![]() Thanks to an article in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, I came to learn a bit about the history of serving Peking duck under the critical eye of health code. And restaurants are still serving (and are all allowed to serve) Peking duck. coli indeed double every 20 minutes (I’m sure it’s actually more complex than that), then there is a billion times (2^) more bacteria in a consumed Peking duck than in the food the USDA recommends you throw away.īut people aren’t dying. Peking duck, however, is kept at room temperature for a whopping 12 hours - many times the amount of time recommended by the USDA! If scary bacteria like salmonella and E. To be clear, these guidelines are meant to be foolproof 100% of the time, and there is certainly wiggle room at the edges of the temperature and time guidelines. Most sources suggest that food left in the danger zone for more than 2 hours (according to the USDA) or 4 hours (according to the CDE) should be discarded. Bacteria grow most rapidly in the range of temperatures between 40 ☏ and 140 ☏, doubling in number in as little as 20 minutes. Leaving food out too long at room temperature can cause bacteria (such as Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella Enteritidis, Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Campylobacter) to grow to dangerous levels that can cause illness. The safety code doesn’t go into detail on the reasoning, so let’s go a little deeper. Okay, so the danger zone is real - codified by law. Typically harmful microorganisms can grow to levels high enough to cause illness within four hours therefore specific regulations in the California Retail Food Code related to the prevention of a food borne illness focus on reducing the amount of time foods remain in the TDZ. The less time foods spend in the TDZ, the less time harmful microorganisms have to grow. This temperature range is also known as the Temperature Danger Zone (TDZ). Time and temperature are two of the most important factors to control in the prevention of a food borne illness… Harmful microorganisms grow well in foods held between temperatures of 41 degrees Fahrenheit and 135 degrees Fahrenheit. To understand why this is so perplexing, let’s dive into the California Health and Safety Code. And for good reason! There’s just no way that the restaurants serving Peking duck in San Francisco are blatantly disregarding health code. I’m certified to handle food in California, and I know it is simply not legal to serve meat that has been left uncooked at ambient temperature overnight. ![]() They sell Peking duck in multiple restaurants where I live, San Francisco. The duck is hung at room temperature overnight? You mean some uncooked poultry is kept in the temperature danger zone for like, an order of magnitude longer than it’s supposed to be there? And people eat this without getting sick?!Ĭall me skeptical, but when I read the recipe, I straight up did not believe it. The duck is hung at room temperature overnight to dry out the skin. The duck is propped up, and boiling water is poured onto its skin until the skin tightens.Ĥ. Air is pumped into the crevice between the duck’s skin and meat, allowing the skin to balloon and separate from the meat.ģ. ![]() Peking duck’s impossibly crispy skin is the result of a multi-day cooking process. Though Peking ducks were originally prepared with a black-feathered breed of duck from elsewhere in China, ironically, Peking duck is now usually prepared with American pekin duck. ![]() And yet the meat beneath the skin is tender, rich, and slightly sweet. Known for its crispy, amber skin, a Peking duck’s skin is so brittle that it shatters like an eggshell. ![]() Peking duck, which also owes its name to a romanized name for Beijing, is a roast duck preparation that originated in Beijing. Years later, it’s a distinctly different from the breeds native to China. The breed arrived in America in 1873 after a businessman successfully transported 9 prized ducks from Peking (a romanized name for Beijing, China). Meaty and fast-growing, the pekin breed is perfect for a honey-roasted duck recipe I’m testing. You see, pekin duck is a white-feathered breed of American mallard duck. It all started when I was researching pekin duck recipes. ![]()
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