P
Chinese
Peking Duck Pancakes (春饼 Chun Bing) — The Thin Wheat Wrapper
Chun bing (春饼, spring pancakes) — also called the mo bing (薄饼, thin pancakes) used for Peking duck service — are the delicate, paper-thin wheat flour crepes in which Peking duck skin, cucumber, scallion, and sweet bean sauce are wrapped. The making of these pancakes is a distinct skill: the dough is made in pairs (two thin rounds of dough, each brushed with sesame oil, then placed together and rolled as one unit), cooked briefly on a dry skillet, then peeled apart to produce two extremely thin, pliable pancakes. The pancake must be so thin that the filling is visible through it when held to light.
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I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
200 g
plain flour
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
120 ml
water
just boiled
Your own market
1 tsp
sesame oil
for brushing between pairs
Your own market
II
The Method
1
Place the flour in a bowl. Pour the just-boiled water over it in a steady stream and mix immediately with chopsticks while the water is still boiling. Continue mixing until no dry flour remains. The dough will look shaggy and steam will rise from it.
2
Turn the dough onto a clean surface and knead for 8 minutes until smooth and supple. Return it to the bowl, cover, and rest for 30 minutes. The rested dough should feel soft and yield without resistance when pressed with a finger.
3
Divide the dough into pieces of approximately 15 g each. Roll each piece into a ball, then flatten into a small disc. Brush the top surface of one disc lightly with sesame oil. Set a second disc directly on top of the oiled surface, aligning the edges.
4
This is where the dish lives or dies: roll the paired discs together as a single unit, working from the centre outward, until the combined round reaches approximately 20 cm in diameter. The sheet should be almost translucent — when held to the light, the outline of a hand placed behind it should be faintly visible through it. Uneven rolling at this stage will produce one thick and one thin layer that cannot be separated cleanly.
5
Heat a dry, ungreased skillet over medium heat. Cook the double disc for 30–45 seconds on the first side, then turn and cook the second side for a further 30–45 seconds. The surface should develop faint brown spots but remain very pale overall; a deeply coloured pancake has cooked too long and will lose pliability.
6
Remove the double pancake from the skillet while still warm. Peel the two layers apart from the edge where they meet. They should separate cleanly along the sesame-oil seam, yielding two extremely thin, pliable pancakes. If they resist, the oil layer was insufficient or the pancakes have cooled; a brief return to the warm skillet will help.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — A high-gluten plain flour milled from hard wheat, sifted fine; sesame oil cold-pressed from toasted seeds, with a pronounced nutty fragrance.
02
Estate — A reputable unbleached plain flour; a well-regarded pure sesame oil with no blended additions.
03
Market — Standard supermarket plain flour; any pure sesame oil from a Chinese or general grocery.
04
House — Any plain flour available; a light neutral oil in place of sesame where sesame is unavailable, accepting the loss of fragrance.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Touch. After kneading, the dough yields to a finger press without springing back sharply and feels as smooth as an earlobe.
◇Touch. After resting, the dough relaxes under the rolling pin with no elastic resistance.
◇Sight. The rolled double disc, when held to a light source, is almost translucent — the shadow of a hand behind it is faintly discernible.
◇Sight. The cooked pancake shows only faint, scattered brown spots; the ground colour remains pale.
◇Touch. The peeled pancake drapes and folds without cracking or tearing.
◇Where it lives or dies. The dish lives or dies in the rolling: both discs must be taken to near-translucency together — any unevenness produces layers of unequal thickness that tear when peeled apart.
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Baijiu
From British Columbia
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The whole pairingPillar VII
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