# How long to leave in fridge???



## SequimHunter01

Before I ask this question I'd like to say that it's pretty obvious if you forget to freeze duck/goose meat that you don't plan on using right away, and leave it in the fridge; you can tell by the smell if it's still good or not. However, I was curious what everyone has found in their own opinions on how long duck/goose meat can stay out in the fridge before it goes bad? Do you think that 3 days, 5 days, 7 days, etc.... is too long if you haven't froze it? Thanks for your input.


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## Meats

I would say anything over 5 days may be pushing it.It will also depend on how shot up(blood shot) the meat is. The bad odor you sometomes get is the blood smelling rancid not actually the meat going bad.
The cleaner you have it the longer it will last before freezing.


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## Coho

I've had whole ducks 5 days in not shot to ..sh...pieces. With pieces of say breast meat it would depend. Is it in a brine? etc. If it has already been washed a couple times and is back in brine/vinegar solution maybe a week.


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## Toledo

I have gone a week plenty of times and never noticed a problem. I use 7 days as a rule on anything I think could go bad.


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## SeniorCoot

Smell got nada to do with it--Rancid ,putrid meat won't hurt you unless patogens for disease are also present-- Botulisum, Salmonella, Strep, do not alter smell of food at all- I agree with 5 day limit--


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## BuckeyeDuck

I actually age mine in the fridge, guts intact for a week or even longer. Now before you go get the "puke" smiley out, don't knock it till you've tried it. I used to be all freaked out about cleaning them and freezing them right away till I read a couple articles on game ageing and tried a few controlled experiments last year. I now age my birds whole, breast-up, in the back of the fridge till the next weekends hunt. I ate a late season Mallard last year aged for 12 days pan-seared with some red wine and pepper sauce, you would have sworn was good beef. Geese are especially good to age too. Like was mentioned before, if it's shot up it might not due well and always give it the smell test.

Here's a link to one of the articles and an excerpt about doves (would apply to waterfowl as well).

http://www.tpwmagazine.com/archive/2005/nov/ed_3/



> Witness to a Hanging
> Occasionally I have the opportunity to enjoy the company of San Antonians Bill and Pam Shown, who spend some of their getaway time in my hometown of Marathon. Bill is an avid dove hunter as well as an artist on the BBQ grill. One evening, I was invited over to their rental cottage, where Bill was busy with shish kebobs. The bobs were stacked with chunks of red onion, bell pepper, tomatoes and medallions of what I assumed to be filet mignon. The meat was of a deliciously dark red color and a deep rich flavor that rivaled some of the choicest cuts of beef I had ever tasted. Once I polished off more than my share of skewers, our discussion turned to the onset of the west Texas dove hunting season. In passing, I mentioned my reservations when it came to the taste of dove meat.
> 
> You didnt like the kebobs? Bill asked.
> 
> Of course I did, I replied. Who doesnt like beef fillets!
> 
> Those werent beef fillets, Bill explained. They were white-wing dove breasts.
> 
> Jaws agape, I made my way back to the grill and filled my open mouth with another helping.
> 
> Bill swears by his dove-aging routine and says he has aged the little game birds the same way for the last 20 years using the following technique: Immediately after retrieving his downed birds, he stores them in his game bag. Once hes hit his limit, Bill loads his birds into a gallon-sized zip-lock baggie (a gallon-sized baggie holds exactly one limit of birds) and pitches the baggie into the ice chest. While everyone else on the days shoot is busy cleaning their birds, Bill relaxes with a refreshment and Topo Chico, shaken not stirred. (Bills says the bubbles in Topo Chico, a mineral water from Mexico, are strong enough to clean your teeth.) Once Bill returns home, he marks the baggie with the days date and throws the bag of birds  heads and feathers and guts intact  into the back of the refrigerator, where they stay for up to two weeks. Sometime during or slightly before day 14, Bill spreads a newspaper out on the coffee table, turns on his favorite sports channel, and proceeds to pick, snip and gut the birds, then washes them, cooks a few for dinner and stuffs the rest into quart-sized zip-lock baggies (eight per bag is a perfect fit). Then he fills the bags with water, seals them and pops them into the freezer. While biologists and health professionals might blanch at Bills brazen disregard for meat processing standards, they would be hard pressed to argue with his culinary results.


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## kahunna

I use the smell/slime test for meat. For whole birds, I agree with BuckeyeDuck! I age all my whole birds for one to three weeks in a fridge, depending on the size of the bird (smaller=less aging time). I breast the birds after aging to eliminate the guts contamination issues. Best tasting and textured birds you will ever eat!


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## kahunna

Just to reinforce the point of aging waterfowl to those who have not tried the process... Last night I grilled (rareto medium rare) six wood duck breasts and two pintail breasts that had been aged whole in my refridgerator (it is a secondary fridge in the basement - not opened many times during a day) since October 7th and 9th. Their texture and taste was tremendous! Used a little garlic and olive oil for four of the breasts, and some "Oy Vey" Chinese marinade/bbq sauce (just for some variety) for the other four breasts. I thought I had died and gone to heaven for sure!


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## SeniorCoot

Ageing--is to me, different than storing inFridge and is managed break down- like beef,ducks,pheasant,and geese etc-all take on a mor eprounced flavor and get more tender the longer thery are aged-heck the Brits and many Euro's hang game birds till the fall of of hanger--not me but a few days to a week is fino.


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## rickmag

like the last few posters I age my birds 7-10 in the fridge before I breast them, I think that this makes them much better on the table.


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## kahunna

Temperatures where I live can vary between forty and eighty degrees this time of the year, thus the need for a controlled environment (refridgerator), like commercial concerns use, to age birds. You can vary the temp settings on the fridge to reach the optimum temp for aging going in.


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