"Lao Gao, I'm very idle today!" Wu Jing took Liu Mang and Jieba to Gaojiafang Village, and greeted the man who was squatting in front of a room and smoking.

"Master Wujing, come in and sit. Seeing Wu Jing, the man knocked the cigarette pouch pot on the stone slab, stood up and greeted warmly.

"You don't need to sit, you take me to the field, and I'll buy a few ducks to take away. ”

"Okay, okay. The man, Lao Gao, inserted the cigarette pouch and pot into his waist and led Wu Jing and them towards the field by the river in front of the house.

It is autumn and harvest season, and the rice in the field has been harvested, leaving only a short stubble. As far as the eye can see, there are large flocks of ducks moving everywhere in the endless fields, foraging for the rice ears, loaches and snails left in the fields.

When he came to one of the ridges, Lao Gao stood in front of a shack made of bamboo: "Master Wujing, what duck do you want to buy? Is it a young duck or an old duck?"

"There is a difference?"

"Of course, the meat of the duck is a little tender, which is suitable for stir-frying, making spicy duck and camphor tea duck. The old duck meat is old, but the bones are fragrant, and it is most suitable for boiling soup to replenish the body. Add some ginger slices and red dates to stew, stew until the meat is rotten and the bones are crispy, and the duck fat is bubbling up, and the umami taste......!

"Lao Gao, I can't see that you are still a connoisseur of duck eating!" Wu Jing tugged at Liu Mang's sleeve: "But I brought the chef today, what kind of duck do you want, let him tell you." ”

"Uncle, do you have about two months here, a little fatter? Liu Mang said with a smile.

"Fat, how fattened?"

"It's about seven or eight pounds. ”

"What? Seven or eight pounds? Young baby, you're not kidding, are you? What kind of duck can grow to weigh seven or eight pounds in two months?"

"Uh...... Uncle, if you don't have it, it's okay to have about five or six pounds. Liu Mang knew that he was wrong, so he quickly changed his words.

Authentic 'Kyoto Roast Duck' requires 'stuffed duck', a specialty of Kyoto's suburbs. This kind of duck generally does not like to eat after more than 30 days, and must be manually filled to fatten it until the weight reaches the standard before roasting.

But now the ducks in Tanaka are all locally produced white-feathered ducks, and their size is obviously smaller than that of the crammed ducks, and the weight of seven or eight catties is indeed a bit difficult for a strong man.

"There are about five catties, but you have to pick them yourself. Lao Gao thought for a while, took out the key to open the wooden door of the shack, took out a large dustpan of millet from inside, and made a call of "come~come~" from his mouth.

Hearing Lao Gao's call, a group of ducks that were foraging in the field immediately flapped their wings and rushed over.

Lao Gao sprinkled the rice in the dustpan and beckoned Liu Mang: "Young baby, you can pick it." ”

"Okay. Liu Mang walked down the ridge, came to the duck flock, squinted his eyes and looked at it carefully.

After watching for a while, Liu Mang walked up to one of the ducks that grabbed the most joy, squatted down gently, grabbed its wings, lifted it in his hand, and pressed the base of the duck's wings.

"This one is good! Jeba, carry it!"

In the eyes of connoisseurs, the best thing about 'Kyoto roast duck' is the red and shiny duck skin on its body. After roasting, this layer of duck skin is extremely charred and melts in the mouth, which is the most tempting.

In order to bake such duck skin, it is necessary to have a little fatter, and a duck with a little more subcutaneous fat is not necessary. This is also the reason why Liu Mang is slowly picking now.

"This one is not bad!" After looking at it for a while, Liu Mang once again selected one from the duck flock.

"This young baby, his eyes are really vicious!" glanced at the duck in Liu Mang's hand, and Lao Gao, who was sprinkling rice in the field, was stunned.

Generally speaking, there are always a few ducks in the duck flock that grab food quickly and fight fiercely, so the natural body shape is more robust. But these ducks are mixed in a flock of hundreds of ducks, not to mention ordinary people, even Lao Gao himself, it is difficult to distinguish for a while. But now this young man seems to have picked it out without much effort, is it also a duck breeder?

"Alright, the rest is still almost, three should be enough for everyone. Liu Mang held the third duck in his hand and read.

"Young baby, you used to raise ducks too?"

"I haven't raised it. But I'm a chef, and I have an intuition when it comes to choosing ingredients. Liu Mang said with a smile.

"No wonder ......"

Liu Mang paid Lao Gao the money for the duck and rushed back to the temple with three fat ducks.

"Mang, I'll help you kill it. Back at the temple, Jeba volunteered. Last time, he slaughtered pheasants and hares under Liu Mang's guidance, and he also learned a little bit about it, and now he wants to show it again in a hurry.

"Not this time. Liu Mang refused.

"Why?"

"This duck requires a special technique, and it is difficult to make it without experience. ”

Liu Mang is telling the truth, and the way 'Kyoto roast duck' is slaughtered is also very particular. Ducks bleed from the top of their necks, and after plucking off their feathers, they make a small incision from under the wings and carefully remove the internal organs. Don't break the skin a little during this process, otherwise it will affect the next steps.

"Okay, then I'll learn from the side. Jeba nodded, moved over a bench, and sat next to Liu Mang like a studious child.

"Monk, help me boil a few pots of hot water, I'm ready to kill the duck soon." ”

After a while, Wu Jing came over with the boiling hot water. Liu Mang took a sharp knife, brushed off the feathers on the duck's neck, and bled with a knife.

After bleeding, the duck that stopped struggling was put into a large basin, and Liu Mang poured boiling water on it and plucked the feathers with his hands. Position the duck breast upwards with the duck's head facing outward. Then hold the duck paw with your left hand, lift it up slightly to make the duck leg meat tight, and chop the duck paw off the joint with a knife in your right hand. Then turn the duck body over, so that the duck's head is facing inward, turn up the duck skin at the mouth of the duck neck just now, close the mouth, and blow hard.

"It's really interesting, it turns out that you have to blow to make roast duck!" Wu Jing and Jeba on the side saw that their eyes were round.

"Of course, this way, the duck will be more beautiful when it is roasted. After blowing, the skin of the duck in Liu Mang's hand swelled, becoming plump and round, and its size increased by about one-third.

Then, Liu Mang tied the root of the duck's neck with a thin rope to prevent it from running away. Then stretch out an index finger, poke into the duck**, bend the index finger upward, hook the tail end of the large intestine, and pull off the connection between the large intestine and **. Then move the right duck arm forward, clamp it with your left hand, hold the knife in your right hand, and cut a knife edge of about 3 cm under its right arm. Finally, the gizzards, lung lobes, and intestines were taken out in batches from the incision under the wings......

During the whole process, Liu Mang's movements have always been cautious, very gentle, like flowing water, meticulous.

"Wu Jing, help me bring the branch I just cut on the road. ”

'Kyoto Roast Duck' uses a duck brace, which is actually a finger-thick, half-finger-long sorghum stalk. Now there are none, only chopped sticks instead.

Liu Mang fed the wooden stick from the knife edge, placed the lower end on the duck vertebrae, tilted slightly forward in a vertical position, stabilized, pulled back, stuck into the sternum to make the duck body prop up, and then lifted it to the edge of the pool and began to clean it.