What’s Peking Duck

Peking duck, also named Beijing Duck, is a famous Beijing cuisine with a worldwide reputation. It originated in the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589 AD) in China. Roasted duck was recorded in the “Food Records” and was a famous dish in the palace at that time. The ingredients are high-quality meat ducks, roasted over fruit wood charcoal, with a ruddy color, fat but not greasy, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Peking duck is divided into two major schools, and the most famous Peking duck restaurants in Beijing are representatives of the two styles, Quanjude and Bianyifang. Peking duck is known as “delicious food in the world” for its bright red color, tender meat, mellow taste, and fat but not greasy characteristics.

History of Peking Duck

The reason why Peking Roast Duck went from the palace to the common people’s table is thanks to “Quanjude” roast duck. Its founder, Yang Quanren, was a small businessman who ran a chicken and duck business. After accumulating capital, he opened the Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant. He hired a roast duck chef who had worked in the imperial kitchen of the Qing Palace. This chef used the palace’s “hanging oven roast duck” technique. This exquisite roasting method helped the “hanging oven roast duck” spread widely among the people.

Cooking skill of Quanjude Peking Duck

Quanjude adopts the hanging oven roasting method, and does not open the duck. Only a small hole is made in the duck, the internal organs are taken out, and then boiling water is poured into the duck’s stomach. The small hole is then tied, and the duck is hung on the fire to roast. This method prevents the duck from losing water during roasting and allows the duck’s skin to swell, preventing it from becoming soft. The roasted duck skin is very thin and crispy, becoming the most delicious part of the roast duck.

The hanging oven has a furnace hole but no furnace door. It uses fruit wood such as jujube wood and pear wood as fuel, employing an open flame. When fruit wood is burned, there is no smoke, the bottom fire is strong, and the burning time is long. The roasted duck is plump in appearance, reddish-red in color, crispy in skin, tender on the outside, and has a fragrance of fruit wood. Strictly speaking, only this roasting method is called Beijing roast duck.

Another style cooking-Bianyifang

Compared with hanging oven roast duck, stewed oven roast duck represented by Bianyifang seems to be less impressive in people’s impression. Fortunately, Bianyifang, a time-honored brand with a history of nearly 600 years, has applied for “national intangible cultural heritage protection” for its stewed oven roast duck technique. Bianyifang stewed oven roast duck, which was founded in the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, is actually earlier than the fame of Quanjude, with a history of nearly 600 years.

Cooking skill of Bianyifang Peking Duck

The so-called “stewed oven” is actually a ground oven with a brick body, approximately one meter square. Its production method was first introduced to Beijing from the south. Its characteristic is that “the duck is not exposed to open fire.” It is stewed and roasted by charcoal fire in the oven and the heated oven wall. Because it needs to use dark fire, it requires high skills. The person in charge of the oven must control the temperature. If the temperature is too high, the duck will be burnt; otherwise, it will not be cooked. The roast duck from the stewed oven has a shiny, crispy skin, white and tender meat, and a delicious taste. The stewed oven roast duck is Bianyifang’s signature, though the stewed oven that burned sorghum stalks has long been changed to an electric stewed oven.

Compare the 2 main style Peking Duck

Nowadays, there are very few roast duck restaurants that use stewed ovens, and most roast duck restaurants use the Quanjude hanging oven roasting method. The roast duck in the stewed oven tastes more tender, and the duck skin is obviously more juicy and full. The fruity wood fragrance of the hanging oven roasted duck seems to make people appreciate the wisdom of the “roasting” cooking method that humans first mastered.