Black Spots

[BobJ]

Picked up the attached butt today from a local butcher which is doing curb side service so you don't see what you get till you get home. As you can see, there are blackish spots on butt which I've not seen before, anyone else seen such? Smells fine, was not cyro packed, just wrapped in butchers paper

 

[timothy]

I would say that's from injecting, but usually you don't get those from a local " Butcher" .

Tim

 

[JKalchik]

Are those blood spots? Not sure how they'd get distributed, that almost looks like it might have been a live injury.

 

[Brad Olson]

Some sort of bruising would my first thought, too. Bob, if you probe one of the spots with a knife does anything seem unusual?

 

[BobJ]

I'll find out when I thaw it, as it didn't smell I figured it was okay and froze it for later use. I may even see if I can cut them off.

 

[Chris Allingham]

I forwarded this photo to Dr. Jeff Savell at Texas A&M Meat Sciences Dept. He says:

The photo is low res so I cannot blow it up to give a good look, but it looks to be blood splash. Blood splashes are internal hemorrhages usually due to stress before the animal is slaughtered. Unless it is more extensive, it is a quality, not safety issue.

You may find this article helpful:

https://meatupdate.csiro.au/data/MEAT_TECHNOLOGY_UPDATE_97-4.pdf

 

[BobJ]

Thanks all, seems that although unsightly, it's harmless.

I normally resize photos to shrink the file size. Guess there are times I shouldn't.

 

[Chris Allingham]

I normally resize photos to shrink the file size. Guess there are times I shouldn't.

The forum software automatically resizes photos to save on storage space. It won’t let you upload a high resolution photo, but you could link to one hosted elsewhere.

Thanks for posting about this, I learned something new!

 

[JKalchik]

Thanks for posting about this, I learned something new!

Thanks for reaching out to the prof, Chris. While I've seen blood spots in fresh meat before, I've never seen that particular phenomenon. I have to confess to being very curious out it turns out after cooking, I'm wondering about the potential for a pronounced blood/iron flavor.