cook Beijing roast duck: the quality of the meat, black bean sauce, Chinese spring onions, cucumbers, flour for making corncakes, the type of wood used in the oven (it usually comes from fruit trees, mostly pear trees and peach trees: the fragrance the wood gives off is very important).
On the outskirts of Beijing, special duck farms fatten them up for 11 months and kill them when they weight 2.5 kilos. The duck is usually placed to one side of the table and there the cook cuts it up as if he were a surgeon. Expert cooks cut each duck up into 200 slices of meat and skin. The
slices of meat are placed at the bottom of the plates and the skin, delicately arranged, goes on top. To bring out the skin’s flavour, it is bathed in sesame oil and sugar sauce and then eaten straight away. Alternatively, the meat is bathed in black bean sauce and, mixed with finely cut onion and courgette, served in corncakes.
If you go to Beijing you have to try this dish. In some restaurants more than 2,000 ducks are served every day. More than 600 years have gone by since the first Beijing duck restaurant was opened. Nowadays it is definitely one of China’s tastiest symbols.
