Improvising a Stovetop Smoker

If you don’t want to go out and buy a stovetop smoker, you can follow the method described in Barbara Tropp’s marvelous book The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking. In order to pull it off, you’ll need an old wok or heavy pot that you don’t care about too much. I use a chipped enameled-iron Le Creuset pot, but an old-fashioned iron Dutch oven— usually inexpensive if you buy it at a hardware store—will also work. You’ll also need a round wire cake rack as close to the size of the inside of the pot as possible and three empty thoroughly cleaned tin cans, all the same size, with both ends cut out, to raise the rack. The size can you need will depend on the height of the pot—I use cat food cans (tuna fish cans would also work) because my pot is rather low. If you’re using a wok, you won’t need the cans. Just make sure that the cake rack is the right size to hold the duck suspended above the wood chips or sawdust. If it’s too large, you can use wire cutters to cut it to fit.