🍽️ Salted Duck

White skin, tender meat, fatty but not greasy, a Nanjing specialty.

Salted duck is Nanjing's most famous specialty in Jiangsu, also called osmanthus duck. Local mallard ducks from lake areas are rubbed inside and out with toasted salt and Sichuan pepper, cured, air-dried, re-brined in an aged master brine, then gently boiled and chilled. The skin stays white and glossy, the meat is tender, and the thin layer of fat is never greasy, with a clean savory sweetness and no gamey odor. Nanjing locals serve it sliced cold with drinks, congee or rice, and the ducks are at their plump best around osmanthus season in autumn. A flagship of Jinling cuisine, it is sold year-round in restaurants and deli shops and is a classic take-home flavor carrying Nanjing's long tradition as a duck city.