Luzhou Roast Duck 庐州烤鸭

How it is made

Unlike the force-fed ducks used for Peking duck, Luzhou Roast Duck uses small mottled ducks (小麻鸭) raised locally around Chaohu (巢湖), Feidong (肥东) and Feixi (肥西). The duck is not split open. A small hole is cut in the body, the innards are pulled out through it, and the cavity is filled with boiling water and slices of spring onion and ginger; more careful cooks add Huangshan (黄山) shiitake mushrooms. The hole is tied shut and the duck is hung over the fire.

The oven (焖炉) looks like a large water jar turned upside down, mouth to the ground. Holes are made in the upturned base, iron hooks are set across them, a wood fire burns inside and the cleaned ducks hang above it. Fruitwood charcoal gives the roast its particular smell. At cooked-food stalls in food markets the vendor keeps peering into the jar and lifts out each duck with the hook as soon as it is done, drains the water from its belly and hangs it up for customers to choose.

Flavour and texture

The skin roasts orange-red over faintly pink meat. People who have tried it call the meat fresh and tender, rich but not greasy. The legs carry the most meat, the crisp breast skin is the favourite part, and the meat along the backbone where it joins the legs is tender and juicy. The duck is so juicy that a small bowl is held under each piece lifted with chopsticks. It is eaten without a dipping sauce, for the duck's own fresh, salty taste.

How it is eaten

Customers choose a plump or a lean bird, half or whole, and whether to take the head or the neck, and the vendor chops it on the spot. Served with a bowl of white rice and some vegetables it becomes "roast duck rice" (烤鸭饭), now a popular way to eat it. In the past roast duck was bought only for festivals or when guests came.

The rendered fat goes into two companions: duck-fat flatbread (鸭油烧饼), golden, glossy and topped with white sesame, which cracks audibly when broken open, and duck-fat soup dumplings (鸭油汤包), made and steamed to order and eaten with a little vinegar. The dumplings' pleated tops, which soak up the filling's juices as they steam, are singled out as the best part.

Where it comes from

The Anhui Daily (安徽日报) traces Luzhou Roast Duck to the Ming dynasty, when the palace technique of roasting ducks on hooks in an oven spread to ordinary people, and the people of Luzhou changed both the choice of bird and the method.

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