What kind of food is Nanjing salted duck?

Nanjing salted duck is the only low-temperature livestock and poultry product in the history of China, which is completely different from the traditional pickled products. Salted duck is cooked at low temperature. After cooking for about an hour, the tenderness of salted duck reaches a certain level. Boiled salted duck at low temperature has good water retention and keeps the juicy of duck meat. Salted duck is a famous specialty in Nanjing, belonging to Jinling cuisine, one of the representatives of Jinling cuisine, also known as osmanthus duck, a geographical indication product in China. Because Nanjing also has a name "Jinling", it is also called "Jinling salted duck", which has a long reputation and has a history of more than 2,500 years. Duck skin is white and tender, fat but not greasy, fragrant and delicious, with the characteristics of fragrance, crispness and tenderness. Nanjing salted duck is the only low-temperature livestock and poultry product in the history of China, which is completely different from the traditional pickled products. Salted duck is salty, sweet and fragrant, and its taste is smooth and tender. The meat is white as jade, oily and translucent, and the skin and fat are fragrant, tender and salty. Salted duck is the best duck I have ever eaten, but for Hunan's mother-in-law, the duck that took over Nanjing's son-in-law for the first time could not start with chopped ginger and garlic.

Unlike Changde salted duck, you can eat it directly by tearing it open; Unlike Yongzhou blood duck, it is chopped and fried.

Looking at the pale duck, my mother-in-law never believed that this seemingly immature duck could eat anything.

It doesn't matter whether you eat salted duck in other places, but foreigners must eat it when they come to Nanjing.

In Nanjing, there is a saying that "without ducks, there is no table".

Especially for the guests from afar, Nanjing people not only warmly entertain, but also watch the guests eat with their own eyes, which is the best for the landlord.

Three minutes later, my mother-in-law spit out the duck bones and began to ask where the salted duck in Nanjing was delicious.

For Nanjing people, all the delicious ducks are downstairs.

In Nanjing, duck shops are everywhere in the streets, whether it's Laoxiaguan or Qinhuai River. Without exception, the signboard of the shop reads "Shuiximen Lean Duck".

The word "Shuiximen" represents not only the shape and taste of ducks, but also a duck-eating culture in old Nanjing.

During the Republic of China, Zhang Tongzhi recorded in "White Door Recipe" that Jinling salted duck was the best cook in Qijiawan West Hutong. Duck is fragrant and tender, with sweet-scented osmanthus in the meat, fat and crisp, which is far behind the outside world.

Later, there was another Han Fuxing in Cangxiang not far away, which was also a unique salted duck. This duck is fat and fragrant, and it is very famous in Nanjing.

Because these two houses are close to Shuiximen, the most important waterway wharf in Nanjing, and the duck market is also around Shuiximen, the reputation of "Shuiximen salted duck" has spread far and wide, and now it has become synonymous with Nanjing salted duck.

Under the salty white body, the color is hard to distinguish, but in the mouth of Nanjing people, even the name can be eaten.

The salted duck skin of Zhang Yun salted duck is tight, salty and not greasy; Lujia duck skin is smooth and crisp, and a bag of gravy is the essence of eating duck;

Chen Jia's duck has fat under the cortex, but it is not greasy at all. The bones are crispy and tender, and the salt is moderate. ...

The better the duck, the more it can be mashed into different flavors, and the tricky gourmets can also distinguish the seasoning and steps of marinated duck from duck meat.

Why does the salted duck in Nanjing look immature?

According to some experts, the production of salted duck is not cooked with marinade like traditional salted duck, but cooked directly with boiling water.

Although the salted duck looks like just a handful of salt and a jar of brine.

But under this "pure" duck meat, I don't know how many seasonings you can't know. Under the same "white duck", each duck shop has its own unique formula.

In terms of food, Nanjing people are all gourmets, with mixed tastes, and you will know it when you taste it. If you don't eat enough, you need to study it carefully and write a book.

Nanjing is easy to produce writers, but seldom cooks.

For example, Yuan Mei, Comrade Zhang, Zhang Henshui and Ye He all like to write about Nanjing cuisine and study its cooking methods. For example, the practice of salted duck often appears in writers' articles.

But if you want them to do it themselves, that's another matter.

Just like Nanjing people eat ducks, they have to chop a duck in order not to cook.

Even if there is a queue of 1 hour in the braised duck shop downstairs, he will only think that the ducks in this shop are delicious and worth waiting for.

Instead, I have to spend this hour queuing to buy food, wash vegetables and cook.

So often in Nanjing, eating ducks is as common as three meals a day, surrounding the daily life of Nanjing people.

If you drink porridge in the morning, you can cut a duck.

Have a big meal at noon and cut a duck.

Even if you eat midnight snack, drink beer and cook edamame, and don't put a dish of salted duck next to it, this midnight snack is equivalent to not eating.

Nanjing people not only like to eat, but also like to entertain guests and friends. Whether it's a famous shop or a street stall, it's impossible for Nanjing people to invite you to dinner without salted duck.

When foreigners eat salted duck for the first time, they often ask if the sauce has not come yet.

But I didn't know until I put my mouth down that the salty taste actually implied all kinds of fragrance, tenderness and smoothness, mixed with spices and flowers, revealing the exquisiteness and elegance of Jinling on the tip of my tongue.

It seems inconspicuous, but in fact it is hidden.

Just like drinking with Jiangsu people, everyone is sitting on the wine table, saying gentle and beautiful words. The wine was small and tasteless, and the foreign guests looked around and sniggered three times.

White-faced scholar, what storm can it cause?

I didn't expect Jiangsu people to drink some salted duck wine and toast slowly. After three rounds, it is still as steady as Mount Tai, and the more you fight, the more brave you are. They don't know when to eat foreign guests

When I woke up the next day, all I could remember was the pale and plain duck, and the salty smell remained in my mouth.