Overview

The artistry of roasting Peking duck (Quanjude's hung oven roasted duck technique) is a traditional craft submitted by Quanjude (Group) Co., Ltd. in Beijing, and one of China's national intangible cultural heritages.

Quanjude's hung oven roasted duck must use Beijing-raised ducks, roasted over a fruitwood fire. The roasting process is an intricate series of 18 interlinked steps passed down for a century. Each step requires skill and careful technique. After dozens of minutes of roasting, the finished duck emerges with a glossy, plump appearance, a deep-red date color, crispy skin, and tender meat.

On June 7, 2008, the artistry of roasting Peking duck (Quanjude's hung oven roasted duck technique) was approved by the State Council of the People's Republic of China for inclusion in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists, with the heritage number: Ⅷ-167.

Craft Characteristics

Quanjude's hung oven roasting equipment is advanced, and their duck has a unique flavor. Using Beijing-raised ducks, they follow a complete, interconnected roasting process. Quanjude's roast duck contains many nutrients like protein, fat, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, and minerals. Most of the fat is evenly distributed within the muscle fibers, resulting in tender, delicious meat. There are also specific ways to eat Quanjude's roast duck - use chopsticks to pick up slices of duck meat, dip it lightly in sweet bean sauce, and wrap it in a pancake along with scallion strips or cucumber strips. Alternatively, dip the duck meat in the sweet sauce and eat it wrapped in a sesame seed pocket bread along with scallions.

Roasting Process

The Quanjude hung oven roasted duck process includes two main parts - making the duck blank and roasting. Making the blank requires slaughtering, scalding to remove feathers, singeing remaining feathers, blowing air into the body, opening the carcass, removing the organs, inserting a support rod, washing the cavity, hanging on a hook, air-drying the skin, scalding the skin, coating with maltose syrup, and further air-drying. The "blowing air" step inflates the duck skin to make it tight and wrinkle-free, resulting in an evenly-colored glossy skin that is crispy when bitten. "Coating with maltose" involves sprinkling maltose sugar water over the duck to give it a deep reddish-brown color and sweet flavor when roasted. Roasting uses fruitwood fuel in a specialized hung oven over an open flame, with steps including plugging the cavity, filling with water, placing in the oven, singeing, turning the body, and finally removing from the oven.

The fruitwood fuel must be a dense, slow-burning hardwood, ideally jujube wood, or pear or apple wood. This imparts a faint fruity aroma to the duck meat. Before roasting, the cavity is filled about 80% with boiling water. Once in the hot oven, this water boils and steams the inside while the outside roasts.

Quanjude's hung oven has an open front with no door. The duck blanks hang inside, and the chef uses a long pole to periodically remove finished ducks and replace them with new uncooked ones, requiring skill to avoid singeing from the open oven flames. The open oven allows continuous monitoring of the ducks and flame intensity. Experience is needed to judge when to open the oven to turn and reposition the ducks for even heating during the roasting process, constantly adjusting their positions by eye and with the pole.