Salted duck is a famous specialty in Nanjing, with a long history of 1000 years. This kind of duck skin is white and tender, fat but not greasy, fragrant and delicious, with the characteristics of fragrance, crispness and tenderness. The salted duck around the Mid-Autumn Festival every year has the best color and taste, because the duck is made in the season when osmanthus is in full bloom, so it is called "osmanthus duck". "White Door Recipe" records: "In August in Jinling, salted duck is the most famous, and everyone thinks that there is osmanthus fragrance in the meat." Sweet-scented osmanthus duck is a good wine with clear thinking, strong purpose and long-term appetite. On holidays or working days, it seems to have become a secular etiquette in Nanjing for tourists from home to go out and buy a bowl of salted duck.
In Nanjing, there is a famous Nanjing Confucius Temple. Confucius Temple and salted duck are inextricably linked. It is said that in the Qing Dynasty, when salted duck was just popular, the Gong Yuan area of Nanjing Confucius Temple was the place where candidates gathered. Candidates at that time didn't work so hard now. At that time, it was still very popular for candidates to eat, drink and give gifts. Strange to say, instead of giving gifts such as gold, silver, tobacco and alcohol, they send Nanjing salted duck and Nanjing salted duck in fashion. As a result, Nanjing salted duck, salted duck, began to move towards the whole country. It is said that Empress Dowager Cixi bought 500 salted ducks and dried salted ducks from this place every year. It can be seen how delicious this salted duck is, and at that time, salted duck and salted duck also got a very famous name, called Nanjing Gong Duck.
Nanjing, located in the south of the Yangtze River, has natural advantages in duck oil insulation and duck gizzards. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were records of Jinling people building land to raise ducks. It can be seen that domestic ducks have been cultivated for thousands of years. There was a folk song in the Ming Dynasty: "Ancient Academy, Glass Carving, Dark Forging, Salted Duck". The ancient academy refers to imperial academy, the largest national university at that time. Coloured glaze refers to the great mystery Dai, which was praised as the miracle of the world at that time. Dark forging refers to the famous Nanjing specialty black brocade forging, and the little salted duck is juxtaposed among them, which shows the status of salted duck in Nanjing people's minds at that time. People in Nanjing eat ducks in various ways. During the Six Dynasties, several kinds of duck dishes such as roast duck and salted duck were already on the emperor's table, and Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, "eclipsed a roast duck". There is a saying in Nanjing that "no duck leaves the table", and eating ducks is very particular. For example, they eat salted duck and roast duck in spring. In summer, use pipa duck simmer soup to dispel summer heat and clear heat. In winter, salted duck is very popular in the market. Sweet-scented osmanthus salted duck is available all year round. In the past, salted duck was the most eaten by Nanjing people, but it needed to be processed before it could be eaten, and it was not easy to preserve. Fresh salted duck is eaten while buying. At present, there are more than 1.5 million duck-making enterprises and self-employed households in Nanjing, producing more than 1.5 million braised ducks a day, and Nanjing residents eat about 80 thousand ducks a day.
Nowadays, salted duck has developed to eat more than one duck, and there are many kinds of duck series products, including fresh salted ducks in various colors, and "four-piece sets" such as duck gizzard, duck waist, duck liver and duck heart. Salted duck gizzards are delicious and elastic, and the more you chew them, the more fragrant they become. Fried duck loin is tender, stewed duck's paw is especially delicious, and duck heart and blood can be eaten.
According to historical records, Nanjing market flourished during the Tang and Song Dynasties. There is a cloud in the poem Bo Qinhuai by the poet Du Mu: "The smoke cage is cold and sand cage at night, and Qinhuai is near the restaurant at night." This shows that there are not only busy streets during the day, but also night market restaurants. In August of the twenty-seventh year of Ming Hongwu, there were five new restaurants 15 in Nanjing. It can be seen that the food market is prosperous, there are many snack vendors, and there are many restaurants and snack bars, among which duck gizzards are rich and varied, which are popular all over the world.
There are more than 200 salted duck chain stores in Nanjing, which can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys of Nanjing. The title of "Duck Capital" is worthy of the name. In fact, the customers who buy salted duck are not only Nanjing people, but also those who come to Nanjing for business travel want to buy several bags of salted duck. The ancient city of Nanjing is indeed worthy of the beauty of "Jinling Duck is the best in the world".