Peking Duck
Peking Duck has about a thousand different recipes and techniques, but one thing is always certain. At any Chinese restaurant, the Peking Duck requires a 24-hour notice. Really? A whole day? What could those people possibly be doing back there for 24 hours? Is there some funky religious ritual going on? Are they swimming around the pond out back to catch those little feathered bastards? Are they injecting some futuristic concoction into a chicken to make it taste like a duck? Though I may never know how the pros do it, I was curious how most home cooks accomplish the task, then do it myself in a fraction of the time.
So, my research has led to many strange techniques, all with the similar goal of tender meat and glorious crispy skin. Drying the duck appears to be the most frequent approach. I’ve seen people inflating their ducks with a bicycle pump, hoping to not only dry the duck but to disconnect the skin from the flesh and keep the moist meat moist and the dry skin dry. As fun as that sounds, I would be laughing too hard at myself to execute this approach correctly. Why not an air compressor?
The next fun challenge is the hanging of the duck. Because most normal people don’t typically have a meat closet in their house, I have seen people clear out their fridges and hang them from the top rack. Not a bad idea because it cools and dries, as long as you don’t care that the rest of your food is now spoiling on the counter. I’ve also seen people hang ducks from their shower rod with a fan running to dry it out. This approach both dries out the bird and contaminates it with bathroom bacteria. No thanks!
Then there is the ol’ beer-can-up-the-ass approach. As elegant as that sounds, it really doesn’t work. Though the meat will be tender and juicy, the skin is usually left soggy and drab. Plus only the water really evaporates and no significant beer flavor is imparted into the meat. You might as well drink the beer and use a can of water instead. Or, just pass on this entirely.
The last interesting attempt is the duck bath. Subjecting the duck to extreme hot then cold water temperatures should tighten up the skin, not only keeping it away from the meat but also constricting the pores and keeping it from absorbing moisture. This I’ll buy, but I’m not going to fully blanche my bird. I’m trying to keep it dry, remember?
No, I’m going to take a more hands-on approach to the actual cooking process and forego most of the pre-game festivities. My plan is to apply the following principles:
1. Dry and separated – Break down my bird first as to allow the convection heat of the oven to circulate each individual piece, keeping the skin dry. Also, paper towel drying the duck before roasting is a good method as well.
2. Blanche shower instead of bath – Do a quick hot water then cold shower on the skin only, not completely submerging the duck. This allows the skin to tighten without sogging the entire bird.
3. Cut the fat out – This not only gives you ample duck fat to render, but it also keeps the skin from being too moist and oily.
4. High heat finisher – the duck and cook it under high heat, ensuring the skin stays dry and crispy and the meat is tender.
5. Because the duck has already been broken down before cooking, you can cook each piece at different lengths. A wing takes about half the time to cook than a breast, for example, so pull it early.
6. Angle the roasting pan and suck on any reduced fat or juices that drip down to the bottom. I usually syringe it out every 20-30 minutes using a turkey baster.
Peking Duck
- 5 pound whole duck
- 2-3 tablespoons chinese five spice – cinnamon, clove, anise, fennel, Szechuan peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon ground garlic
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- salt and pepper
See…very few ingredients.
Start by breaking down your duck into 9 pieces: 2 legs, 2 wings, 2 thighs, 2 breasts, and neck/innards. Save the neck/innards for stock, which you can make while your duck is roasting.
Trim all of the fat from the duck, reserving it to render later.
Preheat your oven to 325°. Mix all spices into a rub and begin to cover the duck pieces from head to toe, or…uh, beak to flipper. Arrange all pieces to one side of an extra-large roasting pan. Slightly elevate the side with the meat. You want the juices and fat renderings to fall to the other side for easy extraction.
Roast duck for 2-1/2 hours, extracting and reserving rendered fat from the pan every 20-30 minutes. I use a turkey baster for this process. Pull the meat pieces out as they cook. First wings (1 hour), then legs (1-1/2 hours), then thighs (2 hours), then breasts (2 1/2 hours). Skins may not be as crisp as you would like at this point, which is why I recommend an additional 15-20 minutes cooking everything together at 400°. Serve with stir-fried shiitake mushrooms and vegetables.
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION (PER SERVING):
Servings: 4
Food energy: 1315kcal Saturated fatty acids: 18.24g Monounsaturated fatty acids: 32.22g Polyunsaturated fatty acids: 12.53g Total fat: 62.99g Calories from fat: 566 Cholesterol: 646mg Carbohydrate, by difference: 16.19g Total dietary fiber: 8.68g Protein: 153.33g Total lipid (fat): 69.68g Water: 347.11g Ash: 7.19g Total sugars: 0.63g Calcium: 219mg Iron: 14.10mg Magnesium: 67mg Phosphorus: 30mg Potassium: 290mg Sodium: 684mg Zinc: 0.31mg Copper: 0.09mg Manganese: 7.67mg Selenium: 125.51μg Vitamin C: 28.72mg Thiamin: 0.03mg Riboflavin: 0.07mg Niacin: 33.13mg Pantothenic acid: 0.01mg Vitamin B6: 0.16mg Folate, total: 23μg Folic acid: -- Food folate: 23μg Folate: 23μg dietary folate equivalents Vitamin B12: -- Vitamin A: 132IU Vitamin A RAE: 6μg retinol activity equivalents Retinol: -- Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol): 2.14mg Vitamin K (phylloquinone): 35.46μg Alpha-carotene: -- Beta-carotene: 21μg Beta-cryptoxanthin: 117μg Lycopene: -- Lutein+zeazanthin: -- Percent refuse: --
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