Brisket Safe? Sell by date was 2/14/20

[Kyle L]

Have a brisket with a "sell by date" of 2/14/20. It has been in the fridge since then in cryo and was purchased from Kroger. Planning to smoke today, should it still be safe? Smelled fine and wasnt slimey.

 

[Cliff Bartlett]

I can't advise you, but if it were me I'd go for it with the provisions you mentioned, refrigerated and cryo wrapped.

 

[Lynn Dollar]

I bought some baby backs at Chef Store a couple months ago, they were discounted because they'd passed the " sell by " date.

When I cut the cryovac open, I knew they were bad. It was a stench so bad there was no doubt.

But I can't advise ya on your situation.

 

[Dave Mazz]

Many years ago, I was a butcher. Based on my experience, I would dump it in the trash. Not worth risking your time, let alone your health.

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

I bet it's fine.

 

[Bob Correll]

I bet it's fine.

I agree.
Sell by and use by are two different things.

 

[Brad Olson]

I wouldn't use it for brisket tartare, but given the typical final temperature of a brisket and the amount of time it spends above 160 degrees it seems like any potential pathogens would be destroyed.

 

[MartinB]

If it smells and looks
ok, id cook it
If it smells funky.....no

 

[Bob Bass]

Kyle...

How did it turn out ?

 

[Chris Allingham]

Kyle?

I would agree that you should go by smell and if it smells OK, being 18 days past Sell By on a Cryovaced brisket is OK. Heck, Daniel Vaughn ate a 1 year old brisket and survived to tell the tale.

 

[Clint]

Wet aged

 

[BobJ]

Kyle, are you still with us after the brisket?

 

[Chris in Louisiana]

Daniel Vaughn has written about eating brisket that sat in a fridge in its original cryovac as long as 6 months or even a year.

No one got sick, but the brisket was pretty dry.

Brisket that sat for 21 days was great. He said Texas A&M was testing wet-aging brisket out to 35 days for a paper to be written.

Here is the article on the six monther. The Half-Yearling: Judging the effects of extreme wet-aging on brisket.

Below is his pic of fresh brisket (left) and the year old brisket (right)

 

[Bob Bass]

Interesting study.

 

[MartinB]

He said Texas A&M was testing wet-aging brisket out to 35 days for a paper to be written.

The cynic in me suspects that the meat industry would greatly benefit by a study that let them claim longer shelf life for non-frozen meat, while getting a higher price for improved taste and tenderness.

Just saying, many studies are biased towards whos paying for them, so much so that some are outright lies.

 

[Dwain Pannell]

The Kitchen did a story on this the other day. They said what Bob said: sell by and use by are two different things.

 

[Chris in Louisiana]

The cynic in me suspects that the meat industry would greatly benefit by a study that let them claim longer shelf life for non-frozen meat, while getting a higher price for improved taste and tenderness.

Just saying, many studies are biased towards whos paying for them, so much so that some are outright lies.

That is often the case, but it looks like A&M found that aging did not improve brisket that is smoked Texas style.

The study is called Assessment of Postmortem Aging Effects on Texas-style Barbecue Beef Briskets

The conclusion:

Significant aging treatment differences were not found for the objective (WBS force) and subjective (consumer sensory panel) techniques used to assess palatability attributes. Therefore, if smoked briskets are prepared using a Texas-style barbecue method, cooking at low temperatures for long durations of time, no added palatability benefits would be achieved through using product with extended postmortem aging periods.