First, rinse the duck inside and out with water and remove the residual offal and excess fat. Pat the skin dry with paper towel. You will also need to dry the duck’s cavity, paying close attention to making sure the cavity is absolutely dry. This may require a bit of time as liquid exudes from the cavity and may take 3-4 attempts before it is completely dry.

Drying the cavity helps produce a tastier roast duck, even without a variety of sauces. It is not advisable to use any liquid or creamy seasonings because when the duck is hung they will accumulate in the lower part of the duck.

Place the spice powder and salt into a small pan, on low heat until the fragrance is released.

With your hands, smear the hot spice and salt mixture all around the inside walls of the duck’s cavity right up to the chest. Avoid getting the mixture on the outside of the skin. Finally, place the ginger inside the cavity.

Next, using bamboo sticks or toothpicks, ‘stitch’ up the cavity opening. The skin is quite tough, so be careful not to break the sticks or poke your hands. When sewing from the tail of the duck, start with the bamboo stick through the left side of the duck skin and then through the right side of the duck skin, repeating until the opening is closed.

The third step is to blow up the duck skin! Blowing up the skin is done by blowing air between the flesh and skin, which makes the skin crispier when it is cooked. The best tool for this is a bicycle pump, but we did not have one at home.

Prepare a large baking pan or pot, and carefully pour in boiling water. Put the gassed duck into the hot water for 5 seconds only! This time is very critical; if it is too short, you will not achieve the right effect, and too long and oil from the skin will seep out, also losing the right effect.

You will need to move the duck around in the water, flipping it over to make sure the whole duck is dipped into the water. Do not allow water to get into the cavity. Be careful not to burn your hands in the boiling water.

After dipping the duck skin in the hot water, it must be hung up to dry for 12 hours.

If the room temperature is cool (less than 18 C) then you can leave it hanging in the room. If the weather is warmer, you can hang it in an air-conditioned room, or with a fan (that is not blowing directly on the duck). It must be kept at or below this temperature or it will spoil. Place a pan under the duck.

The next step is to make the crisp water glaze to brush onto the duck skin. The basic ingredients for this are water + sugar + vinegar.

Mix in a bowl and heat in the microwave oven for a few seconds to melt together.

At this point, turn on your oven and preheat to 200 C.

Brush the water evenly onto the duck skin. If all the previous steps have been done correctly, the glaze will adhere easily to the duck skin. Apply one coat of glaze, wait 20 minutes and then brush on a second coat, and then again after 10 minutes, so that the duck skin dries between coats.

Wrap the top of the limbs and the end of the neck with aluminum foil, and place the duck, breast down, on the baking rack inside the baking tray. You can line the bottom of the pan with a layer of aluminum foil to make clean up easier after it is cooked.

Place the duck into the preheated oven at 200 C and bake for 60-70 minutes.

You will need to check the duck for the last 20 minutes or so and adjust the cooking time depending on the size of the duck and temperature of the oven. When the skin of the duck turns a deep golden yellow it can be taken out.

Allow cooling in the pan for 5 minutes before serving. You can cut it into smaller pieces and serve accompanied with sauces, onions, and bread, rolled up together.