Cryovac Smell

[Buckeye1]

So I did a bunch of cooks to take advantage of crummy weather. I was able to cook and freeze a bunch of pork in meal size portions. Two of the three packages had the rotten egg smell. I have heard of this but never experienced it before. All the pork was Smithfield from Costco. Is this common, food tasted good and no one got sick

 

[DougE]

I get a cryovac butt that kind of has a "gamy" or "musky" smell from time to time when I open it up. Long as it is at or not more than a few days past the "sell by" date, I go with it.

 

[SmokinEdge]

As long as it’s not green its good. Once rinsed off that smell goes away for the most part. I rinse all cryo packed meat.

 

[Buckeye1]

They were still in sell by date. Rinsed and dried with paper towels. Everything tasted good just stunk at first.

 

[DougE]

They were still in sell by date. Rinsed and dried with paper towels. Everything tasted good just stunk at first.

Happens sometimes. First time I got that "smell" the thing was still before the sell by date and I keep my meat fridge around 35°F. so it didn't go bad after I got home with it.

 

[chopsaw]

stunk at first.

I agree with both comments above . " Different " is more like it . Stunk is trash . It's hard to get used to , and yes for the most part if you're with in the date range you're good , but not always .

I had a pork butt one time that was the day of . I opened it and it smelled . The longer it was in the air the worse it got . My Daughter finally said " How many times you gonna smell that ? " So it went to the trash . Like said above it will go away , and I rinse all mine as well .
Good thing is you asked .

 

[chopsaw]

I had a pork butt one time that was the day of

I should clarify for the sake of it , that this was a deboned pork butt . So it could be that a dirty knife or hands sped up the spoilage . Not sure , just something to throw into the decision on " the smell " when you open the bag .

 

[SmokinEdge]

I agree with both comments above . " Different " is more like it . Stunk is trash . It's hard to get used to , and yes for the most part if you're with in the date range you're good , but not always .

I had a pork butt one time that was the day of . I opened it and it smelled . The longer it was in the air the worse it got . My Daughter finally said " How many times you gonna smell that ? " So it went to the trash . Like said above it will go away , and I rinse all mine as well .
Good thing is you asked .

Had a pack of ribs, baby backs, one time from Sam’s. We would buy several then separate and vac seal, they were 3 to a package, so we went one per package. Anyhoo, once had one that once opened was WHOA! Stinky. I washed them but didn’t help much. Then seemed to get stronger in off smell as we were processing. Then I remembered that that cryo pack had lost its vacuum before I opened it. This was the only package that stunk. I tossed them. Called Sam’s, they would have replaced them but we are 70 miles from them. So just tossed and now am selective not only of the meat but also the seal on the packaging. It’s a big deal.

 

[DougE]

I should clarify for the sake of it , that this was a deboned pork butt . So it could be that a dirty knife or hands sped up the spoilage . Not sure , just something to throw into the decision on " the smell " when you open the bag .

Yeah, any I got the smell off of were bone in and near sell by dates, so I used them, but they didn't reek, just a, IDK, kind of musky smell.

 

[babydocsmoker]

Had a pack of ribs, baby backs, one time from Sam’s. We would buy several then separate and vac seal, they were 3 to a package, so we went one per package. Anyhoo, once had one that once opened was WHOA! Stinky. I washed them but didn’t help much. Then seemed to get stronger in off smell as we were processing. Then I remembered that that cryo pack had lost its vacuum before I opened it. This was the only package that stunk. I tossed them. Called Sam’s, they would have replaced them but we are 70 miles from them. So just tossed and now am selective not only of the meat but also the seal on the packaging. It’s a big deal.

Appreciate the wisdom here... Good to know!

 

[Makkara]

Usually happened once a month in our supermarket. Most often with whole bone-in pork loins. We took the cryo bag, and the purge outside to the dumpster ASAP. The product was fine, and the aroma disappeared after a few minutes.

 

[gmc2003]

A good cold water rinse will take care of the minor cryovac smell. If it doesn't it may be more than the cryovac your smelling.

 

[Hijack73]

Long time ago I was a meat cutter. Pork is pretty notorious for that smell. Beef can have it too, but it's more odd rather than stinky like pork.

Pork can hold that gassy smell for a bit, but personally for me if I crack one open and it doesn't clear up after about 10 minutes (taken completely out of the cryo) then I will toss it. I don't expect it to smell like fresh mountain air after that 10 minutes, but it shouldn't be strong at all. I've probably tossed some that wasn't bad, but I ain't taking a chance. I don't even like dry aged steak that goes past 21 days or so, let alone funky wet aged pork.


Also - pork butts are .99 at Food Lion and .97 at Harris Teeter this week. No room in my freezer for big chunks but I ground up 9lb 3oz of damn fine country breakfast sausage courtesy of a modified Pop's recipe before work. Might get a couple for BBB tomorrow or Tuesday. Almost no fat caps on any of the 20 or so I looked at yesterday between the 2 stores I stopped at. Always room to tetris in a few packs of bacon and sausage lol.

 

[TH-n-PA]

A few years back I was involved with doing some testing of applying a chemical to the pork loins right before they went into the cryovac.

The loins would dip through the chemical solution, get dumped on the table, the employees would bag them, and they would put them on the roundabout to the cryovac.

All chicks, all fun, and being out there with them for a few hours over a few days we would cut up.

I was basically just standing there watching. I noticed if they didn’t lay the bags right they wouldn’t seal right if the last chick didn’t catch it.

I saw one go by and I fixed it.
A little bit later while I was staring out to space I heard one of them yell, “Hey!”
I looked and she pointed at a bag.
I quickly fixed it.
They laughed and from that point on I was the last one in line to make sure all the bags were laying right.