The Hirshon Authentic Cantonese Roast Duck – 廣東燒鴨

My Citizens – it has been two AWFUL months away from you all, and I wish to convey My personal apologies for such unacceptable lacunæ between posts – I have been SEVERELY depressed again to the very edge of ultimate oblivion! Fortunately, it has at LAST lifted and I have wearily crossed the River Styx back to you all. As such, I wish to celebrate My triumphant return to the land of the living with one of My favorite recipes, thus finalizing the holy pentanity of Chinese duck recipes here on TFD! These include Peking duck, Sichuan tea-smoked duck, Yunnan duck, Teochew braised duck – and the last of them is today’s recipe: Cantonese roast duck!

Cantonese roast duck is the most popular of the roast duck recipes, given its easy availability in any good Chinese roasted meats speciality shop – the others are only typically available in high-end restaurants or in Teochew home kitchens. The Cantonese truly are masters of the meat roasting craft and their roast duck is both egalitarian AND a royal pain in the a** to make at home, to the point where it may not even be worth trying – but TFD and His army of food zealots know far better! It may be challenging, but we are collectively far better off girding our virtual loins and making it PROPERLY – just once – to sample it as the Emperors of old!

Cantonese Roast Duck, or Siu Ngaap in Cantonese, stands out as one of the top favorite dishes in the entirety of Chinese cuisine. It is a culinary gem popularized in the 20th century in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province, where it has now become a staple dish for various special occasions such as weddings and festivals. The origin and history of Cantonese Roast Duck are actually believed to extend all the way back to the Southern Song Dynasty – around the late 12th century! This duck dish in fact originated not for commoners, but as an exclusive delicacy for the royal Song court.

As time passed, its popularity burgeoned and it eventually reached the tables of the common people. Cantonese Roast Duck made its debut in Hong Kong much, MUCH later (around the 1940s), and then it became an instant hit for the local’s tastebuds. It’s still as popular as ever, especially within the Siu Mei (Cantonese Roasts) culinary canon as well as the roast meat takeout stores that define such an important part of Cantonese cuisine and daily life.

Siu mei (Chinese: 燒味; Cantonese Yale: sīuméi) is the generic Cantonese name of meats roasted on spits over an open fire or a large wood-burning rotisserie oven. It creates a unique, deep barbecue flavor and the roast is usually coated with a flavorful sauce (a different sauce is used for each variety of meat) before roasting. Siu mei is very popular in Hong Kong, Macau, and overseas Chinatowns, especially with Cantonese emigrants.

In Hong Kong, the average person eats siu mei at least once every four days, with char siu being the most popular, followed by siu yuk (roast pork or pork belly) second, and roast goose third. Some dishes, such as white cut chicken and soy sauce chicken, are not roasted at all but are considered siu mei nonetheless. Siu mei is also known colloquially as siu laap (烧腊; 燒臘; shāo là; siu1 laap6), as the latter term encompasses siu mei and laap mei, a type of preserved meat.

They are usually prepared in the same kitchen during autumn and winter season in what are often known as siu laap establishments or Chinese BBQ shops. Siu laap is also often sold alongside lou mei, such as orange cuttlefish and pig’s ear. After meetings held between the Food Hygiene Select Committee, the Markets and Abattoirs Select Committee and the Street Traders Select Committee on the topic of “Sale of Cooked Food, Siu Mei, and Lo Mei in Public Markets” in 1978, siu mei shops officially entered into Hong Kong public markets. The public market is a popular place for ordinary citizens to buy siu mei.

As siu mei takes a great deal of resources to prepare, requiring large ovens and rotisserie-like utilities for cooking the meat, few homes in Hong Kong, mainland China, or overseas have the equipment for it. Usually meat of this type is prepared and sold from siu laap shops located in hawker centres (in Hong Kong), food courts (overseas Chinese malls such as Pacific Mall), ethnic supermarkets (for example, the T & T Supermarket chain in Canada) and restaurants, which tend to mass-produce the numerous siu mei varieties rather than preparing it at each customer’s request.

The advantage of siu mei and lou mei is that the resulting meat retains its flavor and texture for the whole day, in contrast to Peking duck or crispy fried chicken, which have to be served immediately after preparation and cooking (hence these are eaten in restaurants), making siu mei and lou mei popular for party platters and take-out. Take-out is quite common, as customers order or prepare their own plain white rice to accompany the siu mei; a siu mei meal comprises meat atop plain white rice or noodles, and often with vegetables (napa cabbage, choy sum, or gai lan), usually served in a plastic foam take-out container or on a plate.

In Chinese fine dining and banquet halls, the barbecue platter yu chu (roasted suckling pig) or siu yuk (roasted pig belly), often in combination with char siu, soy sauce chicken, siu aap (roasted duck) and jellyfish, is an appetizer that comprises the first dish in the ten-course Chinese banquet meal, while varieties of siu laap can also be ordered as full dishes à la carte (usually a half or whole chicken/duck/goose).

An intriguing article on michelin.com describes the key differences between Peking Duck and Cantonese roast duck:

Roast duck is a popular Chinese dish that comes in two forms: a northern Beijing style and a southern Cantonese style. Both are cooked in different types of ovens and vary in how they are processed, sliced, and consumed. In recent times, hybrids of the two have begun showing up on the market, with Peking duck becoming more similar in style to Cantonese duck.

For instance, Peking duck is traditionally roasted in a closed oven but these days, both open and closed ovens may be used. Open ovens are often found in specialised roast duck shops as a brick fireplace on one side of a wall, with a pole of ducks hanging across it. The birds are then slow roasted over burning fruit wood. An example of where you would see this is at Beijing’s oldest and most famous roast duck specialty restaurant, Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant.

Ducks roasted in closed ovens, on the other hand, are hung in the hearth of a large, sealed iron barrel with gas burning below. These are cooked by the heat trapped within the furnace, like the ones at Beijing’s Bianyifang Roast Duck Shop. This is the method of cooking more commonly used in Taiwan for Cantonese roast ducks.

Open ovens are visually appealing, but they require a large working area and a lot of manpower to operate, since the ducks need to be rotated every few minutes. The cost of installing a smoke extractors is also high, which adds to the burden of businesses based in metropolitan areas where land and other resources already cost more. These deterring factors have led to fewer establishments adopting the use of open-ovens.

Closed ovens, on the contrary, take up minimal space and can be used for roasting duck, pork, geese and more. Their versatility and easily-adjustable heat settings make them the more popular choice among restaurants. Some Cantonese establishments feature hanging stoves in their storefronts to draw attention, even though they maintain the Cantonese way of roasting ducks — resulting in roasts that are “Peking on the outside, Cantonese on the inside”.

Two major differences exist between how Peking and Cantonese ducks are processed. The first difference lies in their openings. The opening for Peking duck is found under its wings, through which internal organs are removed, in order to insert a sorghum pole which ensures that the duck’s breast remains upright and its meat retains its juices. For Cantonese ducks, the opening lies in the abdominal cavity, which is stitched back after its internal organs have been removed.

The second difference lies in the stuffing. Peking duck is not stuffed as it is appreciated for its original juices and flavor without the need for extra ingredients. Cantonese ducks are stuffed with star anise, ginger, spring onion, and more than a dozen other Chinese herbs to have their flavors infused for tastier duck meat and bones.

Finally, just before a Cantonese style roast duck is served, hot oil is quickly poured over the duck to tighten its skin and bring out its aroma.

When it comes to carving techniques, Peking duck is the more elaborate of the two — about 108 cuts are made to the duck to separate it for three eating styles. Roundish slices of meat and skin (pictured above) and best enjoyed on its own; longer strips are eaten in wraps while the rest of the meat and skin are eaten separately to enjoy the crisp texture of the skin and the sweetness of the flesh. In comparison, Cantonese style roast ducks are usually just sliced and eaten.

Carving Peking duck is a specialized skill, taking years to train so that a master would be able to slice it beautifully and quickly. As a result, many shops have worked around this by adopting Peking methods of roasting and Cantonese methods of slicing. Peking duck is the main star at roast duck specialty establishments, in which you will find up to 200 dishes featuring all edible parts of the duck like its heart, liver, web, tongue, intestines and legs.

At Cantonese roast establishments however, duck is just one of many types of roasts with Cantonese dishes making up the remaining menu. Restaurants that specialize in Cantonese duck include three star Le Palais at the Palais de Chine Hotel; MICHELIN Plate restaurant The Dragon at the Sheraton Grand Taipei; My Humble House at the Le Meridien Taipei, Toh-Ka-Lin at The Okura Prestige Taipei, Ambassador Canton Court, and Shang Palace at the Shangri-La’s Far Eastern Plaza Hotel, Taipei. Tao Luan Ting Roast Peking Duck Palace, which is featured in the Michelin Bib Gourmand specialises in Peking roast duck sliced Cantonese style.

Now that you have a broad familiarity with Cantonese roast meats, let us discuss the preparation of this particular recipe – it is not an overly DIFFICULT recipe, per se, but there are many exacting steps and it takes several days to prepare. As noted previously, it is FAR cheaper to just buy a perfectly adequate Cantonese roast duck at any decent shop – but they will be “perfectly adequate” – NOT the Imperial palate-worthy ancestor that once graced the tables and chopsticks of the Imperial Court itself!

My version may be a PITA, it may be expensive to make – but it is also TRANSCENDENT.

Enough talk – let us move into the ingredients you’ll need to make this bad boy! Gird your virtual loins, Citizens – this one is going to be FUN!

First off – please be sure to obtain a truly fresh, cleaned duck, with the head still attached (any good Chinese grocery store will have these for your use). For the dry seasoning portion of the recipe, I have mostly hewed closely with tradition. I call for white peppercorns (these from Kampot are the best), five spice powder, freshly-ground Sichuan peppercorns (these, again, are the best), sugar and (normally), Kosher salt. I have decided instead to substitute Knorr Aromat seasoning, as it possesses more umami (it has some MSG) and a more “rounded” flavor than salt alone.

My preferred brands of soy sauce, hoisin sauce and oyster sauce are all at their respective links – aged Shaoxing rice wine, fermented red tofu, Chinese rose wine, maltose, thirteen spice powder, and diluted red vinegar are all available from their links as well. Please note at one point, you are going to be holding a very heavy duck above a pot of boiling, very sticky liquid, for many minutes – and doing this five times in succession.

As such, it is IMPERATIVE that you hang the duck from an S hook and make VERY VERY VERY SURE IT’S SECURE BEFORE PROCEEDING with the blanching process! FAILURE TO FOLLOW THIS INSTRUCTION WILL RESULT IN THE DUCK DROPPING INTO THE BOILING NAPALM AND BURNING YOU BADLY!

You have been warned, Citizens!

The duck is classically served with plum sauce, aka “duck sauce” in the U.S. – the recipe for it is linked in the ingredients portion of the instructions below.

Cantonese roast duck may not become an every week recipe in your rotation, but I guarantee it WILL become known as a signature dish in your repertoire – of that, I can assure you! The wait will be long before you and your guests can actually enjoy this meal, but know that the end result will truly justify the work you put into it, My beloved Citizens!

Battle on – the Generalissimo

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