PEKING DUCK

Peking duck is a dish from Beijing that has been prepared since the imperial era. The meat is characterized by its thin, crisp skin, with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and little meat, sliced in front of the diners by the cook. Ducks bred specially for the dish are slaughtered after 65 days and seasoned before being roasted in a closed or hung oven. The meat is eaten with spring onion, cucumber and sweet bean sauce with pancakes rolled around the fillings. Sometimes pickled radish is also inside, and other sauces (like hoisin sauce) can be used.

History of Peking Duck

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.

5 facts you probably didn't know about peking duck

Where does Peking Duck come from? It is a trick question: the dish named for China's capital has its origins in Nanjing, hundreds of kilometres to the south. The tidbit is one of the revelations in a museum opened earlier this month to mark the 150th anniversary of the Quanjude restaurant, now the seven-storey flagship of a chain with franchises as far away as Australia.

Statues of roasters, photos of officials dining and menus going back 100 years trace the duck's route from humble waterfowl to culinary institution.

No secret ingredients are revealed, but around 20 models detail each stage of the duck's journey to the plate. Slaughtered when it weighs around three kilos, pumped full of air to separate skin from fat, the bird is gutted and filled with boiling water to help a sweet basting syrup penetrate the meat before being dried, coated and roasted.

"The baking time is about 50 minutes," a museum panel reads. "The roast duck coming out of the oven looks plump, in a colour of jujube red all over its body, full of oily luster, with a crisp skin, a fresh and tender mouthfeel, tasting delicious but not oily, bearing a subtle fragrance of the fruit tree."

A roast duck style was first developed in the court kitchens of Nanjing, China's then capital in the eastern province of Jiangsu, and the dish only came to Beijing when the Ming dynasty Yongle emperor moved his seat north in the 15th century.

Fuchsia Dunlop, a British writer who specialises in Chinese food, describes today's Peking duck as "a more recent innovation". "When Quanjude was set up, in 1864, the guy who started it employed some chefs who worked in the imperial palace and they used this hanging up technique from imperial kitchens to roast the duck," she said.

"It's a clay oven, with the ducks hanging inside, with a fruit wood fire in the mouth of the oven." Once cooked the bird is dissected at the table by a skilled chef, his hands usually protected from the heat only by a flimsy plastic glove as he reduces the carcass to precise sections of meat and slivers of crispy skin. "If he has a good cut, he can cut it into a hundred slices," says Dunlop.

At the restaurant, diner He Yufan said: "When I watch the chef cut it, he makes it look like art. That's why it feels good to eat it." Her friend Guo Jin was indifferent to the birthplace of the dish. "Beijing is the only place in the world that has authentic Peking duck," she said. "You can't get this anywhere else."

Duck Diplomacy

According to Quanjude, which boasts of having sold 196 million ducks around the world, the dish has played its part in Chinese international relations. Its chefs would accompany Chinese diplomatic missions and pictures in the museum show Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon, who made a landmark visit to China in 1972, eating duck.

"Ping-Pong diplomacy, Maotai diplomacy and roast duck diplomacy were once called the three great diplomatic manoeuvres of China by (former Premier) Zhou Enlai," a panel says, referring to China's pungent fermented sorghum spirit. On one occasion, Zhou dined with Charlie Chaplin in 1954 in Geneva, where the British actor was living in exile from the US after questions were raised over his alleged Communist sympathies.

"I have a special feeling for ducks," Chaplin is quoted as telling Zhou. "I created a character who is hilarious when walking, and his posture is from the duck, so I do not eat duck as a rule. But I will break rules this time."

Gastronomic Traditions

There has been talk of Beijing applying next year to have Chinese food included on UNESCO's list of global intangible cultural heritage, which so far only includes a few culinary items, among them French haute cuisine and Japanese dietary customs called washoku.

According to Dunlop the Quanjude museum is part of a nationwide trend to showcase China's gastronomic traditions. She attributes the phenomenon to a hugely popular television programme, "A Bite of China", that highlighted different areas' cuisines and dishes.

"Lots of their cooking techniques have existed for centuries and are very specific, depending on the region they are coming from in this huge country," she said. The show "encouraged people to stop taking it for granted, showed them it's something to be proud of and learn about, and tell the outside world about", she added.

It "seems to have really woken Chinese people up to the fact that they have an amazing food culture and it's part of their heritage"

How to make Peking Duck

How to Serve & Eat Peking Duck

At this stage, there are 5 components of the Peking Duck dish ready to assemble:

• The duck meat
• Steamed pancakes
• Sweet bean sauce
• Spring onions
• Cucumber

Here is the proper way to then put together these components for a mouth-watering treat!

• Lay one pancake flat on your plate, and spread a small amount of the sweet bean sauce around the top-middle section of the wrap.
• Next, place a few pieces of duckon the top-middle section over where the sauce has been spread.
• Next, lay a small number of cucumbers and spring onions over the top of the duck meat. The goal is to have the duck be the juicy outer layer of the bite that first hits your mouth, followed by the more crunchy, textured cucumber and onion in the center of the bite.
• Fold the bottom half of the pancake over the meat, sauce and vegetables at the middle of the wrap.
• Pull the right and then left edges over the middle of the wrap, then flip over the assembled wrap.
• Pick up your delicious treat with your chopticks and enjoy!

Sources :

http://www.chilihousesf.com/blog/2017/may/how-to-serve-eat-peking-duck.aspx

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/dinning/duck.htm

http://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/5-facts-you-probably-didnt-know-about-peking-duck-695757