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Ingredients
1 five-to-six-pound duck (cooked a day in advance, if desired)
1 tablespoon plus one-half cup dark soy sauce
¼ cup light soy sauce
4 cups cold water
¼ cup shaoxing or dry Sherry
2 ounces (about one-quarter cup when cracked) Chinese rock sugar
2 slices fresh ginger
2 whole scallions, left whole
1 whole star anise
1 piece dried tangerine or orange peel
Preparation
- Step 1
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Step 2
Cut away and discard the peripheral fat and skin from the duck. That is to say, the fat from the cavity, the excess skin around the neck and cavity opening and so on.
- Step 3
Brush the duck all over with one tablespoon of the dark soy sauce. Place on a rack, breast side up, and roast for 30 minutes.
- Step 4
Meanwhile, combine in a kettle the remaining dark soy sauce, the light soy sauce, cold water, shaoxing or dry Sherry, rock sugar, ginger, scallions, star anise and tangerine or orange peel. Set aside.
- Step 5
Remove the duck from the roasting pan and add it, breast side down, to the sauce. Bring the sauce to the boil, cover, lower the heat and simmer 30 minutes.
- Step 6
Turn the duck in the sauce. Cover and return to the boil. Let simmer 30 minutes. The duck may be eaten at this point, hot or cold. If you are using it to make the many-flavor duck salad, see the recipe.
The sauce in which the duck is cooked may be kept indefinitely if it is strained and reheated, adding more ingredients as necessary to maintain the volume and flavor. You may cook more duck or other poultry, beef or pork in the sauce as you desire. Keep the strained sauce tightly covered and refrigerated until ready to use.
Private Notes
Comments
I use a more complicated master sauce, but the technique is optimal.