Can I eat this? Peking Duck edition.
July 28, 2014 2:58 AM   Subscribe

I have a 5 day old carcass of a cooked duck in a plastic bag in the fridge.

Five nights ago I had dinner in posh chinese restaurant with a client. Naturaly Peking Duck was served. I got to keep the carcas of the half eaten duck afterwards.
Later that night i fell sick (not food related) and I was out of action for 4 days.
Now I can stand again i need to decide what to do with the poor thing. Can i eat the rest of the meat? Can i boil the bones and make soup? Do i just bin it?
I cannot tell if its gone off or not, my sense of taste and of smell are messed up by meds.
posted by thegirlwiththehat to Food & Drink (15 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I wouldn't risk it. Cooked duck is usually ok for 3 or 4 days in the fridge, but only if you refrigerate it within a couple of hours of cooking. It sounds like your duck probably sat around at room temperature for a good few hours during your meal and afterwards, which will have significantly reduced the fridge life. Personally, I would have considered using the carcass the next day, but no later than that.
posted by pipeski at 3:19 AM on July 28, 2014


I think that duck is at the far end of the safe range, if not beyond. I would probably still eat it, but I would not recommend you to eat it because your immune system is probably still slightly compromised.
posted by pianissimo at 3:25 AM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I eat re-heated rice. I eat bacon or pie that's been out on a counter overnight. I would re-heat and eat the food that hasn't quite cooked properly in a slow clooker when you come home from work. Most of the Can I Eat This questions on here make me laugh about first-world problems. Please throw that duck away AT ONCE.
posted by glasseyes at 3:46 AM on July 28, 2014 [10 favorites]


2nd'ing Glasseyes.

I too have far ranging "should I eat it" boundaries, but 5 days on the bone is too much.

No, it's gone, sorry.
posted by MarvinJ at 4:04 AM on July 28, 2014


No. Nope. No way. Bin it and wash your hands.
posted by evil_esto at 4:15 AM on July 28, 2014


I will eat room-temperature cottage cheese after a night out. I wouldn't feed what you have described to a cat I was indifferent towards.
posted by evil_esto at 4:19 AM on July 28, 2014 [6 favorites]


Best answer: If your sense of taste were all right, I would suggest trying a small piece. Peking Duck is cooked pretty completely - I used to buy deli Peking Duck back in my (duck) salad days in Beijing and let it sit around and then eat it. But since you will have trouble telling if it's actually gone off, I think you'll have to toss it. A pity.
posted by Frowner at 4:56 AM on July 28, 2014


Too Bad. I love duck. But no dear. Certainly not.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 5:47 AM on July 28, 2014


Response by poster: I have, with regret but with sanity, disposed of the poor beast
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 5:53 AM on July 28, 2014 [4 favorites]


That's too bad. I don't see any reason why you couldn't have used it in a broth or stock. The Peking duck technique cooks the bird sufficiently to be effectively sterile, so unless it smelled obviously "off" it seems unlikely that it had spoiled. Regardless, simmering the carcass in liquid for several hours to make a stock most certainly would kill anything that might possibly be growing in it. Then, all you really need to think about is whether the stock tastes okay. If it does, eat it. If it doesn't, chuck it.
posted by slkinsey at 6:46 AM on July 28, 2014 [2 favorites]


I was going to say they give you the bones to use in stock. Maybe next time!
posted by pravit at 7:12 AM on July 28, 2014


Sorry to hear you had to toss it out. I love duck more than anything but would not have eaten that. Also, once my mind is convinced that something is off, I can't enjoy it anyway.
posted by futureisunwritten at 7:48 AM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Glad you threw it away. I've gotten food poisoning from duck, it included wonderful hallucinations of the walls melting & the floor trying to eat me as I crawled to the toilet to puke & poop my eyeballs out. I still have nightmares about it 10 years later.
posted by wwax at 8:26 AM on July 28, 2014


Boiling it as stock for hours might kill any bacteria you care to name (though actually, you'd have to check whether it killed all spores as well) but any toxins they'd been sitting around merrily producing for five days might be heat stable enough to make you very unhappy.

I'd possibly eat 5 day leftovers if I knew exactly what had happened to them and I knew I'd cooled them promptly and kept at a good temperature. This doesn't apply to restaurant food.
posted by kadia_a at 11:41 AM on July 28, 2014


Apparently I'm the only one who would have eaten it and not even thought about asking. I am surprised! But I'm glad you did what made you most comfortable, OP.
posted by spelunkingplato at 4:27 PM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


« Older How to hide a pair of HDTV wall mounts?   |   Who was Barry Wom's (The Rutles) mystery bride? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.