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Hanging Peking Duck

douglas_bd

Prepping for CNY, and in the recipe for Peking duck, there's this comment:

HOME-COOK HACK: Don’t have a fridge big enough for this little birdie? Well, is it cold out? Do you have a garage? Bingo.

So, my question is how cold does it need to be to hang safely outside of the fridge? Planning to prep on Sunday and hang for 6 days, finishing on Saturday. What is my temperature leeway? Forecast for the week is high of 40F, low of 19F. Allowing that the garage will be somewhat warmer than that, what is a safe range for the duck to hang out at?

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wolfiegirl

I don't think I'd chance it. At least not during the day hours when it's in the 40's. Considering your fridge temp should be around 34°, anything more than that is...IMHO...risky biz.

fisher23

I would be comfortable at or below 40° and at or just above freezing. I've brined a turkey in my garage in a large food grade bucket, works fine.

douglas_bd

That's my general feeling as well, but if so, it's a very narrow range for ChefSteps to make that recommendation. I'm wondering if there's a reason this is safe across a much wider range of temperatures than I would otherwise think...something akin to hanging ham to cure, or hanging wild game to age.

wolfiegirl

I think the assumption in the recipe is that a cold garage is as COLD as the fridge would be. It's not the same thing as dry curing a heavily salted hunk of pork. You're dealing with fresh poultry which is, at least in my mind, more pricarious.

#duck

douglas_bd

It may be that they are recommending this only if you have a garage capable of maintaining a temp between, say, 32 and 38F for the entirety of the 3-5 days that you are hanging the duck, but this seems impractical. I doubt that there are too many garages anywhere that can reliably maintain these tolerances over that time period. I find it unlikely that this would be offered as a hack if that were necessary. Perhaps it is, but I've found that the team at ChefSteps is typically pretty careful about the advice they provide. This is why I'm asking the question, rather than making an assumption. If it requires performance on par with a fridge to be safe, suggesting a cold garage as an acceptable substitute, particularly without any qualifying detail, seems a bit irresponsible.