Here is something I grabbed, which describes the traditional way, and if memory serves, correct authentic way:
Quote:
Day one: Slaughter duck. Dress, eviscerate, and rinse. Remove neck bone without breaking skin. Tie neck skin in knot. Apply maltose/soy sauce coating to skin. Hang overnight to dry. Day two: Use straw to inflate duck skin like a balloon to separate from meat. Blanch duck quickly in boiling water to tighten skin and begin rendering fat. Apply more maltose/soy mixture. Hang overnight to dry again. Day three: Roast duck while hanging vertically in wood-fired brick oven. Roast until rendered fat from under skin has completely dripped out of duck, basting meat and rendering skin crackly crisp. Serve immediately.
There are things to look for, like how it was chilled after slaughter...if air-chilled, better flavor, than ice-water chilled.
And the bird needs to be dry, and for the crispy skin, the fat needs a way to drain off. So let the bird dry overnight, uncovered in your fridge, rubbed with a mix of salt and baking powder, and maltose and soy sauce. Then, separate the skin from the meat with a wooden spoon or your fingers can accomplish this, then a dunk in boiling water to start rendering the fat. Then let it dry again, preferably overnight.
Then roast vertically, so the rendered fat drains off.
This is basically what I grabbed off several websites, and seems to mesh with what we did way back then as I remember my Chinese co-workers doing.
Hope that helps some.
In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. - Albert Camus
Uncertainty is the very condition which impels people to unfold their powers.-Eric Fromm
