Roast Duck: Tips, Techniques & Tradition

[itch22]

I hope you are putting in more than just water. 

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I'd be hanging it.

What do you suggest for the steaming liquid?

[Marco_Polo]

Peking duck is too difficult to replicate faithfully at home.

I'm sure Ben is right: how much better to have it made for you and served with such style (did said gorgeous young lady feed the pancakes and duck skin to you as well, Ben, or am I just fantasizing?!).

Be that as it may, from time to time I still like to play at making a sort of faux-Peking duck. The best tip I can pass on is to use a bicycle track pump to blow up the skin - simply insert the pump under the skin and pump like a madman (this is a two-man job and you may have to insert the pump in various places since they no longer make ducks like they used to do, and the skin is likely to tear here and there, though it doesn't really matter). This technique of course has the purpose of separating duck skin from the layer of subcutaneous fat beneath. Next pour over boiling hot water, stuff with spices, flavours etc, hang up on a hook, and baste with favourite mixture, then place in front of a fan to dry. Continue to baste at regular intervals (it may be a good idea to sleep on the kitchen floor to facilitate this important process: but whatever anyone tells you, you don't need to wake up more often than every hour to baste, that ought to be quite frequent enough). After a day or so of such treatment the skin will eventually take on the texture of a sort of dry and venerable parchment.

[jo-mel]

HeeHee! This brought back my attempts at making the duck --- both with a tire pump and another with the gin bath. I pulled all the loose skin together that I could and skewered it, then held the skewers with string. Best to get a duck with the head still on. Easier for cavity closing.

Handsome, charming, show-off waiter slicing the duck or not, I've always found Peking Duck overblown. (hey! a pun! And I really didn't meant to do it!) I much prefer Shanghai Duck which is braised, then roasted and served with stemed bread and the wonderful sauce.

But I understand wanting to try to make Peking Duck. Sometimes you just gotta try it ----- after that you will let someone else do it.

[hzrt8w]

The major aspect of eating Peking duck that appeals to me is having it served to me by a gorgeous young lady in a long forgotten restaurant in Hong Kong, hmm,  all pulchritudinously wrapped in a tight chipao and white gloves  

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Ben: I think that gorgeous young lady is waiting for you, along with the Dan Ga Nui in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong, longing for your return!

[Ben Hong]

Hzrt8w, I'm thinking that the Dan Ga Nui is a grandmother now . As for the white-gloved young lady, she would still be in her er, prime, uh, 30+ maybe? But then my wife says to one and all that I'm a happily married man. Skin on an alabaster toned doily is a good memory.

[Dejah]

Peking duck is too difficult to replicate faithfully at home.

I'm sure Ben is right: how much better to have it made for you and served with such style (did said gorgeous young lady feed the pancakes and duck skin to you as well, Ben, or am I just fantasizing?!).

Me thinks Ben was fantasizing

"Skin on an alabaster toned doily is a good memory. biggrin.gif"

Was that a doily or a dolly??

I have never made Peking duck, but I watched Ming Tsai do it on one of his shows. He used a tire pump and a fan. For marinate, he used a mixture of honey and water, I think.

For myself, I make the Cantonese roast duck. I poached the stuffed and trussed duck in a boiling mixture of water and honey. I do let it hang to dry for a couple of hours. The oven cavity doesn't allow me to hang the duck, so I roast it on a rack, starting with breasts down. When it turns a nice golden red colour, I'd flip the duck over, baste it with some diluted honey and finish roasting until the duck is gorgeous!

For the inside liquid, I use a mixture of wine, whole brown bean sauce, ginger, garlic, and star anise.

In restaurants and BBQ houses, they use an upright oven that allows for hanging of the bird. I believe it also rotates so the birds get an even colour.

[prasantrin]

My parents fake Peking Duck was done as so...

1. Go to Chinatown and buy roast duck from the deli

2. Go home, and make paoping dough.

3. Put the duck in a hot oven to crisp up the skin

4. While the duck is in the oven, make the paoping.

5. Carve skin, and eat with paoping.

That being said, I had the most amazing Peking Duck in Bangkok a couple of weeks ago. The skin was crisp, crisp, crisp and the paoping was piping hot. How come Peking Duck in Hong Kong is never as good? Or did I just go to the wrong place?

[susruta]

I made Peking duck at home a couple of times on Thanksgiving and Christmas.. I hung it from an upstairs window on a sort of pulley I rigged up; it blew back and forth in the Chicago wind (It wasn't freezing either time, fortunately). The sight of this bird flapping back and forth outside of our kitchen window drove our late dog berserk, especially since duck was her favorite food in the world.

It wasn't bad; half of the skin separated but the other half didn't. I wanted to make it again this year but my husband tactfully suggested we go to our favorite restaurant, where a six course peking duck dinner, including lobster and steamed fish, is availble at a reasonable price. So we got a group of friends together and had a great dinner.

[origamicrane]

if you doing it for a challenge for yourself then go for it.

but if you're doing it to impress family and friends with your cooking skill i think i tend to agree with the "its not worth it " comments above!!

The other duck dishes mentioned above are much more impressive for the amount of effort required and the results will be a lot better then making peking duck.

Being a chinese restautant owner's son that serves very good peking duck and crispy aromatic duck i would never attempt to make them at home.

mainly because the end results will never be as good as a commercial restaurant because home oven usually are not large enough to hang the duck to roast and they not as hot or cook as evenly. As well as the fact that its a lot of work over the course of a whole day with the blowing, marinating , hanging, drying, etc

[itch22]

Thanks for all the tips. No, I am not doing it for anyone else. I wanted to try it and home... well, just because I like to cook and I've never tried it. It may be an utter failure. I think I am going to try it this Sunday. I've gotten the pancakes technique down flat. (Get it? Flat! )

[origamicrane]

well have fun

if you got a digital camera

why not document your escapade for our culinary pleasure

[itch22]

Sounds good, check back Sunday night or Monday morning!

[itch22]

Well last night I made the Mandarin pancakes. Here is the flour and sesame oil for the pancakes. It is acctually a Japanese brand of sesame oil but I enjoy its taste.

Working alone it is hard to take pictures and work. Here the dough has just finished resting.

I layered two pieces of dough, with a bit of sesame oil in between, and then roilled them out flat. I've cut the ball of dough from Step 2 into 24 pieces, rolled them each into a ball, and slightly flattened with the palm of my hand before rolling them flat in pairs.

I cooked each one for about a minute on each side in a French steel crepe pan on medium-high heat. I added no oil or other lubricant to the pan. Each pair peeled apart rather nicely. They were about 8 inches in diameter and thin enough to see the shadow of my hand through each one.

Again, it is hard to take pictures and cook at the same time so a few steps are missing. I lossened the skin, which was a lot harder to do with a duck then a chicken. I required the assistance of a sharp 3" paring knife to cut the sinew that connected the skin to the meat in several places. I tried inflating the duck but it wouldn't retain any air. There must be a process in Chinese butchery that I am missing.

Here, the duck is hanging to dry after being par-boiled for about three minutes then glazed with a honey-water solution.

I'll post more latter today after I cook (and eat) the duck.

[itch22]

Well the duck is in the oven. This picture is crude but it shows how I've tried to rig up the duck to cook vertically. One problem I had was that I could not get the duck to retain any liquid. I stuffed it with the white ends of the scallions, a couple star anise added a bit of shao xing, and then boiling water. I tried several times to seal the neck cavity but it kept leaking.

In China the duck's necks are left on, which would solve this issue. I may have to look it longer at a lower temp. to make up for the lack of internal steaming.

[itch22]

Well it's done. The skin was, as you probably expected, no where near as crisp as desired but the duck itself did taste good. I served it with the pancakes, hoisin, shredded scallions, and julienned cucumber. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, though of everyone present I'm the only one whose had Peking duck before. All in all, I don't think I'll try it again, at least not for awhile. If I do try it again I need to get a whole duck (neck, head, etc... all attached) and setup a better cooking method.

[origamicrane]

well as a first attempt i think it looks extremely sucessful

thanks for the photos think i need to go and get some peking duck this week

[jo-mel]

You did it, Itch!! Congratulations!

Having done it, you can now see where the pitfalls are and what might be done to avoid them if you do it again. But sometimes just saying that you did it is enough!!

Now you can make Duck Bone Soup!!

[itch22]

Now  you can make Duck Bone Soup!!

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Exactly! Since the duck was stuffed with scallions and anise, plus shao xing, I want to keep those flavours prominent in the soup. I also just made (yesterday) a 16 quarts of chicken stock, flavoured with shao xing, scallions, and ginger. Should I suppliment the duck soup with the stock, or not? Anyone have any paticular recipes they'd like to share for duck soup? I have never made duck soup, though I have made soup from turkey carcasses but with a very American flavour.

[Dejah]

The duck looks great! Congratulations.

[hzrt8w]

Anyone have any paticular recipes they'd like to share for duck soup?  I have never made duck soup, though I have made soup from turkey carcasses but with a very American flavour.

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itch22: Congratulations on your duck. I admire people who take on challenges! And your reward is a satisfying and delicious meal. Well done.

I had attempted to make Cantonese fried chicken at home a while back. I always am astronished by how crispy the skin is (those that you ordered in restaurants). I follow a recipe. Marinated the chicken (inside) with salt and five spice powder. Precooked the chicken in a pot of red vinegar (to about half cooked). Hung the chicken to dry (for about 6 hours). At dinner time, deep-fried the chicken to fully cooked. The skin, when you make this way, is nice and crisp. My theory is the vinegar extracted a lot of the water moisture from the skin, so when you deep-fry it, the hot oil carmeralizes the remaining skin.

Of course, Peking Duck follows a different process.

As for duck bone soup, Chinese style: First boil the bones in a pot of water, then turn into simmer for over 1 hour. Then add sliced winter melon (peeled first, cut into about 1 inch thick, 3 inch wide each piece), reconstituted black mushrooms, a few pieces of dried orange peels (presoaked for 2 hours), some salt. To jazz it up, you may use some dried scallops (may be 1/2 dozen, presoaked overnight, save the water to make soup). Simmer with the other ingredients for a good 2 hours or so.

Edited January 24, 2005 by hzrt8w (log)

[itch22]

I'll add the neck to the stock, but what should I do with the liver? Too small to make a meal out of it. Add to the stock, or use for a different dish?

[muichoi]

I've been making them for years, and I'm completely happy with them except for the texture of the skin on the breast-instead of the beautiful parchment texture of the rest of the bird I sometimes get a slightly rough effect, and it it has a kind of european-style finish-fine in its place of course, but not in a Cantonese roast duck. I know that traditionally it's not made at home,and I don't have the right oven( my God I've been tempted, but there are limits!). Anyone got any suggestions?

[sheetz]

It would definitely help if you describe your cooking technique.

Do I sense a roast duck cookoff in the near future?

[Gastro888]

When my dad used to make roast duck in the restaurant (for personal consumption...) he would separate the meat from the fat using an air pump. He'd put the nozzle of the pump in between the skin and the flesh and pump air until the skin was taut. Then he'd go about with the rest of the preparation. I think this made a difference in the texture as the duck skin was never rough.

No one makes a duck like Pops does. <happy sigh>

Edited October 5, 2005 by Gastro888 (log)

[Tepee]

No suggestions...haven't roasted a duck before. Sheetz, if you're game for a cook-off, and with muichoi guiding us, I'm all for it! I'd like to make Peking Duck, though, because I love to eat it with scallions in wrappers.