these ribs have an unpleasant odor...are they bad??


 
T

Tom Raveret

TVWBB Pro
A week before Christmas I bought some ribs. Praire fresh brand (same ones I see at Sams but a local meat monger had em on sale).

When I got them I asked the date on the box so I knew how long I could keep them. The pack date was December 2nd so I have been under the impression I have 45 days with pork to use them by.

This AM I started prepping one of the 2 packs I have left and found the pork to be quite odiferous, musty almost sour smelling.

I washed with vinegar and then rinsed before rubbing up but I could stil tell it had a bit of a smell to it.

Heres the question when does pork go bad?? How do you tell? and do I need to pitch these??

I always purchase and store in a cryovack and also have two shoulders with a packed on date of 11-18 that I didnt get to using yet that I'm wondering about.

Thanks,
 
If water don't wash the smell off then I ain't eating them.

Just me.

I don't want to smell anything but fresh when I am done rinsing meat for the smoker or grill.
 
When I got them I asked the date on the box so I knew how long I could keep them. The pack date was December 2nd so I have been under the impression I have 45 days with pork to use them by.
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Tom, Even if they are in Cryo Vac, holding pork for 45 days is way too long IMO. Beef yes, no problem, but not pork.
 
Better safe than... sick!
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Toss em'!
 
Kevin wrote a lot of posts about this, you don't necessarily have to turf them, see:

here, and here, and here among others.

If the smell goes away shortly after it hits oxygen it's no concern. If it doesn't it may mean spoilage bacteria has taken hold and then it's a quality issue not a safety issue.

It's up to you. I've cooked cryo ribs after a few weeks (had to cancel cook then get back to them) that had a faint odor and were not slimy or discolored. Once they were cooked they were great, no bad taste that we could tell.
 
Toss it.

I had some that were the same as you said (in terms of smell). I should have gone with my gut instict but didn't. After a beautiful smoke... Still smelled wrong. Dumped em' then.

You will put the same work and time into them. Save yourself the heartache
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Tom,

I'm guessing you've never had food poisoning from meat before.

TRUST ME..you don't want it and it's not worth the risk.

Many cooks say "your nose knows".

Follow your instincts...if it smells bad and you have even a small doubt...toss em and go buy fresh.

You don't want yourself or the family/friends getting sick.
 
I'm with Jeff and the other folks on this one. I/we work too hard to build good ribs. If the materials look bad or are giving you doubts - trust yourself. The potential of getting sick overrides and is bad enough, but just from the perspective of the work you will be putting into them warrants chalking up the loss and pitching them.
 
I'm guessing you've never had food poisoning from meat before.

TRUST ME..you don't want it and it's not worth the risk.

Many cooks say "your nose knows".
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I have, and it didn't smell or taste a bit bad. 8 people greedily devoured that bucket of KFC and not one comment or complaint about bad taste or off smell, even when we talked about it afterwards. There were mutiple complaints about the food from that KFC that day according to the health dept and suprisingly even from the restaurant manager ... they wanted us to go in and give stool samples but we declined.

The manager offered us a coupon for a free bucket of chicken. (true story)

I believe based on what I've read here and from experience that you can't smell what gives you food poisoning. Meat starts decomposing pretty much as soon as the animal dies right? It gets contaminated with spoilage bacteria the second it hits the air right? The day before it smells bad it has only one day less of bacteria growth and experienced only one day less of decomposition but you'd cook it, eat it and most likely say 'yum'. So, overnight it turns toxic? I don't buy that at all.

From what Tom described I'd likely cook them (hard to say over the internet ... I can't smell them myself) but I'd have a backup for supper just in case they tasted off out of the smoker. Gotta do what you are confortable with to be sure, I believe you don't need to do it for fear of food poisoning though.
 
I had some that smelled bad. I washed them and they still smelled so I chucked them in the can.

Didn't want to waste my time just in case, or get anyone sick.
 
I'd say chuck them. I shipped 75 pigs this week, that 150 racks of ribs that someone has to buy, so go out and buy a new rack to eat (maybe 2 or 3)
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I'm took a few of he smaller pieces off the smoker and gave them the smell test. I stil notice an odor that is inconsistent with wonderful smell associated with good ribs...so they were stored at appropriate temps but they have been stored too long so I will dump them!!! sadly


since i usually can get the date on the box for ribs/ shoulders and brisket I buy does anyone know the guidelines on many days from the pack date it is apporpriate to store in cryovac??
 
I called seaboard the parent company of the prarie fresh label and they told me that for bone in pork the guidelines are use by 21 days after packing date. This applies to either ribs or shoulders apparently.
 
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