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Ducks seem to be inferior birds in both the East and the West.

Hans biedermann's Dictionary of World Cultural Symbols says: "Ducks, waterfowl and poultry are not as important as geese. Wild ducks were first hunted and then domesticated (from ancient Egypt to BC 1500), which often appeared in works of art, suggesting pornography, and its exact nature was uncertain. "

Yuan Mei said in "Eating Single Feather with the Garden": "Chicken is the most powerful, and all dishes depend on it. Be the head of the feather family and attach it to other birds. " Ducks are the main auxiliary roles.

The reason is that westerners pursue the taste, so the goose with thick meat and strong taste takes the lead. At the same time, geese, like cattle and sheep, are still herbivores, which have more advantages than omnivorous chickens and ducks that can be eaten raw. Under the simple cooking concept in the western world, ducks naturally become substitutes for geese.

Orientals pursue the taste, which is full of sinews and bones, and can withstand cooking, so that chickens with flavor substances slowly oozing out become the first choice. In China, there are more than ten names for boiled diced chicken, such as boiled chicken, chopped chicken, chopped chicken and slaughtered chicken. The function of a bowl of chicken soup goes beyond the food itself, and it is a good medicine for China people to cure diseases and strengthen their health.

In contrast, ducks that are not prominent in all aspects seem to inevitably occupy a supporting role. But from another angle, the proportion of fat, protein and bone and tendon in duck meat is the most balanced among poultry ingredients, so it is especially suitable for barbecue. Maillard reaction and dry distillation can bring crisp skin, bright color and oily taste. In contrast, roast goose, which is not easy to taste, and roast chicken with insufficient fat are all eclipsed by roast duck.

In the vast areas of China, especially those areas with developed economy and a large number of educated people, there are roast ducks with their own characteristics. This has something to do with Ducky's doctrine of the mean, which coincides with the outlook on life of China traditional literati.

No: 1? one

The history of China people eating roast duck can be traced back to prehistoric times.

To some extent, Chinese food is the art of fire. Barbecue, with air as the medium of fire, is the most primitive way of cooking. It is much older than burning slate, frying oil, boiling water and steaming.

At the latest in the Western Han Dynasty, the barbecue technology was very mature, and there were stone carvings of kebabs in the complete works of portraits of the Han Dynasty. Barbecue fans and related materials such as "roast beef", "roast dog ribs" and "roast chicken" have also been unearthed in Mawangdui No.1 Han Tomb. Obviously, this is not only the simple cooking of cooked food by primitive people with fire as the medium, but also an interesting record of cooking technology and life interest.

As it happens, ducks are common birds in central and eastern China in ancient times. Pottery ducks unearthed in Hemudu, Zhejiang and Wuping, Fujian have a history of 5000 years. Archaeological sites in Jurong, Jiangsu, Pingquan, Hebei, Zhengzhou, Henan and other places have unearthed bronze ducks and even duck eggs 4,000 years ago.

Although most of the ducks eaten at that time were wild ducks, the subcutaneous fat was not enough and the taste was not as good as that of domestic ducks. What Liang Shiqiu despises is the inferior roast duck with skin, meat and no oil. But in any case, roast duck has become a tradition, rooted in the life of China people.

The Book of Qi Yaomin written by Jia Sixie of the Northern Wei Dynasty in the 6th century A.D. may be the earliest record of roast duck. The book describes raising ducks. "It's good for chefs to raise ducks for sixty or seventy days." Roast duck is called "roast duck in the nest", and the practice is "fat duck, clean and washed, boneless for a cup, five with wine, five with fish sauce, five with ginger, onion, orange peel and soy sauce, which will be roasted in the middle for a long time."

Simple translation: roast duck should be preserved for 60 or 70 days. Choose fat, wash and cut into pieces, marinate with wine, fish sauce and soy sauce with onion, ginger and orange peel, and then bake.

That's exquisite

Coincidentally, at the same time, the word "roast duck" also appeared in the Book of Food Treasures written by Yu Yi in the Southern Dynasties. This is probably the whole roast duck, which has begun to take shape as a modern roast duck.

No: 2? two

In fact, the roast duck not only witnessed the changes of China's food culture, but also concentrated the social fashion in different periods. Zhang Kun, a native of the Tang Dynasty, recorded in detail the popular "roast duck with an open flame and a dark taste" at that time: put the duck in a special cage, then put the cage on a hot charcoal fire basin, and put a basin full of soy sauce and vinegar outside the cage. The ducks were hot and thirsty when they were roasting in the cage, so they drank the sauce from the basin outside the cage. After a long time, the duck feathers were burned and the duck skin was cooked.

As a dynasty with nomadic descent and advocating force, the roast duck in the Tang Dynasty may appear rough, barbaric and cruel compared with the Northern and Southern Dynasties, but its ingenuity also reflects the progress of cooking art on the other hand.

In the highly developed Song Dynasty, the style of roast duck was further improved. In Dream of Tokyo and Dream of Liang, it is recorded that there is a kind of food called "duck" sold in restaurants in Kaifeng and Hangzhou. In Wu dialect, the word "sui" is used to describe the sultry summer climate in the south of the Yangtze River. Literally, "cheese" in food probably refers to roasting in a closed environment-obviously, this is what roast duck looks like today.

The closed oven can maintain a more constant temperature, making the surface color of roast duck more uniform and the meat more loose; Barbecue fireworks repeatedly reflux in the furnace body, making the smell of ducks more smoky; A long stewing process can make duck meat juice oily.

No: 3? three

At the latest in the early Ming Dynasty, the technology of roast duck in economically developed areas in the south of the Yangtze River was quite mature. The capital of Zhu Yuanzhang is Nanjing, and many local folklore points out the inextricable connection between this civilian emperor and Nanjing roast duck.

The legend may not be true, but regardless of class and social status, the fashion that everyone loves to eat roast duck is truly recorded in the notes of various literati.

During Yongle period, after Judy moved to Beijing, the signboard of "Jinling Piya" was also hung on the streets of Beijing. I'm afraid it's a bit far-fetched to say that Emperor Zhu personally turned roast duck chefs to Beijing. The emperor has a busy schedule and has no time to manage the roast duck business of ordinary people. However, the northward movement of the political center has also led to the migration of food fashion, but it is a visible historical evolution.

After the Eight Banners entered the customs, Nanjing's capital status was cancelled. On the contrary, the Manchu nobles deliberately lowered the position of Nanjing, a "holy land of Longxing", in the eyes of the old people in Zhu Ming for fear of wave after wave of anti-Qing and regaining sight.

The most direct manifestation of this change in political wind direction is that the signboard of "Jinling sliced duck" on the streets of Beijing has become "Beijing roast duck". Over time, most people think that roast duck is a local feature of Beijing.

Where did such a roast duck spread for thousands of years leave its footprint and continue to this day?

Beijing: Hanging roast duck.

| Authentic North School |

Although Beijing roast duck is produced by Nanjing roast duck, it has to be said that it has undergone tremendous evolution in hundreds of years.

The first is practice. The characteristic of Nanjing duck is that it inherited the stewing furnace in the Southern Song Dynasty, but Beijing duck developed the hanging furnace duck represented by Quanjude. The so-called hanging oven means that the oven has no oven door, and the duck is hung into the oven with a long pole, which can be turned over at any time to ensure uniform heating.

In addition, the ducks hanging on the stove use an open flame, and the fuel is fruit and wood without smoke, so the subcutaneous fat rate is high and the duck skin is crisp. Others, especially disrespecting the lack of oil in hanging ducks, invented the roast duck without furnace. Although the duck oil did melt completely, the duck meat became old and fell off.

The unique eating method of Beijing roast duck: noodle sauce, onion, shredded radish, shredded cucumber and duck skin lotus leaf cake, on the one hand, originated from the skills of Shandong cuisine masters who have the deepest influence on Beijing's diet-onion, noodle sauce and flour cake, which are all common side dishes in Shandong; On the other hand, it is tailor-made for crispy duck hanging. Green onions and vegetables are balanced and greasy, the batter provides sweetness, and the cake makes the roast duck feel ceremonial and provides starch to satisfy hunger.

The most popular roast duck in Beijing in the past two years is Dadong, which has surpassed the old brand. In fact, Dadong duck did make many innovations in eating, such as dipping duck skin with sugar, dipping duck meat with garlic, and putting roast duck slices in hamburgers. However, it is also suspected of driving up the price of ducks, making Beijing roast duck more and more a banquet food far away from civilian fireworks, which is abhorrent.

In fact, Dadong roast duck itself is also a typical Beijing-style hanging duck, and there are not many innovative breakthroughs in technology.

Weifang, Shandong: Mizhou Roast Duck

| Roast Duck Mom |

If Nanjing roast duck is the "father" of Beijing roast duck, Shandong Shandong cuisine is undoubtedly the "mother" of Beijing roast duck.

The raw materials of Beijing roast duck, including stuffed duck, seasoning, flour cakes and fruit trees, mostly come from Shandong. Of course, the Shandong cuisine master will not let all the local good ingredients be shipped to Beijing. For example, the famous Mizhou roast duck can be called Shandong roast duck.

Mizhou is the old name of Zhucheng City in Weifang and the hometown of "Prime Minister Liu" Liu Yong. There are not only literati here, but also chefs. Some people say that Zhucheng's position in Shandong cuisine and Jiaodong cuisine is just like Shunde in Cantonese cuisine, and its amorous feelings can be seen.

The taste of Mizhou roast duck is not much different from that of Beijing roast duck. The biggest feature is that chefs in Shandong cuisine can make a "roast duck feast" with various by-products of roast duck: thick duck breast for dry frying, frozen slices of duck blood for frying leeks, stewed mushrooms with duck tongue, fried duck intestines, steamed mandarin fish with duck oil, duck soup with sea cucumber, and so on.

Kaifeng, Henan: Bianjing Roast Duck

Grandpa roast duck

Kaifeng Bianjing Roast Duck is probably the oldest existing roast duck, which has restored the tradition of "curing ducks" in the Tokyo Dream of the Northern Song Dynasty and retained the characteristics of ancient stewed ducks.

Bianjing roast duck is roasted with jujube charcoal, which is different from fast-burning pear wood, apple wood and other fruit trees. The wood is dense and rich in oil, and there will be smoke and jujube oozing out during baking. The process of stewing in the oven is actually a smoking process. The finished duck skin is purplish red, and there are no loose carbon chips in the oven. Moreover, the skin and flesh are inseparable, and the jelly-like fat under the skin can be eaten in one bite. For those who are not afraid of oil, this roast duck is much more delicious than hanging duck.

Another gold standard to test the success or failure of braised duck is the texture of duck breast. Good braised duck consumes less water and has the effect of roasting outside and steaming inside, so the duck meat is soft and fluffy. In particular, the thick duck breast meat should be as fragrant as the freshly baked steamed bread to be considered a successful braised duck.

Leshan, Sichuan: Sweet-skinned Duck

| Better than roast duck |

Strictly speaking, in fact, a sweet-skinned duck is not a roast duck.

However, this kind of duck, which is salted first and then fried, does have an infinitely similar taste to roast duck, which is another interpretation of China roast duck.

In fact, the practice of sweet-skinned duck is not much different from that of ordinary braised duck. Stir-fry rock sugar until it is sugar-colored, add spices and cook in marinade for pickling. In fact, the braised duck is delicious, with soft skin and fragrant duck meat, but Sichuan people who are particularly seasoned think that its taste is not enough. Then control the stewed duck to dry, and repeatedly drench it with boiling oil until the skin is crisp and the color is brown and red.

The last step is the key to the sweet-skinned duck: brush the caramel while the oil temperature on the duck skin is high and not cold. This makes the duck skin redder in color and crisper in texture, and will not soften even after cooling. The sweetness coincides with the roast duck skin dipped in sugar produced by Dadong.

Sichuanese pay attention to it, thinking that sweet-skinned ducks can only be oiled, but not fried whole. In fact, in order to cook at low temperature, we only want crispy duck skin without affecting juicy duck meat. Its cooking idea is very close to that of the roast duck originated in the Central Plains, but people in Sichuan Basin have adopted a more drastic treatment method, which is another typical example of China's diversified expression of diet.

Hefei, Anhui: Luzhou Roast Duck

| has an ancient meaning |

In order to show the "ancient meaning" of roast duck, all localities like to use time-honored brands as their prefixes. Many roast duck restaurants on the streets of Beijing are labeled as "Beiping Roast Duck". Zhucheng Roast Duck calls itself "Mizhou Roast Duck" and Nanjing Roast Duck calls itself "Jinling Sliced Duck".

Of course, it also includes the "Luzhou Roast Duck" in Hefei.

As the capital of Anhui Province, Hefei is inextricably linked with Nanjing, the former capital. Roast duck is one of them. Like Nanjing roast duck, the legend of Luzhou roast duck often points to Zhu Yuanzhang, an Anhui native.

However, unlike the famous Beijing roast duck and Nanjing roast duck, Luzhou roast duck takes a more people-friendly route. Few people who live in Hefei have never eaten at the old Luzhou roast duck restaurant. Moreover, the biggest feature of this store is not the roast duck itself, but the duck oil dumplings and duck oil biscuits made with duck oil as the main raw material, which are by-products of roast duck.

The so-called duck oil dumplings are steamed buns filled with roast duck oil instead of jelly; Duck oil sesame cake is a thousand-layer sesame cake made of duck oil crisp, which contains the rich flavor of roast duck and is also animal fat, and is much more delicious than the old lady cake with butter crisp and lard crisp.

Nanjing, Jiangsu: Xingdian Roast Duck

| Rosin is very pungent |

China Roast Duck is roughly divided into two factions, so the two factions can only be authentic in Nanjing and Beijing.

However, the most representative Nanjing roast duck is Xingdian Town in Jiangpu District.

Xingdian Town is a place where Hui people live in compact communities, and catering is the main livelihood of Hui people. Since the mid-Qing Dynasty, the cooked food made by the Hui people in Xingdian is very famous, especially the Muslim roast duck.

The characteristic of halal food is to pay attention to hygiene. After the handcuffs are cut open and slaughtered, in addition to cleaning the hair, they should be washed and salted repeatedly to remove blood stains until the blood stains are invisible to the naked eye. This kind of near-clean cleaning process is difficult for ordinary hotels to do.

The finished product Xingdian Muslim roast duck, the duck skin is red to the role of black diamond, and the oil is seen when cutting. Nanjing roast duck is generally not as complicated as Beijing roast duck. Cut it into pieces and put it on a plate, and put it directly on a bowl of white rice, which is very delicious. For people with heavy taste, the juice naturally roasted in the process of roast duck, together with soy sauce, has a unique pine nut flavor.

It would be even more wonderful if you use roast duck brine to bibimbap.

Chenzhou, Hunan: Liaojiang Roast Duck

| Southern Hub |

Chenzhou, Hunan is connected with Shaoguan, Guangdong. Geographically speaking, Chenzhou already belongs to the Pearl River Delta region south of Nanling.

Lijiang Town, under the jurisdiction of Chenzhou, also has the name of "Little Nanjing" in the local area. Coupled with the complex water network composed of Liaohe River, Leishui River and Xiangjiang River, it has become an important water transport hub and has a common face with Nanjing. Besides, the specialty roast duck here is also very similar to Nanjing roast duck.

The reason can be traced back to the early Ming Dynasty. In order to strengthen the control of the south and eliminate the remnants of the late Yuan Dynasty, after reunification, Zhu Yuanzhang set up Chenzhou Prefecture in southern Hunan and stationed a large number of soldiers. The skill of roast duck may have spread to Chenzhou at that time, and then spread from this Nanling gateway, which influenced the roast duck in Guangdong and Yunnan later.

In addition, it is said that Beijing Cheap Square Roast Duck was founded by He, the minister of Xiaozong in Ming Dynasty, after his retirement. He is also from Chenzhou, Hunan. If the legend is true, then the real ancestor of Beijing roast duck should be Chenzhou roast duck.

Liaojiang roast duck is eaten in the same way as Nanjing roast duck. The only thing that needs special attention is that local people should eat roast duck with a white dew wine. This kind of rice wine looks like fermented grains, tastes slightly sweet, and has the function of refreshing and relieving boredom. Bailu wine may be the best seasoning in front of Nanpai roast duck without green onions and lotus leaf cakes.

Guangzhou, Guangdong: Cantonese roast duck

Ultimate taste |

The reason why roast duck is roast duck is different from Beijing roast duck and Nanjing roast duck in making and eating.

Starting from raw materials, roast ducks in other regions have to be stuffed with fat ducks, but Cantonese roast ducks use white-haired ducklings for about a month, which is actually a routine of roast suckling pigs, pursuing the delicacy of duck meat.

Baked wood is also very delicate. Cantonese-style roast duck does not use fruit wood with fierce firepower, nor does it use jujube wood which is mainly fumigated. Twenty local materials are litchi and pine. Half-baked and half-smoked, you get a compound fragrance.

Sauce is the soul of Cantonese roast duck. Pour the sauce made of rose dew, yellow wine, spiced powder, honey, white vinegar and meat and bone soup into the duck's stomach and sew it carefully with needle and thread. Create an effect of roasting outside and cooking inside, and taste the meat. Cantonese people often think that Beijing roast duck "smells like duck when it is cold, and Guangdong roast duck is delicious when it is cold" because the sauce has been tasted.

From the positioning of ingredients, Beijing Roast Duck is often regarded as the main dish of senior banquets, while Cantonese Roast Duck is a kind of delicious food full of amorous feelings. A few pieces of roast duck are spread on the rice and poured with a spoonful of juice, which is a bowl full of roast duck rice; If you use a duck rack to cook soup, put a pinch of rice flour and two pieces of duck meat, which is the roast duck powder at the nightingale stall.

Kunming, Yunnan: Yiliang Roast Duck

| Nantian flavor |

There are two kinds of roast duck signs on the streets of Kunming. "Yiliang Roast Duck" and "Dianyi Roast Duck" are actually the same thing.

According to folklore, Yunnan Roast Duck was first cooked by Fu Youde, a general under Zhu Yuanzhang, and was created in Yiliang County under the jurisdiction of Kunming.

This legend may not be credible. In fact, the earliest recorded history of making roast duck in Yiliang County began in the early Qing Dynasty. It is not difficult to see that Yunnan-Guizhou area is the last recalcitrant area of Nanming regime. Locals implicitly miss the roast duck of the former dynasty, which best represents the Ming Dynasty and Zhu regime.

It is said to be roast duck, but the method of making Yiliang roast duck is closer to Guangdong roast duck: a one-month-old tender duck is roasted with open fire and cut into pieces.

Because Kunming is more than 2000 meters above sea level, it belongs to plateau area, and its liquid boiling point is low. Therefore, compared with the plain area, the roast duck needs longer time and lower temperature to complete, so the meat quality of Yiliang roast duck also has a crisp taste different from other areas.

Good Yiliang roast duck doesn't need to be cut. As long as the duck leg is shaken, the meat and bones will naturally loosen and separate. You can also see its taste from this detail.

end

The best way to eat

At the end of the movie world without thieves, Rene Liu wept while eating roast duck, which is the most classic scene of this movie.

China's diet retains the tradition of sharing meals and pays attention to eating lively. It is very lonely for a person to think about eating hot pot and roast duck.

Therefore, the best way to eat, whether it's Beipai roast duck or Nanpai roast duck, is, of course, friends of three or five, pushing cups for a change, yelling and eating a table of duck neck, duck skin, duck breast, duck gizzard, duck tongue, duck feet, duck wings and duck legs.