Peking Duck Part One: How To Butcher and Clean a Duck [北京烤鸭的宰杀与处理]

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[Pick your own duck]

1. Beijing force feed duck is the best ingredient for making Peking duck.
2. If you can’t find force feed duck, pick a younger but fatter duck.
3. The duck should weight at least 3 kg when it is alive.
4. The bigger the duck is, the better it will taste.

[Kill the duck]

1. First, tie the wings and the legs. Hang it up somewhere upside down.

2. Grab the neck and remove the feather from the neck. Get a sharp knife and cut it open. There are 2 things that you have to cut it off. That will be the esophagus and the trachea. If those 2 things are not completely cut off, the duck will struggle for a longer period of time. Just be aware with that. Also, make sure you hold the neck tightly until the blood is all coming out or else the duck will make a huge mess.

[Remove the duck feather]

1. I use the sink because that is the biggest container I have. Pouring hot water into it. The temperature is around 60 ℃. Then put the duck in. Duck feather is waterproof so use something to scratch the feather to let the water soak in completely. Keep turning the duck around. Make sure you get every spot of the duck. You have to do this fast. The duck shouldn’t be staying in the hot water more than 5 minutes.

2. Once the feather is easy to pull off, you can take the duck out and put it in another sink. Cool it down with running water. Now you can slightly pull out the feather. There is a lot of tiny feathers that is very painful to deal with. Normally, the factories use wax or machine to do this. I don’t have any and it took me 2 hours by hand. So I am sure you want to find a butcher.

3. Once you are done with that, rinse off all the feather.

[Take out the organs]

1. Put the duck on the board. Breast side faces up. Use scissors to cut off the feet and the wings.
2. It is very normal to make a cut at the end of the butt to take out the inner part. But for traditional Peking duck, we do a small cut under the wings.

3. Pull the wing away from the body. Stick in the tip of the knife. The cut should be about 3-5 cm long. There are 2 reasons that you pick this spot. First, it hides behind the wings and you cannot tell where the cut is so the whole shape of the duck looks nicer. Also, when you hang the duck in the oven, you are able to add water into the duck chest so the duck is roasting on the outside and simmering on the inside which will give you the best result for the tender duck meat.

4. Open up the cut. Use scissors to clean the sharp ribs. If you don’t they are going to hurt you when you put your fingers in.

5. Stick into the cut. First, what stops you is the membranes. You just twist around and break the connection. Then go deeper along with the ribs until you reach the heart. Bend your finger and grab it to pull it out.

6. Find the esophagus and the trachea. There are lots of membranes around them. Do your best to separate them from the neck skin so you can pull it out later.

7. Stick your fingers into the cut again. This time, follow the backbone all the way to the neck until you feel the part that is connecting the trachea and the lung. Grab it to pull it out. Go to the neck again and now you can easily pull out the trachea.

8. Follow the backbone all the way to the neck again. Drag the esophagus a little bit to help you find it. Grab it to pull it out.

9. Next organs will be the liver. Move your fingers inside the stomach. You should find something very soft, smooth and kind of like a piece of jelly. That is the liver. Break the membranes and carefully grab it out.

10. After the liver, we are going to take out the lungs which are located on both sides of the back. Duck lung is attached tightly to the backbone which makes it quite difficult to separate. Use your finger and carefully separate it from the back ribs. Reach your finger further to the other side of the back and take out the second lung. Wipe the blood as well.

11. Next, move your finger around. And look for a firm ball. That will be the gizzard. You will also feel the intestine and other things next to it. Try to break the connection. Once you feel that the inner organs are loose, grab the kidney and pull it out. All the other inner parts will follow as well.

12. Check and make sure there is nothing left inside the duck.

13. Fill up the duck with clean water. Rinse it several times until you don’t see any blood.

14. The reason you have to take out the organs one by one is because the cut is small and if you try to take everything out in one time, you will make a mess and the dirty stuff might leak and ruin the duck.

15. Now, you have a duck that is properly prepared for Peking duck.