- Hello, Brent.
- Hello, Ben.
- We're here at Decoy.
- To learn how to make Peking duck.
We're here at Decoy in the West Village,
to learn from Chef Joe, exactly what goes into
full perfect Peking duck.
I've never made it.
- We're making Peking duck.
Why Peking duck over roasted duck or braised duck?
- The history has come from Northern China.
It's not Southern China,
Southern China they eat roast duck,
which is just put in the oven,
they chop it and eat it,
without the pancake.
So, this duck is from Canada
and also the duck itself is about six to seven pounds.
They are very, very not too fatty.
Usually when you have duck from different farm
the breast is that thick.
You now, it's not moist, it's like very dry.
And by the way, right now the very, very famous dish
in New York, which is this part.
- Tongue? - No.
- Oh, right there?
- The whole thing.
- What do you even call that?
- They call it jowl?
I don't know, is it called jowl?
- Sure, duck jowl.
- They cook this part.
They only sell this part expensive than the meat.
- Really? - What?
- Really?
- Because one duck only have one jowl, but you have two leg.
- Yeah. (laughter)
Okay.
- The first thing is we gotta clean the duck.
They come with all the intestines, everything.
We gotta get it out, we gotta clean this,
and then salt first.
Three spoon of salt inside.
The very, very, very, very important is
when we do any preparation on the duck,
don't get the skin dirty.
- Okay. - Okay?
Keep everything clean.
Like, especially salt and the sauce.
If any sauce or salt would touch the skin,
when you put it in the oven,
that part is dark and burned,
because this is sodium in there.
So just keep it very, very, very clean and go around inside,
and like, massage them.
- Gently?
- Yeah, make sure the flavor go everywhere.
So, then you put two star anise.
- [Ben] So we got the...
- [Chef Joe] And the ginger-- - [Ben] Five spice?
Yeah, five spice in there, and ginger.
Two. - [Brent] Two of these?
- [Chef Joe] Yeah, one or two is fine.
Scallion as well.
- Great.
- [Chef Joe] And two spoon of sauce and go over.
- [Ben] Don't spill it.
- [Chef Joe] Okay, and then we gonna close it.
- And then is it just...
Straight down the middle?
Yeah? - Yeah.
- That looks good!
Pumping air into the carcass.
This is a traditional part of it,
is getting the fat and the skin to separate.
Who came up with that idea?
- That has come from the people that
they try to make how they make the skin crispy.
- Yeah.
- That's why when they cook this
without pumping the air there,
they're not getting the better result.
- It makes so much sense, but also it's,
I can't imagine who thought of that.
It's like, let's just pump a bunch of air in there
and then we'll get the crispy skin.
- Oh and by the way, in 19,
I mean 50 years ago, they don't have a pump.
They do...
(blowing rapidly)
They do this.
- I think that's what Brent should do.
- Yeah.
(air hissing) (laughing)
- We've gonna start pumping from the neck,
and then you gotta hold it, okay?
Make sure you gotta hold it.
- [Brent] Okay. - [Chef Joe] Okay?
(air hissing)
Don't go too fast.
You see that?
- I think that's the most John Carpenter
thing we've ever done. - You can try, you can try.
You should try because they lose air,
you could pump it up again.
- There's a hole down here, Ben.
- [Ben] Yeah, now it's just so loose on the neck and wow.
Wow, wow, wow.
It's the first time I've ever pumped air
into the carcass of a duck.
- This is plain water.
- Just plain water, any seasoning?
- No, nothing.
The reason why we do this,
we want to get the skin tight right now.
- Okay. - Okay?
We don't wanna cook the skin. - Right.
- We just want the skin get tight.
So, you just go like this.
- [Ben] Oh, it's a duck in a pond.
- [Joe] It looks like you're washing them, ya know?
Okay, and then we go to the last part of the preparation.
Red vinegar.
Okay? - Okay.
- And sugar.
The vinegar and sugar, they make the skin crispy,
that's the important part.
Put that on the top of the duck
to make sure every part of the duck gets touched
with the vinegar and the sugar.
- [Ben] And these are all the traditional steps?
- [Chef Joe] Yeah. - [Ben] Okay.
- We gotta let it dry...
for six to eight hours.
So, we're gonna go downstairs and cook the duck in the oven.
- Let's go cook a duck.
Dinner.
So, what temperature are we cooking the ducks at?
- We cook the duck at 300,
and then we gotta shut it down
for about 275,
and then the last five minutes, we're gonna turn it on
to about 350 to 400, to get all the fat out.
We don't want any fat stuck in the duck.
- Where does all of the fat go?
- To the bottom, you see this?
The oven?
You see all the fat?
- [Brent] That's a lot of fat.
- [Chef Joe] Yeah.
- What do you think, chef?
- The duck is almost,
about 40 minutes.
- Oh those are brown.
- [Chef Joe] Hold the hook and take this out.
(whistling)
- [Ben] Oh, that's beautiful.
What's the punishment if I drop this
in the bottom accidentally?
- [Chef Joe] I gotta get your--
Fired? - No.
An employee benefit.
Go home.
(laughing)
Show everyone.
See how shiny?
Now we're gonna filet.
When we do the duck before
in the preparation, remember this?
We close it. - Yes.
- Right now we gotta take it off.
Because we gotta get all of the sauce out
from inside, we don't need that.
This part we're gonna cut.
You see some sauce,
it's dropping.
- [Ben] And everything else has
just been absorbed by the meat?
- [Chef Joe] Yeah, absorbed by the meat.
Smell.
- Oh man, that smells so good.
- Take the leg off.
- Take the leg off, because some people when
they eat Peking duck, the most part they like to eat,
which is the breast and the back,
but the breast part is kind of moist.
With the pancake will be more, have a texture.
Back of the part, in general, people just eat
without any pancake, you know, like chips.
- I like chips.
Duck chips?
- So we're gonna do the breast part.
So, we first--
- Yeah, what's your way?
- My way is take one piece of a pancake
and then you choose whatever sauce you want.
- [Brent] You like the hoisin?
- Hoisin, the sesame...
and I like the vegetable more,
because I like the jalapeño flavor.
Okay, and then you get one of the breasts,
and a little bit of scallion.
Not much, and eat it.
- Me? - Yeah.
- [Brent] That's awesome.
- I definitely didn't expect the jalapeńo.
That makes a huge difference.
- Really, really nice.
The brightness from the jalapeño,
the sweetness from the hoisin, the sesame.
Oh my gosh.
I've had Peking duck plenty of times,
I've never had it with these sauces with the fried leeks,
this is such a unique experience.
So, this is what you want out of Peking duck?
- Sure.
- [Brent] And it's a lot more fun to build yourself.
- More preparation and the cook preparation,
the whole thing about 24 hours.
- [Brent] A full 24 hours into this dish?
- [Chef Joe] Yeah. - [Ben] And then you end up
with this beautiful, unique, Peking duck dish
brought to your table?
- [Chef Joe] Yeah.
- Wow, this is so impressive.
The flavors are amazing, thank you so much.
This was great.
- Amazing. - Thank you.
- Thank you.
We're gonna eat the rest of this duck
for you so it's out of your way.
(laughing)