Recipe

Peking Duck (home method)

4 servings (around 24 pancakes) · prep 30 min + 24 h air-drying · cook 2 h

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• dinner
• chinese

Authored by the maintainer; home approximation of the Quanjude method — no fruitwood oven, no air pump, hairdryer optional but encouraged.

Ingredients

the bird

• 1 whole Pekin duck, 2.2–2.5 kg, with head and feet on if possible
• Thumb of ginger, crushed (for the cavity)

the glaze

• 3 tbsp maltose syrup (or honey)
• 3 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce — Yuasa shoyu brewery

the rub

• 1 tsp Chinese five-spice
• 2 tbsp coarse sea salt — Trapani salt pans

the serve

• 1 bunch spring onions, white parts crushed (for the cavity), greens julienned (for serving)
• 1 small cucumber, julienned
• 24 Mandarin pancakes (thin steamed wheat pancakes)
• 120 ml hoisin sauce

Method

1. Pat the duck dry inside and out. Rub the cavity with salt, five-spice, ginger, and the crushed spring onion whites. Truss the cavity closed.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Hold the duck by the head or neck and pour boiling water over the skin all over, 4–5 ladles per side. The skin should tighten visibly. Pat dry.
3. Whisk maltose, rice vinegar, Shaoxing, and dark soy in a saucepan and warm just to dissolve. Brush all over the duck, paying attention to the breast skin. Repeat 3 times, letting each coat dry. · 10 min
4. Hang the duck breast-side-out in a cool, well-ventilated spot — in front of a fan or, faster, with a hairdryer on cool — until the skin is dry to the touch and faintly leathery. A hairdryer takes 30 minutes; air-drying takes 12–24 hours in front of a fan in the fridge. · 720 min
5. Heat oven to 200°C / 400°F. Place the duck breast-up on a rack over a roasting tray with 1 cm of water in the bottom (catches drips, prevents smoking). Roast 30 minutes. · 30 min
6. Drop oven to 180°C / 350°F. Continue 50–60 minutes, basting twice with the glaze that's left, until the skin is deep mahogany-brown and crisp and the juices run clear. · 55 min
7. Crank oven to 230°C / 450°F for a final 8 minutes for the last crackle. Rest the duck 10 minutes. · 8 min
8. Carve: take the crisp skin off in flat strips first — this is course one. Slice the breast meat thin and the leg meat into pieces. Pile separately.
9. Steam the pancakes 3 minutes. Serve at the table: brush a pancake with hoisin, lay skin + meat + cucumber + spring onion green, roll, eat with hands.

Notes

The traditional Beijing version is roasted in a closed brick oven over
jujube or pear wood, with the duck inflated between skin and meat to
separate the two. A home oven can't replicate either, but the
air-drying step — the one that actually makes the skin crisp — works
the same on a fridge shelf.

Three courses, classically: (1) crisp skin with sugar, (2) meat with
pancakes, (3) carcass simmered into a milky soup. The skin-first
course is what the dish is famous for; the soup is the cook's reward.