A few days ago, I came across a video claiming that Americans consume several times more canned foods than Chinese people, questioning the safety awareness of Chinese consumers. I suspect this “educational” video is really a veiled advertisement by a canned-food company. I’m not here to debate whether canned food is good or bad; I just want to point out that cuisine is not only about chemical intake—it’s also about history, culture, and the enjoyment of flavor. How could canned foods ever compete with that?
Even a simple Chinese dish can trace its roots back thousands of years, embodying generations of wisdom, offering nutritional, medicinal, and culinary value—truly unmatched. Recently, I bought a fresh, plump duck at the supermarket and decided to cook a dish with at least a 3,000-year history: Ginger-Braised Duck.
The ancient roots of duck farming in China
China has a very long history of duck farming, almost parallel to the development of its agricultural civilization. Archaeological research shows that China was one of the earliest regions in the world to domesticate ducks. As early as the Neolithic period, inhabitants of the Yangtze and Yellow River basins already used wild ducks as a food source. Ancient texts like the Book of Songs refer to ducks with the character “鹜.” By the Shang and Zhou dynasties (around 3,000 years ago), oracle bones and bronze inscriptions already recorded the word “鸭,” indicating that duck domestication was common.
Texts such as the Rites of Zhou, Book of Rites, and Yi Li document the classification of food and the use of poultry in sacrifices. For example, “膳羞有鸟兽鱼鳖” includes ducks as common sacrificial animals.
During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, alcohol was widely used for rituals and banquets. A variety of drinking vessels—such as jue, gu, jia, zun, you, jiao, zhi, pan, and lei—have been discovered. Archaeological findings at Yinxu unearthed pottery containing malt residues, confirming the production of fermented beverages like rice and barley wine. Bronze inscriptions from the Zhou period frequently mention “飨” and “献酎,” highlighting alcohol as central to ceremonial dining. The Book of Rites (Neize) emphasizes that when preparing alcohol, cleanliness is essential, and all five flavors—sour, salty, sweet, bitter, pungent—should be harmonized using wine. Alcohol thus served as both a ceremonial offering, a banquet beverage, and a seasoning ingredient.
The role of ginger
Success
You are now signed up for our newsletter
Success
Check your email to complete sign up
Ginger has a long history as a seasoning in China. The Book of Songs (Da Ya, Sheng Min) even references “Jiang Yuan,” the matriarch of the Zhou royal family, with the opening line: “厥初生民，时维姜嫄.” In ancient texts, the character for ginger also served as a surname. In cold northwestern regions, ginger became an essential medicinal food crop. Historical records indicate that the Zhou ancestors were skilled in cultivating ginger, using it for both culinary and medicinal purposes. The Rites of Zhou’s Tian Guan Zhong Zai mentions ginger in the “Eight Delicacies,” while the Book of Rites (Neize) explicitly notes “食之有姜,” indicating its use to season and reduce undesirable flavors.
Cooking methods in the Shang Dynasty
Shang-era cooking methods primarily included pao (roasting), zhi (grilling), geng (soups and stews), fan (roasting), and zheng (steaming). Poultry was commonly prepared as geng, a kind of soup or stew.
Ginger-Braised Duck
The key ingredients of ginger-braised duck are duck, ginger, and culinary rice wine, cooked by braising—essentially the Shang dynasty’s “geng” method. Culinary tradition holds that ginger-braised duck traces back to Shang and Zhou practices of “duck meat braised with ginger.” Ginger neutralizes cold and odors, while wine is used to enhance flavor. Over centuries, this simple method evolved into the iconic dish known today as ginger-braised duck.
Ginger-Braised Duck (Home-Style Version)
Ingredients:
- Duck: 1 whole, cut into pieces
- Old ginger: 1 large piece (about 200g), sliced thickly
- Cooking wine / Shaoxing wine: 5 tablespoons (some people now substitute beer for extra aroma)
- Light soy sauce: 4 tablespoons
- Dark soy sauce: 2 teaspoons (for color; optional)
- Rock sugar: 2 small pieces (or 2 teaspoons granulated sugar)
- Salt: a pinch (I prefer a strong soy flavor, so I usually skip salt)
- Water: enough to just cover the duck after adding seasonings
- Cooking oil: 2 tablespoons
Instructions:
- Blanch to remove odor
Place the duck pieces in cold water, bring to a boil until scum rises, discard the water, and rinse the duck under clean water. - Sauté the ginger
Heat oil in a pan, add a generous amount of ginger slices, and sauté over medium heat until slightly browned and aromatic. - Brown the duck
Add the duck pieces and stir-fry until the surface turns golden and releases a bit of fat. - Season and color
Add a generous amount of cooking wine to remove any gamey taste—twice as much as you’d use for other meats. Then add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and sugar. Stir well until the duck is evenly colored. - Braise
Pour in enough hot water to just cover the duck. Simmer over medium-low heat for 30–40 minutes until the duck is tender and fully cooked. - Reduce and adjust
Remove the lid and cook until the sauce thickens slightly. Taste and adjust salt if needed before serving. This step is crucial: if too much liquid remains, it turns into a dish similar to the modern “Ginger Duck” from Fujian or Taiwan, rather than the authentic ginger-braised duck.
Notes:
This dish, with a history of over 3,000 years, is characterized by a strong ginger flavor, which neutralizes gaminess and warms the stomach. The sauce is minimal so that all the flavor penetrates the duck, resulting in a rich, aromatic, and hearty dish perfect with rice. Duck, which is cooling in nature, is balanced with the warming properties of ginger and wine, making this dish suitable for all seasons. It is especially nourishing in autumn and is considered a food-therapy delicacy.
