Forget poulet en vessie, Bocusse's truffle consomme or even Heston's Alice in wonderland soup, the dish that beats every single one of them has got to be the dish dating back to 1330, the mother of all dishes, the most laborious of all has got to be PEKING DUCK.
Dont concentrate on my brother, take a look at the super crisp piece of breast duck skin sitting on the side of the table like a full blooded lob on. I can tell you now that getting this slice of skin crispy is without a doubt the hardest part of the duck to crisp due to the moisture of the breast meat under the skin.
Anyone ever watch Heston's program on the perfect Peking duck? well if you did, he used Irish Silver Hill ducks and after numerous trials he gave up and separated the skin from the flesh in order to get the required glass like skin. My opinion? well If the duck isn't in its entirety when it comes to the table, it just is not a Peking duck. Imagine what the emperor would say if instead of bringing out the mahogany roasted duck, he was presented with a plate of limp breast meat with some chards of skin on the side. Let me put it this way, it would be congee and testicle meat balls for breakfast.
SO HOW IS IT DONE?
This section is a culmination of 6 months worth of trials and errors, eating so much duck that i can taste it in my sweat, talking to other chefs, and talking to scientists about the possible pit falls. Herve This offered some advise: that creating a layer of air between the skin and flesh would aid skin crisping as well as acting as a thermal insulator for the meat, preventing it from drying out in the roasting process. Secondly he advised that adding more and more layers of maltose sugar mixture would aid the crisping as it would in essence increase the thickness of the skin.
So here it is:
1. Because ducks in from Europe nearly always have the rear ends opened in order to remove the guts, it is not possible to use the Chinese method of removing the guts through a small incision under the armpit.
2. I use a pump to separate the skin from the flesh, making sure not to rip the skin. (holes in the skin allow moisture from the flesh to leak out during the roasting process, dripping down the skin and preventing the skin from crisping)
3. Wash the outside and inside of the duck with water, again flushing the gap between the flesh and the skin. (i was advised to use washing up liquid for this step which aids a more even colouring of the finished product! the choice is yours!)
4. get either a wooden rod or from my trials a inflated balloon to keep the separation between the skin and flesh. (the balloon will result in an alien looking duck)
5. Using boiling water, ladle over the duck to tighten up the skin.
6. Heavily season the inside of the cavity with salt, sugar and five spice and stitch up with metal skewer.
7. Using a solution of maltose, water, red wine vinegar, isomalt and corn flour, ladle over the duck again. Dont do this for too long or you will end up partially cooking the duck and the health inspector will be all over you like a rash! the thicker this solution ie. the more corn flour you use, the more thick the coating on the skin will be, which in turn will result in a better finish. Repeat this process as often as you can during the drying process.
8. Hang the duck in front of a fan a blow for hours and hours and hours. By 24 hours, the skin will have a matt touch to the finger. After 48 hours, there will be a dark brown colour emerging from the skin. Leave it for 72 hours and you will get really dry skin but a finished duck that will not only poison you buy also give you a skin that is too dry.( you need a small layer of fat under the crispy skin in my opinion on the finished product)
9. Hang the duck in an oven(laying it flat will not give you a good crispy finish, all those websites telling you that its ok are talking shit! it is impossible to get a crispy end product with the underside being steamed in the oven as it roasts) put the oven to 100C and dry out for 1.5 hours. You will see some of the fat render down during this process. Some say that it is good to fill the cavity with a duck consomme during this process to steam the meat and give it a super moist, flavorsome finish.
10. The final process is where the debate lies. In China, or at Da Dong (world famous Peking duck restaurant) there would be a wood fire oven with fruit wood finishing off the duck at the stage. The fire in essence is supplying the 250C+ required to crisp up the skin. A domestic oven just does not have heat circulating around the duck uniformly which will result in patches of the duck burning whilst others not crisping up enough. This step could also be done on a spit roast. However due to the fact of my kitchen not having a wood fire oven or a spit roast, i found the best result being obtained by heating up some oil to 180C and ladling it over the ducks skin until the crisp, mahogany colour is obtained.
The end product results in the duck having a really crisp back and under arm area, however the breast skin is still below par.
How do you get the super crisp finish seen in Beijing?
SIMPLE, the only way that this can be achieved is by breaking every food hygiene law in the UK. At Da Dong they alternate the duck from a -5C drying room to a +5 meat ageing room, my local food safety officer would have my balls for dinner if they saw me doing this. The process however results in a constant freezing and condensation that removes moisture from the skin of the duck.
This is definitely a no no in the UK, however studies in the US have shown that the Peking duck end result is safe to eat (duhhhh, Chinese restaurants have been selling it for the past 40 years) this is due to the fact that the inside of the cavity is so heavily seasoned and therefore in essence curing the meat whilst drying the skin.
An alternative would be to dry the duck in a meat aging room whereby the humidity is kept below 50% ( a normal fridge or walk in would have a much higher humidity level, therefore wetting the skin if it was left inside)
one other point to mention is that in China, Peking ducks are a especially bred specifically for the dish's requirements ie. lean meat and not too much fat. Ducks are slaughtered between 60-65 days compared to the 75+days seen for Gressinghams or Chalans. I can vouch for the fact that this indeed is the most influential factor of all. Using a Gressingham duck would require divine intervention in order to turn it into a Peking duck, no amount of air drying would give the fat layer of fat a crisp glass like finish,
6 months down the line and 40-50 ducks gone to staff meals for testing, i am still only about 75% towards the final product.
WHAT IS THE DESIRED END PRODUCT?
My quest has taken me all over London, trying every Peking duck that i can get hold of. Just for the record though, Peking duck is not the same as crispy aromatic duck that you see in every Chinese takeaway in the country, the deep fried duck that is served with plum sauce and pancakes. Peking duck, although coming with the same garnishes is a dish that comes from the Imperial kitchens. Imperials kitchens? the kitchens where a bad meal would result in execution, the kitchens where there would be 100 plates of food cooked each night only for the emperor to nibble at one or two and the rest being sent out to village diplomats around the province by underage bitch boys. (all should read 'The last Chinese chef' if they want to find out more) In an Imperial kitchen, time and money are of no importance, it didnt matter if the dish took 100 men to cook and a custom built oven that required another 100 men to dig a 50 foot hole with their teeth, anything went!
So what is it? Peking duck is a dish whereby the whole duck is brought to the table, oak brown skin, crisped up like glass. This is the important thing 'glass like skin!' if the skin is limp, your eking duck is shite! the dish in Beijing will have someone wearing a mask skinning the duck table side which will be served as an individual course with pickles and granulated sugar. The rest of the duck will be sliced into 108 pieces to be eaten with the spring onion, cucumber and pancakes.
Anyone ever watch Heston's program on the perfect Peking duck? well if you did, he used Irish Silver Hill ducks and after numerous trials he gave up and separated the skin from the flesh in order to get the required glass like skin. My opinion? well If the duck isn't in its entirety when it comes to the table, it just is not a Peking duck. Imagine what the emperor would say if instead of bringing out the mahogany roasted duck, he was presented with a plate of limp breast meat with some chards of skin on the side. Let me put it this way, it would be congee and testicle meat balls for breakfast.
SO HOW IS IT DONE?
This section is a culmination of 6 months worth of trials and errors, eating so much duck that i can taste it in my sweat, talking to other chefs, and talking to scientists about the possible pit falls. Herve This offered some advise: that creating a layer of air between the skin and flesh would aid skin crisping as well as acting as a thermal insulator for the meat, preventing it from drying out in the roasting process. Secondly he advised that adding more and more layers of maltose sugar mixture would aid the crisping as it would in essence increase the thickness of the skin.
So here it is:
1. Because ducks in from Europe nearly always have the rear ends opened in order to remove the guts, it is not possible to use the Chinese method of removing the guts through a small incision under the armpit.
2. I use a pump to separate the skin from the flesh, making sure not to rip the skin. (holes in the skin allow moisture from the flesh to leak out during the roasting process, dripping down the skin and preventing the skin from crisping)
3. Wash the outside and inside of the duck with water, again flushing the gap between the flesh and the skin. (i was advised to use washing up liquid for this step which aids a more even colouring of the finished product! the choice is yours!)
4. get either a wooden rod or from my trials a inflated balloon to keep the separation between the skin and flesh. (the balloon will result in an alien looking duck)
5. Using boiling water, ladle over the duck to tighten up the skin.
6. Heavily season the inside of the cavity with salt, sugar and five spice and stitch up with metal skewer.
7. Using a solution of maltose, water, red wine vinegar, isomalt and corn flour, ladle over the duck again. Dont do this for too long or you will end up partially cooking the duck and the health inspector will be all over you like a rash! the thicker this solution ie. the more corn flour you use, the more thick the coating on the skin will be, which in turn will result in a better finish. Repeat this process as often as you can during the drying process.
8. Hang the duck in front of a fan a blow for hours and hours and hours. By 24 hours, the skin will have a matt touch to the finger. After 48 hours, there will be a dark brown colour emerging from the skin. Leave it for 72 hours and you will get really dry skin but a finished duck that will not only poison you buy also give you a skin that is too dry.( you need a small layer of fat under the crispy skin in my opinion on the finished product)
9. Hang the duck in an oven(laying it flat will not give you a good crispy finish, all those websites telling you that its ok are talking shit! it is impossible to get a crispy end product with the underside being steamed in the oven as it roasts) put the oven to 100C and dry out for 1.5 hours. You will see some of the fat render down during this process. Some say that it is good to fill the cavity with a duck consomme during this process to steam the meat and give it a super moist, flavorsome finish.
10. The final process is where the debate lies. In China, or at Da Dong (world famous Peking duck restaurant) there would be a wood fire oven with fruit wood finishing off the duck at the stage. The fire in essence is supplying the 250C+ required to crisp up the skin. A domestic oven just does not have heat circulating around the duck uniformly which will result in patches of the duck burning whilst others not crisping up enough. This step could also be done on a spit roast. However due to the fact of my kitchen not having a wood fire oven or a spit roast, i found the best result being obtained by heating up some oil to 180C and ladling it over the ducks skin until the crisp, mahogany colour is obtained.
The end product results in the duck having a really crisp back and under arm area, however the breast skin is still below par.
How do you get the super crisp finish seen in Beijing?
SIMPLE, the only way that this can be achieved is by breaking every food hygiene law in the UK. At Da Dong they alternate the duck from a -5C drying room to a +5 meat ageing room, my local food safety officer would have my balls for dinner if they saw me doing this. The process however results in a constant freezing and condensation that removes moisture from the skin of the duck.
This is definitely a no no in the UK, however studies in the US have shown that the Peking duck end result is safe to eat (duhhhh, Chinese restaurants have been selling it for the past 40 years) this is due to the fact that the inside of the cavity is so heavily seasoned and therefore in essence curing the meat whilst drying the skin.
An alternative would be to dry the duck in a meat aging room whereby the humidity is kept below 50% ( a normal fridge or walk in would have a much higher humidity level, therefore wetting the skin if it was left inside)
one other point to mention is that in China, Peking ducks are a especially bred specifically for the dish's requirements ie. lean meat and not too much fat. Ducks are slaughtered between 60-65 days compared to the 75+days seen for Gressinghams or Chalans. I can vouch for the fact that this indeed is the most influential factor of all. Using a Gressingham duck would require divine intervention in order to turn it into a Peking duck, no amount of air drying would give the fat layer of fat a crisp glass like finish,
Funny you mention this cousin. Recently, I've been experimenting this same dilemma, except a home friendly version. Although it came out relatively fine, i still agree with the frustration of trying to get that goddamn moisture out. One way did show potential and that was the combination of the use of an electric air pump, a big ass fan, (if you can do it in your walk-in, I think it would be better), and shit load of maltose. My ducky's skin was paper crisp for about 20 minutes.
ReplyDeletebtw. if you aren't too busy before the wedding, how about side trip to Amsterdam? i get in the 19 of July.
ReplyDeleteCan you do this to a chicken?
ReplyDeleteThis cant be done with chicken because
ReplyDelete1. the skin is too thin to get a glass like finish.
2. Drying chicken in front of a fan at RTP is a sure recipe to give yourself the serious shits.
3. For a chicken, if you wanted to get skin really crisp, brine the chicken first overnight, then dry out in a fridge for a few hours, then cook at 60C until the internal temp is 60C, then either roast at high temp of pour hot oil over.