Peking Duck

[Keytickler]

Disclaimer: I haven't done this yet. I got the recipe a couple of weeks ago from a Chinese-American friend who has cooked this dish many times. It is my plan to do this within the next weeks.

Prep takes longer than cooking. That's why you have to order this dish from a restaurant a day in advance.

Preparation:

The duck must be completely thawed. If purchased frozen, this takes ~2 days in the fridge.

Separate the skin from attachment to the muscle. This is an important step. One way of doing this is to use a bicycle pump with the needle attachment used to inflate balls (cleaned and sanitized, of course). Do the back first--insert the pump needle by the shoulder blades, first one side then the other. You may have to massage the air bubble around so the skin separates everywhere. Turn the bird over and inflate the breasts, thighs and legs by inserting the pump needle on the abdomen end. Make sure the skin separates fully all around. After you do this the bird will deflate a bit. No problem.

Make a mixture of honey cut with some white vinegar. Apply this all over the skin of the bird as a glaze.

Put the following seasonings in a little hot water to hydrate and rinse: a cut up star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, Chinese 5 spice powder.

Place in the cavity of the duck the hydrated dry ingredients, along with some fresh ginger, black bean paste, and scallion cut into 1" pieces. You can sew up the opening to the cavity if you wish.

Let the prepped duck dry in the fridge for 1 day uncovered.

Preheat the KK (indirect) or oven to 375°F.

Roast for 45 minutes. Use a drip pan!!! Ducks have a lot of fat. You can reserve and use the rendered duck fat for many other yummy uses later.

Increase the grill or oven temp to 425°F. Turn the bird and roast another 15 minutes, but WATCH IT to make sure it doesn't overcook.

Let rest for a few minutes. Carve. Enjoy.

I'll try to remember to take photos when I cook this within the next weeks, and I'll post them up then. If any of you do this before I do, please post up your results.

Keytickler

[tony b]

I have a Chinese themed dinner coming up for my Dinner Club and was thinking about doing this as the entrée. I've been reading lots of recipes/techniques online about how to do them. This is consistent with many of them, but doesn't mention doing the hot bath first (mixing the honey/vinegar with lots of boiling water and ladling over the duck)?

 

Anyone have experience making this? Any help/suggestions would be appreciated. My dinner party is the first Saturday in April, so I have some time to plan this out.

[tony b]

Well, the dinner went very well. Guests liked the duck, but I wasn't super happy with the skin. I did 2 ducks (prepped exactly the same), but one didn't have very crispy skin and the other one was almost too crispy (see pictures). I had attempted the inflating technique to separate the skin from the body before prepping, but wasn't terribly successful. Only got a few small pockets to inflate. I used a metal turkey baster, with an injection needle. I didn't have a bicycle tire pump. Couldn't really generate enough pressure to force the skin to separate with the turkey baster.

 

Ducks were showered with the hot bath of boiling water, rice vinegar and honey, and the cavities smeared with a paste of light and dark soy sauce, sake, Chinese 5 spice powder, ground star anise, ground cinnamon, ground Szechuan peppercorns and white pepper, then air dried on vertical roasters for 24 hrs (+/-) in the fridge. Next, the outsides were painted with a mix of light & dark soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and honey and left to air dry in the fridge overnight. Then smoked on the KK @ 375F for 90 minutes with a mix of cherry and pecan wood chunks in the smoker pot. Here's some photos.

[Loquitur]

So how do you join this Club!!!

[tony b]

Move to Iowa, Susan (Ha, ha, ha)!

[Keytickler]

I decided to roast a couple of ducks on my KK using this method over Memorial Day weekend.  Last time I did them in the oven (it was winter and the weather outdoors was not conducive to cooking out there).

Instead of using the bicycle pump to inflate the space between the skin and muscle, I used my fingers like I do when prepping whole chickens for roasting.  This worked very well, though it takes a little time to be careful and not puncture the bird's skin in the process.  You need to poke around everywhere to separate the skin, and I mean everywhere, so the fat can render out and the skin can have a good chance of getting crisp.

I did not have black bean paste this time.  Sue me.  I had all of the other seasonings available.

It is important to use some kind or rack or stand to prop up the birds so they are vertical during cooking so the fat can render and flow into the drip pan.  Save that fat afterwards!  It's good for lots of other cooking later.  My rack was reasonably successful for this purpose but I did check now and then to make sure one bird wasn't leaning on the other, or had listed to one side or another.

The only problem I had was increasing the grill temp for the final part of the cook.  I couldn't get it hotter, so the skin probably didn't crisp up ideally.  I also didn't use any smoking wood other than the lump charcoal, as I felt it might compete with the Chinese seasonings.

The final result was yummy!  I'd certainly try other variations of seasonings in the future using some kind of smoking wood.

Keytickler

Edited June 15, 2016 by Keytickler

[tony b]

Pictures, my man, where are the pictures?? One of the "rules" on this Forum - no pictures, it didn't happen. 

I bought one of these pumps to do my Peking ducks. Only used it once, but worked like a charm. 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FE9CGE/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1