Wenhu Soy-Sauce Duck 文虎酱鸭

Wenhu Soy-Sauce Duck (文虎酱鸭) is duck braised with soy sauce and spices, made in Jiaxing (嘉兴), Zhejiang. It carries the name of Zhu Wenhu (朱文虎), whose mother began selling home-made sauce duck from a single iron pot by a canal in 1934. Its making technique is listed as intangible cultural heritage of Jiaxing.

Where it comes from

The Nanhu District Archives (南湖区档案馆) of Jiaxing trace the dish to Wang Youbao (王有宝), a sixteen-year-old from Caozhuang (曹庄) who in 1934 set up an iron pot in front of a grocery by the canal at Shaibang village (晒浜村) and sold her own sauce duck and white-cut chicken. In 1976 her son Zhu Wenhu took up duck making at Dongzha (东栅), and his duck became known first there and then across Jiaxing. He founded a factory in 1985 and registered the Wenhu Sauce Duck trademark in 1988. In 1991 Yan Mingfu (闫明复), then vice-minister of civil affairs, wrote the inscription 'Zhejiang's first duck' (浙江第一鸭) for it. People's Daily reports the company, a time-honoured brand, at the Xiangjiadang (湘家荡) agricultural processing park in Nanhu District.

How it is made

The heritage-listed method uses duck with soy sauce, salt, sugar and more than ten natural spices, and follows a sequence the makers call 'three braisings and three coolings' (三卤三凉). The archive describes crossbred speckled ducks (麻鸭) raised for 85 to 90 days, soaked and washed three times so that no blood enters the braise. The duck is first blanched and simmered over a medium-low flame in seasoned stock; it is then braised with the spices, sun-dried soy sauce, coarse sea salt and rock sugar to take on colour; finally the liquid is reduced over a high flame.

Flavour and texture

The finished duck is a glossy reddish-brown. The Nanhu District Archives describe it as springy, deeply fragrant, salty-savoury with sweetness, rich without being greasy, and tender without falling apart, with flavour reaching right to the bone.