Ingredients for boiled duck
1 duck, about 2kg
2 fresh ginger roots
1 dried onion
Rice vinegar
White wine
How to make delicious and flavorful boiled duck
Step 1: Prepare the duck
When buying a live duck, you can ask the seller to prepare it for you or do it yourself at home. After removing the innards, the duck is immersed in boiling water to remove the feathers. Pay attention to check the pores on the duck’s body, you will see a black liquid. Squeeze it out and rinse it clean as this liquid creates an unpleasant odor.
The swim bladder is the main cause of the fishy smell in boiled duck meat, so you should completely remove it because it not only causes odor but also is not good for health. Also, remember to remove the dirty tongue in the duck’s beak.
After cleaning the feathers, you open the duck’s belly to remove all the innards. The innards can be cleaned and boiled together with the duck meat or diced to make dishes such as stir-fried duck innards with glass noodles, stir-fried duck innards with fava beans, stir-fried duck innards with bellflower root, and many other dishes.
Step 2. Get rid of the smell in the duck meat
This is an important step, even though you have cleaned the feathers and removed the swim bladder, the duck meat still has a distinctive smell. If not processed, it can create an unpleasant smell when eating.
You can use salt to rub the inside and outside of the duck, then rinse it off. Next, rub a few slices of ginger on the meat and rinse again. Ginger effectively eliminates the unpleasant odor and makes the boiled duck meat more fragrant.
If you want to be more careful, you can use white wine, ginger wine, or rice vinegar to wash the duck, then rinse with water. Make sure the duck no longer has any odor.
Step 3. Boil the duck
The deliciousness of boiled duck depends mainly on the ingredients and the way it is boiled. First, boil enough water in a pot to submerge the duck. You can add a crushed ginger root, or a dried roasted onion, or a roasted ginger root to bring a distinctive aroma and make the boiled duck more attractive.
When boiling the duck, adjust the heat so that the water is simmering, then reduce the heat and continue boiling for about 20-30 minutes for the duck to cook slowly.
After about 20 minutes, you can use chopsticks to pierce the duck’s thigh. If the water that comes out is not red in color, it means the duck meat is cooked through. Take it out, let it cool for a bit, then chop it into small pieces to eat immediately.