No. 41 - China - Peking Duck - What a Bit of Quack!

What a quacking dinner. Peking duck really fits the bill and is certainly all it's quacked up to be. Yes, it is time consuming and needs a bit of commitment and dedication but it's also a bit of quack. And quite honestly you just haven't cooked until you've hung Donald upside down and headless from a coat hanger, fake tanned him so he resembles The Hoff and given him a cool blow-dry. Follow these unconventional beauty treatments and you'll be waving bye-bye to the ugly duckling and hello to a beautiful swan (metaphorically speaking, of course). 

Peking Duck                                                                                                               8/10

Serves 2  

1 duck
200ml of rice vinegar in total
half a jar of honey
50g dark soy sauce.
20 peking pancakes
hoi sin sauce
a bunch of spring onions

First things first, wash and dry your duck with paper towels. Remove any traces of feather stubs or fat. Make some kind of contraption to hang your duck from. You can get special duck hanging hooks in chinese supermarkets but I didn't think this necessary, however in hind sight it would have made life a lot easier. Fill a large pot with water and add 150ml of rice vinegar. (I used balsamic vinegar because I didn't have any any I was too lazy to go to the shop but you probably shouldn't follow suit. Everything turned purple.) When the water and vinegar is boiling plunge the duck into it for ten seconds, remove and hang back up to dry for a few minutes. Repeat 5 times.

At this point I left the duck on a rack on the fridge over night. If you don't have the time then you can leave it in cool drafty place or blast it with a fan until dry.


To make the glaze, combine half a jar of honey, and 50g each of rice vinegar and dark soy sauce. Paint this onto the duck using a brush and use a fan to assist the drying process. Repeat as many times as you are patient enough for. I think, I did about five coats.

It should look like this...

Or even this...

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and place a baking tray on the bottom shelf half filled with water. Place the duck directly on the top shelf and turn the temperature down to 160 degrees. Cook for two hours after which the duck should be perfect. If you like your duck like in the Chinese restaurants, allow to cook and reheat the next day. If you can't wait that long which is pretty much impossible, let it rest for ten minutes and carve it like a chicken. Serve on those little peking pancakes painted with hoi sin sauce, both shop bought from a chinese supermarket (preparing the duck is more than enough). Then all that is left to go is get quacking!