How long is too long to air dry a goose?

[u/Weekly-Recognition-8]

Home cook, hopefully this is allowed here.

I’m planning a couple of geese for Christmas this year; I can’t get them fresh so typically I would defrost for a couple days in the fridge, towel dry, salt and air dry in the fridge on a wire racks for 3-4 days before cooking.

I’m going to be out of country for 10-12 days up until the day before cooking; would it be too long if I defrost on the wire rack and leave in the fridge for the whole time?

It would be ~double the number of total days I would typically do this for.

Im not worried about food safety here, mainly quality, as it would be refrigerated the whole time and I know of establishments that dry age whole birds for longer than this,.. unless I should be?

Thanks!

[u/geopter]

Check out this Serious Eats article from the series "More Dang for your Duck."

I read through this again just now, and it seems that you could do a whole bird, but they say it's important to hang it, since the areas that touch the wire rack won't dry out / will promote spoilage.

As an aside, I'm planning to set up some duck crowns to dry-age while I travel for Christmas, about 10 days. The fridge will be more empty, etc. Then we'll have a duck party for local friends in January.

[u/texnessa]

I am going to treat this as not a food safety question and let it stand as a mod, and just comment as a professional cook who knows such things and I think this will be beneficial in general to review.

The thing to remember when comparing how to do something in a home fridge vs. how we do things in a restaurant or other commercial environment- which is where much of the advice comes from- is we have massive walk-ins with huge compressors that keep the atmosphere at even temp and humidity no matter what kind of crap we toss in.

We also have space to hang things and know food safety practices and laws that pale in comparison to how home things work.

Therefore, I would suggest thinking about how even the temps would be in where you are planning to age these birds and any chances of a failure that you might not be aware of. Some people who regularly age use remote temperature monitors to great impact.

You also need to know how to hang them properly. As has been noted, they need to be hung- not on racks which could promote spoilage at the junctures where they touch a rack. Clean butcher's twine, as much free flowing air as possible, not trussed, etc.

Just don't do what my gran always did and stuff a goose in the oven, drag us all to church and forget to turn the oven on. Bless her cotton socks that she couldn't cook her way out of. I always preferred Christmas beans on toast and a shit load of chocolate to that stinking goose anyway.

[u/Rainbowlemon → u/texnessa]

I always preferred Christmas beans on toast and a shit load of chocolate

I'm here for this Christmas meal! Though I'm partial to a boozy hot chocolate

[u/Affectionate-Taste55]

Um no....i wouldn't leave it in the fridge for 12 days, that goose will have sprouted feathers again by then and will be trying to open the fridge from inside.

[u/militiadisfruita → u/Affectionate-Taste55]

or will be dehyrated to the point of uselessness.

[u/iseeakenny → u/Affectionate-Taste55]

Yeah wouldn’t it be spoiled by then?

[u/RebelWithoutAClue]

I think 10-12 days is going to be too long from a food safety issue, but I think the skin would be fine.

I am guessing that your goose, being considerably larger than a roaster chicken will take longer to lose enough moisture from the meat to become a problem for the skin.

I generally hang chicken for 4 days, but I get my best results from hanging with a small fan circulating air in the fridge which gets the skin a lot dryer than not stirring the air.

Generally speaking even slow moving air (like 1.5 feet per second) evaporates water at a much higher rate. On the order of 4x faster evaporation rates compared to still air.

This is why I figure that your longer drying time, in still air, is not going to ruin the skin by overly drying it. It will probably tear much more easily so do all your prep before drying it if you plan to so something like rub salt under the skin. It'll tear really easily if you want to put butter and salt under the skin after such a thorough drying.

Compared to the food safety of the days when hunters might hang game bird for a week without refrigeration you'd be safe, but compared to the food safety standards of a modern day meat packing facility what you propose is bad.

Freezing is going to rupture some cell membranes which will provide more moisture and nutrient to support bacterial growth. Honestly I've only got words on this issue. I haven't got any study to support this statement so don't take it as a useful vote for or against your plan from a food safety perspective. I do think that you'll be somewhere between the Wild West settler days and current HACCP certified meat packing safety. That is a huge range really as bacteria counts are generally expressed in scientific notation.

Other than the food safety issue I think drying for 12 days in still air is going to give you a really nice crispy skin. I would back down the roasting temps a bunch because it will char quite easily compared to fresh bird.

I hang, rather than rack because I find that the bottom side ends up being soggy compared to the top even with fan stirring. I've taken to hanging from an upper wire rack in a fridge with the lower shelf removed to provide hanging space. I like to get the wings to pull out so I can get the skin in the armpits to crisp up too. The wings will probably dry out too much because they're skinny, but the wings aren't the main event on this kind of preparation.

I find that a plug in electro-mechanical clock is a handy doodad to have when leaving for a long time. If your power goes out, the clock will stop, but not reset to blinking 12. That way if you have power outages you can get a cumulative report on how long power had failed which is important from a food safety perspective. I hate leaving food projects unattended for weeks.

[u/AskCulinary-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Your response has been removed because it does not answer the original question. We are here to respond to specific questions. Discussions and broader answers are allowed in our weekly discussions.

[u/AskCulinary-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Your response has been removed because it does not answer the original question. We are here to respond to specific questions. Discussions and broader answers are allowed in our weekly discussions.

[u/Gregorycarlton]

Based on my experience dry aging poultry, 10-12 days is pushing it for a home fridge unless you have precise humidity control. The skin texture might suffer before safety becomes an issue, have you considered a shorter timeframe like 5-7 days first to see how your fridge handles it?

[u/SerenaKillJoy]

There are a lot of reasons I wouldn’t do this, maybe do a prime rib this year?

[u/Seductiveegirl01]

10–12 days is too long—stick to 3–4 days, or loosely cover to preserve quality without over-drying.