Ammonia smell


 
B

Billy Surf

New member
I smoked a Boston butt for 8 hours today. I've done many of these on my virtual bullet before but this time something smells! When I prepped the meat this morning, no off odor at all. After 5 hours on the smoker, I wrapped it, no smell at all. And another 3 hours later, I pulled on the bone to see if it was done (it was) I started to smelled a strange ammonia smell coming from the cooker. Strong. The pork butt only smells a little bit like ammonia, not as strong. I bough this butt for 10 bucks last night "managers special" expiration date 6/20 (tomorrow). Safe to eat or throw it out?
 
Thankfully you only lost $10 and your time. Eat it and you could lose a lot more. When in doubt, toss it. Being even a little sick just isn’t worth it.
 
Jerry N. said:
Thankfully you only lost $10 and your time. Eat it and you could lose a lot more. When in doubt, toss it. Being even a little sick just isn’t worth it.
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i know. Since I posted an hour ago, I actually had a small bit. SO gooood! Let's see what happens next!
 
Fwiw, just one guy talking here. Cooked in a lot of different restaurants and ammonia is never a good sign. Used to have to open and prep large shipments of beef and pork. If that smell was present we were required to “log it and toss it”.
 
I guess let us know how it turns out! After pouring all that time into it, I'd be tempted to eat it too. Maybe you can use the drippings to clean the house.
 
The OP mentioned a strong odor coming from the cooker, not so much from the butt, so I figured something was wacky and added the link.
I agree if in doubt toss it, but even cryo wrapped meat has an off smell when opening.

Tim
 
OP, I'm a little bit late to the party on this one, but hope you did the right thing and tossed it out. My only other question in regards to the ammonia smell was if you have a Boy Scout aged person in your household. There is thing with Boy Scouts and fires that can end up smelling bad, I won't go into details.
 
My mother was raised on a farm and knew "farm to table" before it was PC. We worked in the same restaurant back in the day and one day, when I was prepping bacon for the weekend, she walked into the kitchen and immediately said, "Pwew! That pig wasn't castrated". I said, "huh?". she said she could smell the strong urine, ammonia smell of a pig that reached puberty. I said whatev... but I just Googled your pork butt problem and found:
"BOAR TAINT":

https://www.boartaint.com/en/what-is-boartaint.aspx

"Boar taint is an unpleasant odor or taste that many consumers would notice if they cooked or ate pork from male pigs that had reached puberty. It has been compared to the smell of urine, feces and sweat. Boar taint most often occurs in pork from male pigs that were not castrated."

FWIW, maybe not bad meat.
 
Tom Jordan said:
My mother was raised on a farm and knew "farm to table" before it was PC. We worked in the same restaurant back in the day and one day, when I was prepping bacon for the weekend, she walked into the kitchen and immediately said, "Pwew! That pig wasn't castrated". I said, "huh?". she said she could smell the strong urine, ammonia smell of a pig that reached puberty. I said whatev... but I just Googled your pork butt problem and found:
"BOAR TAINT":

https://www.boartaint.com/en/what-is-boartaint.aspx

"Boar taint is an unpleasant odor or taste that many consumers would notice if they cooked or ate pork from male pigs that had reached puberty. It has been compared to the smell of urine, feces and sweat. Boar taint most often occurs in pork from male pigs that were not castrated."

FWIW, maybe not bad meat.
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I’ve noticed this a few times myself now with cryo pig meat from a few days old, to meat bought 2 weeks ago. I’m begI got to think this is a real thing.
 
DavidR said:
I’ve noticed this a few times myself now with cryo pig meat from a few days old, to meat bought 2 weeks ago. I’m begI got to think this is a real thing.
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It most certainly is a real thing, but with today's modern pork farms, the chances of a boar making it to market would appear to me to be pretty slim.
 
I’ve never come across this before- in almost 50 years of home and professional cooking. Since the smoker smelled of it and not so much the meat, I’m wondering if there might be a spot on the cooker where some food or drippings lodged yet in a spot that wouldn’t get much over 100-120°. That would explain spoilage bacteria outgrowth (they love temps of 80-120°) and the odor being more on the cooker than the meat. Hmm. Dunno.

It’s worth mentioning that spoilage bacteria have odors but are very rarely pathogenic. Bacteria that cause illness have no odor at all.
 
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