Yanshui ya, Nanjing salted duck

As tradition built it

Serves 4 to 6. Cure overnight to several days, cook 30 minutes.

Ingredients

• 1 whole duck
• 8% of the duck's weight coarse salt, hot-fried in a dry pan until aromatic
• 1 spring onion, 3 slices ginger, 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns spring onion, ginger, Sichuan peppercorns
• 2 litres water, 100 g salt, 2 slices ginger, 50 g spring onion, 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns clear brine (water, salt, ginger, spring onion, Sichuan peppercorn, simmered and cooled)

Method

1. Dry-salt the whole duck's cavity and skin with the hot-fried salt, working it in thoroughly. Cure for 2 to 6 hours depending on the season (shorter in summer, longer in winter).
2. Rinse off the dry salt, then re-brine in the clear, cooled brine for several hours to a full day.
3. Remove from the brine and air-dry the skin thoroughly, hung in a cool, airy place.
4. Poach in a fresh pot of brine seasoned with spring onion, ginger and Sichuan peppercorns, at a bare simmer, never a rolling boil, for around 20 minutes, until just cooked through.
5. Rest, then cool before carving; served cold or at room temperature, not hot.

What a modern chef changes

The bare-simmer discipline, held precisely.

Rung 5

Method

1. Hold the poaching liquid at a genuinely fixed low temperature, around 85°C, using a probe thermometer rather than judging "bare simmer" by eye, since the whole point of the dish is that it is never boiled hard.
2. Dry-brine under refrigeration for a full 24 hours rather than the shorter traditional window, for deeper, more even seasoning through the meat.
3. Rest the poached duck fully submerged in its own cooling brine, rather than removed and air-cooled, for a more even finish and better texture.