Roast duck is a famous Beijing dish with worldwide reputation, originating from the early Ming Dynasty in China. “Shizhenlu” (Record of Rare Foods) has recorded roasted duck, which was a court food at that time. The imperial chefs in the palace tried to develop new ways to cook ducks, thus creating two types: 叉烧 (guashao/hanging roast) roast duck and menlu (braised oven) roast duck. High-quality and plump grass ducks are used as raw materials, with a net weight of about 2.5 kilograms.
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The most commonly used roasting method first is 叉烧 (hanging roast) roast duck, which adopts the hanging oven method. The hanging oven has no door and uses fruit wood (mostly jujube or pear wood) as fuel. This fuel is durable, smokeless, and emits a fresh aroma when burned. When roasting in a hanging oven, the hearth is open. After the duck is put into the oven, a 挑杆 (pole) is used to regularly adjust the duck’s position to ensure uniform heating and thorough roasting. The duck embryo in hanging oven roasting is evenly and intensely heated, with subcutaneous fat melted, resulting in crispy skin and tender meat.
Hanging Oven Roast Duck
The other roasting method is 焖炉 (braised oven) roast duck. The braised oven has a door and uses sorghum straw as fuel. During roasting, sorghum straw and other fuels are first put into the oven to burn. After the inner wall of the oven is heated to a certain temperature, the fire is extinguished, then the duck is placed inside, the door is closed, and the duck is baked by the heat of the oven wall. Throughout the process, the duck is not exposed to an open flame, the door is not opened, and the duck is not rotated—put in and taken out at one time. Since the braised oven uses the residual heat of the oven wall for roasting, the air humidity is high, oil consumption is low, and the duck breast meat is fluffy.
Braised Oven Roast Duck
These two roasting methods yield roast ducks with distinct characteristics. Friends might as well try both to see which one they prefer.
Now let’s talk about several ways to eat roast duck
The first way to eat Beijing roast duck is said to have originated from ladies and young ladies in grand mansions. They neither ate scallions nor garlic but liked to dip the crispy duck skin in fine white sugar. Since then, whenever female customers visited Quanjude, the waiters would always serve a small dish of sugar with the roast duck.
The second way is sweet bean sauce with scallion strips, which can be paired with cucumber or radish strips. Pick a little sweet bean sauce with chopsticks, spread it on a lotus leaf pancake, place several slices of roast duck on top, add some scallion, cucumber, or radish strips, and roll up the pancake—it’s incredibly delicious.
The third way is mashed garlic with sweet bean sauce, also paired with radish strips, etc. Rolling duck meat in lotus leaf pancakes was a popular condiment in early years. Mashed garlic can relieve greasiness. Dipping sliced roast duck in mashed garlic and sweet bean sauce adds a hint of spiciness to the freshness, creating a more unique flavor. Many customers particularly favor this condiment.
Since it’s roasted, it’s time to eat—little roast duck, great 讲究 (etiquette)
讲究季节 (Seasonal Etiquette)
Eating roast duck should be done in the right season, as the season affects the taste. Tasters believe winter, spring, and autumn are the best seasons. The reason is that ducks in winter and spring have fat and tender meat; autumn has clear weather with suitable temperature and humidity for making roast duck, and ducks are also plumper. In summer, the climate is hot and humid, ducks have less meat and thin fat, resulting in poor quality. The roasted duck skin is prone to becoming tough (not crispy), so the taste is relatively inferior.
讲究片法 (Slicing Etiquette)
Because good slicing not only enhances the dish’s appearance but also improves the taste. After roasting, the duck should be sliced into skin and meat and served on a plate before the breast collapses. The duck meat at this time is crispy and fragrant in the mouth. There are also rules for slicing: first, slice the duck skin while it’s hot for a crispy taste; then slice the meat. Second, each slice should have skin and meat, thin but not broken. A 2-kilogram duck can yield more than 100 slices, uniform in size like lilac leaves, with a crispy, tender, and unique taste.
Generally, restaurants will ask how to process the duck frame, offering options like stir-fried duck frame with pepper and salt or soup made from the frame.
Beijing roast duck definitely has a place in traditional cuisine. It has appeared on the imperial dining table, in the dishes of the Manchu-Han Imperial Feast, and as a delicacy to entertain foreign guests at state banquets.
