According to Wikipedia, Peking Duck, originally named “shāo yāzi” (燒鴨子), was mentioned in the Complete Recipes for Dishes and Beverages (飲膳正要) manual in 1330 by Hu Sihui (忽思慧), an inspector of the imperial kitchen.[2][3] The Peking roast duck that came to be associated with the term was fully developed during the later Ming dynasty,[1][4][5] and by then, Peking duck was one of the main dishes on imperial court menus.[6]The first restaurant specialising in Peking duck, Bianyifang, was established in the Xianyukou, close to Qianmen of Beijing in 1416.[7]
I couldn’t find a recipe under the name shao yazi in Soup for the Qan, which is the English translation of Hu Sihui’s manual. I did find a recipe for roast wild goose (or cormorant or duck), and another for broiled yellow hen that I think would result in the crispy skin that is so typical of Peking Duck. The hen recipe also has spices that would give a flavour profile approaching that of my duck. In contrast, the roasted goose recipe relies on onions, ground coriander and salt, with possibly some unnamed spices, and the whole bird is cooked inside a sheep’s stomach.
I have eaten at Bianyifang! Or at least at one of its branch restaurants. It was my first time trying Peking Duck, in about 1996.
I used a modern recipe for Peking Duck, which was not truly authentic but worked well for my kitchen and time availability. For the pancakes, I used this recipe: Chinese Mandarin Pancakes.
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