Chapter 25 Talk about eating duck

Chinese duck eating has a long history. "Zuo Zhuan" in the twenty-eighth year of Duke Xiang: "There are two chickens in the public meal, and the people stealing more ducks." Ducks are domestic ducks.The "public meal" here does not refer to Xiang Gong's diet.According to Mr. Yang Bojun's explanation, "public meal" refers to the working meal of the Qing doctor when he was working in the court, which is similar to the guest meal in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the dining room meal in the Tang Dynasty.The cook secretly replaced chicken with duck, and lowered the standard of the doctor's meal, so everyone was very dissatisfied, and they didn't eat duck, but only ate a little gravy.It can be seen that the status of ducks on the table is not as noble as that of chickens.

In ancient times, domestic ducks were not only called "ducks", but also "Shu Fu". "Shuowen" also called ducks "ducks", but they mostly refer to wild ducks.This owl is even more evidenced by Qu Yuan's "Buju": "Will it compete with the chicken owl for food?" In this way, the famous line in Wang Bo's well-known "Preface to the Pavilion of King Teng" "The sunset and the lonely owl fly together, and the autumn water shares "Long sky, one color" seems untenable.Ducks are almost incapable of flying, and even if wild ducks could, they would not be able to fly with the sunset.I have consulted a lot of annotations on "Preface to the Pavilion of King Teng" on this issue, most of them avoid this issue, and some simply note it as "waterfowl", which is very subtle.Although duck is also called "Shufu", it mostly refers to wild duck.In addition, 鷈鷈 is called Diaoya, and 鸂鶒 is called Xiya. It can be said that they are all ducks.

In ancient times, there were not as many opportunities to eat duck in the north as in the south, and the preparation method was simpler."Tokyo Menghualu" written by Meng Yuanlao of the Song Dynasty has a lot of records in terms of diet. In addition to mutton and fish dishes, among the meat dishes, there are chickens and geese, which are much more than ducks.However, in "Menglianglu" and "Old Stories of Wulin", there are more duck dishes, which shows the difference in diet between Lin'an and Bianliang.In addition to the most recorded duck, there are many varieties.Just take the meal arrangement of Zhang Jundi, King Gao Zongxing of Qinghe County in October of the 21st year of Shaoxing as an example, there are several kinds of preserved duck, duck sticks, lotus duck sticks and wild ducks, which shows that duck dishes are also delicious dishes on the table.

Beijing roast duck is famous both at home and abroad, but its history is not long. Both Bianyifang and Quanjude were founded in the late Qing Dynasty. The difference between the two is that one is braised oven roast duck, and the other is hanging oven roast duck. "Roast" is the later name. It can be said that the word "roast" is the same as Roast Meat Wan and Roast Meat Season. "Shuowen" does not have the word "baked", which is a later evolution, just like the word "baked" in Cantonese cuisine today, it has gradually become a convention.Roast duck was originally a court dish in the Qing Dynasty, and it was introduced to the folks later.During the Tongzhi period at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Yang Quanren, a native of Ji County, Hebei, first bought a dried and fresh fruit shop, and then hired a cook who had roasted duck in the palace to run the roast duck.Because the original dried and fresh fruit shop was connected with the orchard, Yang Quanren came up with the method of using fruit branches as fuel to burn ducks. The fruit branches smell fragrant after being ignited, and the roasted ducks have a fruity fragrance, so he became famous.Bianyifang is located in the fresh fish mouth outside the front door. It is a restaurant that sells Shandong cuisine. Although the technique is different from Quanjude, the effect and eating method of roast duck are similar to Quanjude.Most of the roast duck seen today is to use lotus leaf cakes to smear sweet noodle sauce, and then add sliced ​​duck slices and scallions to eat.In fact, it was also eaten with a special two-layer sesame seed cake in the early days. In addition to the sweet noodle sauce, there are garlic, sugar and cucumber sticks.Cucumber strips were mostly used in winter. At that time, there were no vegetable greenhouses and plastic film planting methods. Cucumbers were all cave products. It is an exaggeration to say that one tael of silver is too much, but it is indeed expensive.The fragrance of cucumber sticks in winter can not only relieve the greasy, but also looks very expensive.

In the old days, before eating roasted ducks, the clerk in the shop would always bring one or two ducks to the customers with a pointed silver stick, first let the customers see how fresh the ducks are, and then hand the silver sticks to the customers, so that Customers use silver sticks to prick the duck's stomach to see how fat or thin the duck is. No matter you are a guest in an elegant seat or an individual visitor, you are treated equally. This set of ritual notes is always available. Mr. Mei Lanfang once described in the book "Forty Years of Stage Life" that after performing outside the front door, he used roasted shredded duck stewed pancakes for supper.This kind of stewed cake was still sold in the 1950s. The cake was made of lotus leaf cake and cut into thin shreds. It was not really cooked in a pot, but placed on the grid with boiled duck soup. It was soft and tender. After soaking through, put it in a bowl, add a little duck soup, put some shredded roasted duck on the cake, and a bowl of stewed duck shredded cake is complete.This kind of stewed cake tastes thick, the cake is strong, and the duck shreds are distinct, which looks very refreshing.

There are many ways to eat duck. Shaoxing and Hangzhou are good at making eight-treasure duck. They wash and open the lake duck, and put glutinous rice, diced ham, shiitake mushrooms, Kaiyang, lotus seeds, diced bamboo shoots, Gorgon fruit, Ginkgo, etc., and finally sew the duck skin with thread, put it in a casserole, add Shaoxing wine and a little soy sauce and simmer until it is overcooked.In the early years of the Republic of China, Shaoxing Chongzhai's "Yuexiang Zhongweilu" mentioned that the eight-treasure duck should be stewed with gold and silver hooves. Two hooves are needed, while the tender duck only needs to use ham hooves.The book also mentions that diced bamboo shoots must never be replaced by diced bamboo shoots.My family uses lake ducks weighing three catties to make eight-treasure ducks.Babao duck is also called glutinous rice duck. After it is made, the stuffing is fragrant and the meat is rotten. The contents of duck belly are especially popular.

One of Tan's dishes is the famous Chai Duck, which is really delicious.The production method is to steam the duck first, remove the bone and leave the meat, cut into rectangular strips five minutes wide and three inches long. Finally, take the main ingredient duck strips and the auxiliary ingredients ham, winter bamboo shoots, and mushrooms, and tie them with moss. Put them on a deep plate and steam them in a pan. After steaming, decant the soup and pour over the thickened chicken oil Serve.This dish is shaped like a firewood bundle, hence the name Chaiba duck.Due to the complicated process, it is difficult to eat now.

Crispy duck is a very common restaurant dish. It is easy to make. The method is to first open the lake duck and wash it, feed it with seasoning, and then deep-fry it into golden brown in the oil pan. Serve in a duck shape.Although the process is simple, the key lies in the frying time and the heat of the oil. If you don't master it well, it will be difficult to achieve a fragrant and crispy effect. In the past, my family chef was good at making a kind of pot-roasted duck. First, the duck was smeared with condiments and steamed thoroughly to make the fat of the duck overflow. After steaming, the soup and duck oil were decanted. The moisture on the body is then fried in a frying pan until golden brown, chopped into chunks and combined into a whole duck shape, served on a plate, dipped in pepper and salt when eating.This kind of pot-roasted duck is charred on the outside and tender on the inside, and the meat is more delicate than the crispy duck. It tastes soft and delicious, and the duck meat will never have a dry taste.

Beijing used to call meat and cooked food "box dishes". It is said that the origin of this term is related to the examination hall of the Gongyuan. Before the abolition of the imperial examination system, candidates from all over the country gathered in Beijing to take the exam. In addition to the staple food, prepare some ready-made cooked food as a side dish.These dishes are brought into the examination room in the candidates' respective boxes, but they are smoked fish, sauced meat, small tripe and so on.Later, chicken and duck were also included in the "box dishes", such as smoked chicken and sauced duck.The Puyun Building on the west of Dongxi Pailou and north of Zhushi Street Dongkou Road is famous for its sauced duck. The duck is yellowish brown, bright in luster, soft in skin and tender in meat, suitable for salt and light. It is cooked and sold every day, and never sells the sauce of the next day. duck.If you buy half a duck in sauce, the clerk will cut it open for you neatly, and then assemble it into the original shape of half a duck, pack it with clean lotus leaves, and tie the outside with Malian grass.If you buy a lot of varieties, the clerk will put all kinds of lotus leaf bags into a cattail bag, and cover it with the red label of Puyun Tower.In the late 1950s, Shanghai Pu Wufang opened a branch in Beijing. They also sold sauced duck. Keep pace with each other.

Among the whole ducks, I like Nanjing's salted duck the most.In the early 1970s, I went to Nanjing and lived in the home of Mr. Zou Shuwen, an elder in-law. This Mr. Zou was the eldest son of Zou Zidong (Jialai), Minister of Foreign Affairs in the late Qing Dynasty. He was also an early American student in my country. college.He is the cousin of Mr. Zou Bingwen, a famous agronomist and member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.At that time, he was over 80 years old, but he was young with white hair and quick thinking. He had just completed the manuscript of "History of Entomology in China" and wanted to publish it as a book.It was the time of the "Cultural Revolution", and it was so difficult to publish such a work.I planned to stay in Nanjing for two or three days, but the old man insisted that I stay for three or five days longer. He wanted to write letters to Premier Zhou Enlai and Guo Moruo, President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and entrusted me to bring the manuscript and letters back to Beijing and try to forward them to Zhou Enlai. The Prime Minister and Dean Guo Moruo, I had to stay in his downstairs study for a few more days, waiting for him to finish these tasks.During the day, I visited the places of interest and historic sites in Nanjing to my heart's content. At noon, I ate something casually outside. For dinner, I went back to the old man's house on Jiangsu Road to eat.The old man only eats porridge for dinner, and never prepares other staple foods. The few side dishes are refreshing, and one of them is always salted duck. He sent the nanny to buy it from a store in Xinjiekou in the afternoon. A salted duck is only seven or eight yuan after being cut, and three people can only share two or three yuan for each meal. Although the taste is excellent, it is really not enjoyable.The old man is like this every day, and the number of a small plate of salted duck never increases because of the presence or absence of visitors.Sometimes when a doctor comes, the old man will also keep food, but the food will not increase.I was a young man in his twenties at the time, and I wandered outside for another day. I couldn’t get enough of two bowls of porridge, a few pieces of salted duck and side dishes. Slip out the door and go to Shanxi intersection to eat beef pot stickers.For several days in a row, I couldn't stand it, but the old man insisted that I go home for dinner. I couldn't explain it, so I had to ask the nanny where she bought the salted duck.Later, under her guidance, I finally found the store and bought half of it. I remember that I didn’t go to Shanxi intersection to eat pot stickers that night, but ate half of a salted duck in the study alone, and ate it to my heart’s content.

In addition to salted duck, Nanjing salted duck has always been known as "the flavor of the Six Dynasties, the best product in Baimen".This kind of Nanjing salted duck has white skin and red meat, which is salty and fresh, and has a long aftertaste after eating.Salted duck is cured meat, and it needs to be steamed for a longer time to make the meat appear fat and tender.Because it is a bit troublesome to eat, Nanjing salted duck, like Nanjing tripe, is not very popular in the north.In addition to Nanjing salted duck, Luliang salted duck in Yunnan and Baishiyi salted duck in Chongqing are also very famous, comparable to Nanjing salted duck.Wuwei County, Anhui Province is famous for raising ducks, with an annual output of 20 million ducks. The Anhui babysitters who stayed in my house were all Wuwei people. Every time I visited the house, I would bring back Wuwei salted duck. Because I was ignorant, I never paid attention to it. Over Wuwei salted duck, but it still tastes delicious.It was later discovered in a notebook of the Qing people that Wuwei salted duck had been famous as early as the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Duck meat is used in many dishes. I have eaten sesame duck strips and bad duck squares. The meat is soft, fragrant and delicious.But there are not many people who use duck meat as stuffing.Fang Hui of the Yuan Dynasty wrote "Listen to the Boat Song": "It's like a boatman leaving a stutter, and duck ravioli outside Xiuzhou." Wu Yifeng from the Qing Dynasty recorded in "Dengchuang Conglu": "Ducks are fed with fire in eastern Zhejiang. For those who are not successful, Jiaxing burns them with fragrant salt, which is a delicacy in the spring moon, and is called duck wontons.” The “duck wontons” mentioned here do not really refer to wontons filled with duck meat, but a kind of duck recipe.For the real duck wonton, I have always heard the name but never eaten it. In 1987, I went to Shanghai Maoming South Road to visit Mr. Chen Shengcong, who was 93 years old. When Mayor Yuan Liang and Qin Dechun handed over, the two prefaces by Yuan and Qin were written by Mr. Chen Haosheng and Ke Yanjiao, while the specific work was done by Mr. Chen Shengcong and Peng Yilu.Mr. Chen Shengcong was the confidential secretary of Mayor Yuan Liang at that time.In order to understand the compilation process of "A Brief Introduction to the Cultural Relics of the Old Capital", I visited Mr. Chen.Although Mr. Jianyu is ninety years old, he has a clear mind and a good conversation. Before he knew it, it was noon. Mr. Chen invited me to eat, and he said that a friend brought shepherd's purse. In the morning, he asked his family to buy duck meat for it. Eat duck wontons and nothing else.Mr. Jianyu has a very good memory. He told me Fang Hui’s poems from Yuan Dynasty, and told me that the duck wontons that Fang Hui said were not real wontons. During the meal, Mr. Jianyu told me that the duck skin in the duck wonton should be removed, but the fat should be left and chopped together with the lean meat, so that it will never feel greasy, because shepherd's purse likes oil and can Absorb the fat in duck meat.Sure enough, this bowl of duck wonton with shepherd's purse is extremely delicious. The ancients had a metaphor of "flocking to one another", saying that ducks run away like a flock of ducks, and ducks reproduce extremely fast.The spring in the south of the Yangtze River is early, and the exile of ducks is also earlier than that in the north, because of the poem "The Duck Prophet of Spring River Plumbing".If killing is not taboo, duck is indeed a delicacy on the table.