Peking Duck

Peking duck a term most used for a special way of cooking duck which produces what is probably the most famous dish of Beijing (formerly Peking); and also the name for the variety of duck used in this dish, and now commonly bred in many parts of the world.

Chinese authorities do not attribute a very long history to the dish. Roast duck had been recorded from the distant past, but this originally meant a Nanjing duck, of small size and black feathers, not artificially fattened. The story goes that the transfer of the capital from Nanjing to Peking brought unexpected results for the ducks which lived alongside the canal leading to the new capital, a canal used for grain supplies. These ducks, which like the Nanjing ducks were mallard ducks, were now able to feast on grains which fell overboard from barges, and they gradually became larger. In the course of time there evolved a new variety of duck, not only larger but plumper, and with white plumage. The plumpness was increased by the practice of force-feeding, mentioned in texts from the Five Dynasties in the 10th century ad.