Also known as "Wuwei smoked duck", it is a famous traditional halal food in Wuwei County, with a history of 100 years. Chaohu duck is used as the raw material, and the fat duck weighing more than 4 kg in that year is generally selected, with about 30 kinds of Chinese medicines and seasonings such as J Guagua, Illicium verum, Zanthoxylum bungeanum, clove and fennel. Smoked first, then marinated, with golden luster, thick sebum, tender meat, delicious flavor and meaningful aftertaste, it is famous all over the country. (Chaohu Lake)
During the Guangxu period, more than 50 Hui people who moved from Xinjiang and other places to settle in Wuwei County volunteered, which has been around for more than 200 years. The salted duck operated by Lin Hongxing in Gulou Kou is the most famous. Wuwei salted duck is well-made, and the first-class duck is the first choice, weighing about 2 kg. After slaughter and cleaning, cut a two-inch knife under the wing to dig out the internal organs, rinse them with water, add salt and salt water, shake them evenly, and then put them in a jar for pickling. First, marinate the duck, then put the duck head down for two hours, then marinate it for two hours, and hang it in the tuyere to dry the water. Then use a thin iron bar as a frame, put the ducks on it, slowly burn the sawdust, and smoke it every five minutes. When the duck is golden yellow and smells the fragrance, put the spices such as star anise, pepper, cinnamon, clove and fennel into a cloth bag, tie the mouth, put it into a water injection pot, add mushrooms, crystal sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, onion and ginger, and put it into the smoked duck after boiling. The finished duck has golden color and luster, thick sebum, fresh and tender meat, mellow and delicious, which has both the fragrance of Beijing roast duck and the fresh fragrance of Nanjing salted duck. With the increase of market demand, more than 0/000 households in the county/kloc-processed salted ducks, and some even sold smoked geese. Jing Ling Administrative Village in the western suburb of Wucheng has become a well-known "salted duck village". At present, there are more than 40 thousand people processing and selling all over the country. The annual production and sales of dried salted duck and smoked goose is about 5 million, and the net income is more than 300 million yuan. In the urban area of Wuwei County, there are more than 8,000 hot-selling salted ducks every day, and most of the hundreds of restaurants regard Wuwei salted ducks as an indispensable specialty. Residents who have guests at home will also buy dried salted ducks as guests. In addition, visiting relatives and friends and picking up a few Wuwei salted ducks have become the first choice for reciprocity, and about 50% of Wuwei salted ducks have become gifts.
It is a myth that Wuwei salted duck is also called smoked duck. Authentic Wuwei people never call it that. Even in other places, it is called Wuwei salted duck. This name has already penetrated into the bone marrow, and the thunder can't move. However, the practice of salted duck is indeed related to smoking. Slaughter and pluck the hair first, then don't gut it, pull the internal organs out of 1 with an iron hook, and then add star anise and clove. Smoked first and then pickled. When the sauce is yellow, oily and fragrant, the fresh salted duck is ready. A salted duck, from slaughter to fumigation to marinating, is interlocking, and the process is complex and quite simple. However, for duck makers, it is as skilled as magic, which is no small pleasure for others.
The dried salted duck is the business card of inaction. In Wuwei, there are countless dried salted ducks, most of which are famous in the city, such as Majia in the south of the city and Yan Jia in the east. It can be described as an old-fashioned brand known to women and children. The composition of brine and the temperature of smoking and baking are the secrets of ancestors and have never been shown to others. An unprofessional person can judge good or bad without tasting with his mouth, seeing with his eyes, and smelling with his nose. Foreigners will never understand this. Therefore, it is often necessary to explain whether it is "Majia" or "Yan Jia" to show the authenticity, but even so, outsiders still don't understand the mystery. As for being free to go out and make dried salted duck, even if it is not authentic, as long as the signboard of "being free to make dried salted duck" is hung, it will certainly become famous.
Saying "I won't eat anything" is a joke, but it is also in place. Wuwei Town is a thousand-year-old city, with rugged stone roads and deep ancient incense, full of the charm of ancient Huizhou. In such streets and lanes, dried salted ducks are scattered all over the floor, and the fragrance is far away, attracting people's appetite all the time. Salted duck is good to eat, but it should be cold rather than hot, otherwise the taste will be 90% worse. Salt water is sometimes indispensable, but vinegar, sesame oil and garlic cloves are indispensable. Outsiders often complain that the taste is wrong, but they don't know how to eat it wrong. Eating dried salted duck with nothing to do even has a special term called "chopping dried salted duck". The word "chop" is spoken in a dialect, which has a strong accent, but it is very tasty, as if it has the taste of dried salted duck. Duck meat must be eaten separately from its head, neck, claws, wings and internal organs. Except duck meat, they are all called "claws", and those who know good food prefer "claws". Three or two guests come to the door, find a restaurant, chop a pair of claws, a bottle of old wine and chew a little. It feels like a fairy.
One side is soil and water, and the other side is culture and history. According to the records of Wuwei County Records, salted duck was famous in the light years of the Qing Dynasty. "Goose was used in the folk wedding banquet, and later it was changed to duck." So far, the custom of sending salted ducks to men and women is unchanged, which is called "Super Festival". As long as they are engaged, the man will give the woman a "super festival" on holidays, and even her seven aunts and eight aunts can't leave one by one. Although the expenses are not small, the man always smiles when he marries his wife. However, salted duck is more used for daily entertainment. As long as tourists come, buy salted duck. This is the convention, urban and rural areas are consistent. Bought salted duck, the host felt worthy of the guests, and the guests felt treated with courtesy, which brought them closer.
Similarly, people and ducks need to be famous. I always thought that salted duck was born in the wrong place. If it had fallen in southern Anhui, it would have become a royal tribute, but it happened that the salted duck was born in a water town and did nothing. So far, it has not really reached the stage of elegance. It's a real civilian duck. Even the methods are purely manual and small in scale. It used to be produced on the test assembly line, but because of the taste, it is difficult to compete with manual work. It can be seen that things are rare and precious, and strive for perfection. As for buying and selling, salted ducks have always only set up stalls, not opened stores, and operated on a small scale. Zhang Ji, Wang Ji and Li Ji, these dried salted duck stalls are like pearls, scattered in the old streets of Gu Xiang, with fragrance all over the town.
However, the reputation of dried salted duck is still famous year after year, and it has been included in "China Famous Cookbook", and it has been found in star-rated hotels. There is a restaurant in the provincial capital that sells directly, saying that it is not delivered directly every day, which is very authentic. It seems that the price is really high. I have been in the provincial capital for many years, and I still deal with dried salted duck every year. I brought everything from my hometown except eating in a restaurant. In contrast, it is still authentic in my hometown. It seems that salted ducks, like people, want to find their roots. However, the taste of dried salted duck has not been generally accepted in other places, so it is said that it is cutting corners and the formula is wrong. In fact, it is more related to the use of ducks. Salted ducks use ducks. Wuwei is a land of fish and rice with paddy fields, which is very suitable for raising ducks. When I was a child, every village had professional duck farmers, and the county freezer stocked a large number of ducks. When winter comes, flocks of ducks croak in the endless rice fields, one after another, which is very spectacular. It is rare to raise ducks now, and people all over the country make dried salted ducks. It is impossible to use dried salted duck, which is a native of Wuwei. But ducks in other places are raised in different ways and taste different. Even in Wuwei, duck sources are in short supply, so geese have to be used instead. Now in Wuwei City, except in autumn and winter, there are basically only dried salted ducks in the famous dried salted duck stalls, but there are no dried salted ducks. I'm sorry.