Peking duck is the original roast-master flex: lacquered mahogany skin, rendered fat, pancakes you fold like letters, and a sauce that does half the talking. It's also a technical argument for dosing off the heat — the oven runs at 375°F and the skin needs every degree of it, which is long past the temperature THC is happy at. So we roast the duck the honest way, undosed, and let a dosed hoisin glaze and dosed scallion oil carry the cannabinoids at the table, brushed on after the slicing board. The technique lesson: a roast this proud doesn't hide the dose — it frames it.
🦆 The Infusion: Toasted Sesame-Hoisin Dosing Base
Hoisin is the vehicle — thick, sweet-salty, and room temperature at service. The THC lives in toasted sesame oil folded into the hoisin, plus a dosed scallion oil for brushing.
- Decarb: 3.5g ground flower, sealed mason jar, 240°F (115°C) for 40 minutes. Cool before opening.
- Method: Warm 1/4 cup (54g) toasted sesame oil to 160–180°F. Add the decarbed flower, hold low for 2 hours. Strain through cheesecloth, squeeze gently, jar it. Nutty, dark, unmistakable — perfect for the hoisin.
- Dosing math: 3.5g at 20% THC = 3500mg × 0.20 = 700mg THCA × 0.877 = ~614mg THC × 0.75 efficiency ≈ ~460mg per 54g oil → ~8.5mg per gram.
- Yield: ~50g. Storage: Cool dark pantry 6 weeks. Label: strain, date, mg/g.
The dosed hoisin: Whisk 1/2 cup hoisin sauce with 20g (about 4 tsp) of the infused sesame oil ≈ ~170mg THC total. Serve at room temperature in a small dish — this is the dose, and it never sees heat.
🍳 The Duck: Lacquered, Rested, Undosed Until the Table
Ingredients (serves 4–6, ~16 pancakes)
The duck:
- 1 whole duck (4.5–5.5 lbs), giblets removed, patted dry
- 1 tbsp kosher salt; 2 tsp five-spice powder; 1 tsp white pepper
- 3 tbsp honey + 2 tbsp hot water (the lacquer wash)
- 2 tbsp white vinegar
- 4 scallion whites + 4 thick slices ginger, stuffed in the cavity
To serve (all undosed until the glaze):
- 16 mandarin pancakes (store-bought is fine — honesty over heroics)
- 8 scallions, julienned; 1 English cucumber, julienned
- Dosed hoisin glaze (above) + a plain undosed hoisin dish for the curious-but-not-dosed
Method
- Dry (day before): Rub the duck inside and out with salt, five-spice, and white pepper. Stuff the cavity with scallion whites and ginger. Set uncovered on a rack over a tray in the fridge for 24 hours. This is the whole secret — dry skin is crisp skin.
- Lacquer: Whisk honey, hot water, and vinegar. Bring a kettle to a boil and pour it over the duck in the sink (tightens the skin), pat dry, then brush all over with the honey wash. Rest 30 minutes at room temperature.
- Roast (undosed oven): 375°F, breast-up on a rack over a roasting pan, 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes, until the skin is deep mahogany and the thigh reads 175°F. No dosing in this oven — the heat is the enemy of THC and the friend of the skin. They don't share.
- Rest: 20 minutes, tented loosely. Resting is not optional; it's where the juices redistribute.
- Carve and dose: Slice the breast meat thin on the bias, shred the leg meat. Arrange on a warm (not hot) platter. At the table, brush or spoon the dosed hoisin glaze over the sliced duck — 20g of infused oil across the platter ≈ ~170mg total → ~10mg per pancake wrap (16 wraps).
- Fold: Warm the pancakes, give each guest duck + scallion + cucumber + a brush of the dosed glaze. One wrap, one dose, no math at the table.
📐 Dosing Math
- Dosed hoisin: 20g infused sesame oil × 8.5mg/g ≈ ~170mg THC across the whole platter
- 16 pancake wraps → ~10.6mg per wrap (call it ~10mg)
- The glaze is the dose — keep a labeled undosed hoisin dish alongside for anyone sitting out, and count the wraps, not the duck.
🧬 Terpene Pairing
- Primary terpenes: Beta-caryophyllene (five-spice's clove and star anise double down on it) + myrcene (the savory base in the duck fat) + limonene (ginger and scallion keep the richness bright)
- How to use it: Five-spice is a caryophyllene delivery system — clove, star anise, and Sichuan pepper all carry the note. The duck fat wants a rich, myrcene-forward strain; the aromatics do the rest.
- What to avoid: delicate floral profiles — this is a mahogany-lacquer bird. Let the spice lead.
🌱 Strain Suggestions
- Girl Scout Cookies (Hybrid, ~22% THC) — Caryophyllene, limonene. Sweet-spice that meets the five-spice halfway.
- OG Kush (Hybrid, ~24% THC) — Myrcene, caryophyllene. Earthy-rich, the savory workhorse for the glaze.
- Bubba Kush (Indica, ~20% THC) — Caryophyllene, myrcene. Deep and peppery, built for dark sauces.
- Tahoe OG (Indica, ~22% THC) — Limonene, myrcene. A lemony lift under the richness.
📏 Dosage
- Per wrap: ~10mg THC
- Onset: 45–90 minutes — hoisin's fat and sugar move the dose at a friendly pace
- The wrap-count rule: Wraps are dangerously easy to eat — the pancakes are light, the duck is rich, and 16 wraps disappear among 4–6 people fast. Announce the per-wrap number before the platter lands, and plate the first wrap yourself so the math is visible.
Start with one wrap. Wait 90 minutes before even thinking about a second. The lacquer, the pancakes, the ritual of folding — none of it says 'edible,' which is exactly why the number gets said out loud. For adults 21+ only. Consume responsibly and in accordance with local laws.
🦆 Chef Smoke's Peking Rule: "Peking duck is a roast that doesn't negotiate — 375 degrees, dry skin, mahogany lacquer. THC doesn't negotiate either. So they each get their moment: the oven belongs to the duck, the table belongs to the dose. A roast this proud doesn't hide the dose — it frames it, one brushed-on wrap at a time."
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Published by Compact Underground • Educational content only. Always follow local laws and consume responsibly.