Black discoloration/spots in spare ribs? (unappetizing picture included)

[Luke M]

I smoked some spare ribs today, and when cutting them up I noticed a large black spot in the meat of a couple ribs. Having never seen this before, I immediately took a picture so I could post here:

The discoloration was obviously present in the top rib, but also the rib located directly below it - in fact, for the bottom rib it looked like the black spot had rotted through the entire bone. I threw the entire slab out.

I'm assuming I purchased a rotten slab of ribs from my grocer? The sell-by date was July 5th, and I ended up smoking the ribs for 6 hours. Everything looked good right until when I was about to eat.

 

[Dave Russell]

Man, when I clicked on this thread I thought I was fixing to just see where blood had darkened the meat side of a spare...

...but THAT looks NASTY from here!

Ya didn't notice any off smell at all before cooking? I have no idea...

 

[Matt Sanders]

Was the bone broken? Maybe marrow leaching out into the meat?

 

[Michael G. (Canada Mike)]

Should have taken it back. LET you grocer bear the cost. Too bad you can't charge for your time.

 

[Anthony Martino]

don,t ask me why but I seem to remember something aout the marrow leaking from the end of the rib bone from one rack to the rack below.

 

[TroyRedington]

i've seen that where the rib is broken.

i see it a lot in chicken.

definitely unappetizing, but still edible i'd say

 

[Luke M]

One of the bones next to the discoloration was broken, when I saw it I figured the black stuff was the cause of the bone breakage/degradation and not vice versa. But since I didn't notice any off odors or anything else with the ribs, and the rest of the slab actually looked fine when I cut the ribs up, I think the leaking marrow was the cause. Good to know for next time!

 

[JSMcdowell]

I have seen this once before, but mine was a much smaller spot. I threw out the rib and didn't think anything of it since I haven't seen it since.