Using Slightly Spoiled Meat

[knob221]

I am really heart broken here. I got my first elk last weekend solo. I didnt have time to process until the following weekend so I kept the meat in coolers on frozen water jugs and bottles for the work week. I started getting at it Saturday and all the meat had this peppery type smell. Come Sunday most of it is smelling slightly sour, a bit like milk. Quarters were on the bone. A lot of the outer edges had 1/16" to 1/4" of meat that was pinkish grayish.

I trimmed off all the pinkish grayish bits and processed as I would have. The meat all definitely has that peppery odor, some a little sour.

Whar do I do? Is it still ok to eat? What about if cooked well done? Can I grind it and cook it well done? Sausage may mask any off flavor.

 

[Azone]

Have you tried any?

 

[Wrench]

I can't comment on smell as your description is not something I have experienced....but I did hang a buck for a week in September after an accident kept me away from home. When I was able to tend to my meat it looked like shag carpet.

It was fantastic to eat.

I hang meat in warmer temps and longer than many and haven't had a problem. Wet meat can cause the color you have as can spoiling.

I will suggest bagging and ensuring the hip sockets get cool before you lock it down.

And lastly, a cooler wouldn't be on my list of choices if I could hang it whole or in bags.

 

[Snowwolfe]

I am really heart broken here. I got my first elk last weekend solo. I didnt have time to process until the following weekend so I kept the meat in coolers on frozen water jugs and bottles for the work week. I started getting at it Saturday and all the meat had this peppery type smell. Come Sunday most of it is smelling slightly sour, a bit like milk. Quarters were on the bone. A lot of the outer edges had 1/16" to 1/4" of meat that was pinkish grayish.

I trimmed off all the pinkish grayish bits and processed as I would have. The meat all definitely has that peppery odor, some a little sour.

Whar do I do? Is it still ok to eat? What about if cooked well done? Can I grind it and cook it well done? Sausage may mask any off flavor.

First thing to do is cook some up and taste it. If you like it you are good to go, as long as it doesn't make you sick.
Some people like aged, some rotten, some fresh. Some like to bury fish heads in the dirt for a week.
Spoilage of food is when a certain food is unacceptable to a given population.

 

[SloppyJ]

What was the ambient temp? I age all of my deer in a cooler above a bed of ice for one week before processing. The grey part you describe is where the meat contacted the ice/water. I've only gotten the smell when I didn't do a good job of keeping it cold.

You'll have to test a piece but short of that, I don't think anyone can tell you. I'd error on the side of caution. The meat could have been dirty somehow (guts?) And that cooler wasn't cold enough and it started spreading.

 

[butcherboy]

A lot of things to consider here but without seeing pictures of it and smelling the meat then it’s difficult to say. I’ve never heard or experienced a pepper smell. Spoiled meat does not smell like spoiled milk either. Once you smell spoiled meat there is no mistaking that smell again. The discoloration is pretty
normal for aging it in a cooler with no air circulation. The smell might come from it being in the cooler without having anyway to let heat or air out. Also, it’s never a good idea to put hot meat into a cooler. Always cool it first until the internal temp around the bone is cool. Using frozen water jugs is a good way to keep the meat cool without worrying about it sitting in water.


Best advice I can give without seeing it or smelling it is to taste it. Just a little bit will let you know. If you are concerned about it and it doesn’t taste good then discard it. Cooking it well done will not hide the flavor and there would be a lot of bacteria there to kill. Good luck and use your best judgment.

 

[JRay]

Like others have said, do the taste test and adjust from there. If it tastes off, turning the whole thing to grind of various flavorings just might salvage your take.

My brother recovered a deer after it had been dead for a few hours and a bear and lion had started to eat on it. He salvaged 3/4 of that animal and made sausage out of it. The result was very edible.

Also, getting the bones out asap after the kill, will help the meat cool quicker. No reason to pack that extra weight anyway.

 

[hereinaz]

Leave some out in the heat for a couple days and you will know what rotten meat smells like.

What you say doesn’t necessarily bother me. Meat always has a “funky smell” that makes me wonder, but that is me being nervous. A friend had all his meat get s coat of white fuzz but trimmed and ate it all up. I didn’t grow up hunting or dealing with meat. Don’t freak out, a little smell is normal.

If there was always ice in the cooler, I doubt it is all rotten. Cool some and test it, I agree.

 

[knob221]

Yeah so I guess I didnt clarify how the issue developed. I'm pretty sure the meat was cooled down fast enough. It was below freezing the whole time and although it took me all day to field process, meat cooled down immediately once it was off the carcass. I hung the meat in sub freezing temps overnight before driving home with it in the cooler.

I live in a place where it is humid/rainy and well above freezing, so the only option for me was to keep the meat in the coolers or freeze the quarters/loose meat bag. In retrospect, I should have frozen.

There was ice in the coolers all week long. I even split the meat into 3 different coolers and rotated it every day or 2 to ensure even cooling around the meat. I dont think temperature was the real issue here, although the cooler approach wasnt perfect and I'm sure if it could have been even colder in the coolers or had I rotated meat multiple times daily it would have helped.

The real issue from what I could tell was that the meat never got dry and there was no airflow in the coolers. The spoiling was similar to what happens in the fridge when you leave meat in there for a little too long.

Anyways, after a healthy trim around the edges most of the meat ended up being pretty red and odorless still. It was just the parts near the surface that were starting to go. Unfortunately I didnt figure this out until day 2 of processing, so I'm a bit nervous about those grind bags from day 1. I have been eating red roasts and steaks with no issue. I ate an eye round which was pretty pink all the way through with some gray splotches and maybe it was just in my head but my stomach felt acidic for the rest of the night. No real illness though. We will see about the grind later.

Thanks for the input.

Takeaways:
-If keeping meat thawed for more than 3 days after harvest, dryness and airflow are just as important as cold.

-Consider freezing instead of keeping it in a cooler if more than 3 or 4 days. Losing meat altogether is way worse than losing texture/flavor quality to freezing unthawing and refreezing.

-Process the loose meat bag ASAP. The loose meat bag wont really dry out, and besides, you dont want a rind to form on all those small, fully exposed cuts anways.

-Call ALL the butchers in the area. I had called a few earlier this year and nobody would let me hang meat. That is until after this whole fiasco when I found out about a butcher 45 mins south of me that would let me hang meat at a very reasonable cost. Now I know.

 

[IdahoBeav]

It is worth keeping an extra refrigerator or two in the garage/shop for this purpose. If I am ever going to keep an animal on ice, the meat is wrapped in plastic to keep it dry, and I only do it for short periods of time for travel in hot weather. This year I killed in the morning on a day with a high in the 70s, stored the meat in the shade and through the night (lows in the mid 40s), drove it to cold storage the following morning, picked it up 3 days later and let it ride open air in my pickup bed (mid 60s temps) for the 4 hour drive home, and then I stored it in a refrigerator until a date that was 2 weeks after the kill date. It turned out great.

 

[Ucsdryder]

A lot of things to consider here but without seeing pictures of it and smelling the meat then it’s difficult to say. I’ve never heard or experienced a pepper smell. Spoiled meat does not smell like spoiled milk either. Once you smell spoiled meat there is no mistaking that smell again. The discoloration is pretty
normal for aging it in a cooler with no air circulation. The smell might come from it being in the cooler without having anyway to let heat or air out. Also, it’s never a good idea to put hot meat into a cooler. Always cool it first until the internal temp around the bone is cool. Using frozen water jugs is a good way to keep the meat cool without worrying about it sitting in water.


Best advice I can give without seeing it or smelling it is to taste it. Just a little bit will let you know. If you are concerned about it and it doesn’t taste good then discard it. Cooking it well done will not hide the flavor and there would be a lot of bacteria there to kill. Good luck and use your best judgment.

I did something similar a couple weeks ago. My wife killed a buck. Usually I put the quarters in a bed of ice with ice on top but decided to use frozen jugs this time because people talked about it being superior because there’s no graying of meat.

About 10 days later I smelled something funky but not funky enough to think it was an issue. 2 days later I realized it was turning. I trimmed everything that had a slightly funky smell, but got to the neck roasts at the end. I took a big whiff about .5” from it and about threw up. The deer was killed in the snow, night temps almost froze it and it went into the ice chests with ice the next day. No clue how it turned. I sealed up the “good” meat and put a question mark on it just in case it needs to become dog food. I sure hope it doesn’t, it was a young buck rolling in fat!

I agree, once you smell rotten you don’t forget it. I’m going back to the bed of ice. I’d rather have a little bit of brownish meat and know everything is COLD!

 

[Jethro]

Yeah so I guess I didnt clarify how the issue developed. I'm pretty sure the meat was cooled down fast enough. It was below freezing the whole time and although it took me all day to field process, meat cooled down immediately once it was off the carcass. I hung the meat in sub freezing temps overnight before driving home with it in the cooler.

I live in a place where it is humid/rainy and well above freezing, so the only option for me was to keep the meat in the coolers or freeze the quarters/loose meat bag. In retrospect, I should have frozen.

There was ice in the coolers all week long. I even split the meat into 3 different coolers and rotated it every day or 2 to ensure even cooling around the meat. I dont think temperature was the real issue here, although the cooler approach wasnt perfect and I'm sure if it could have been even colder in the coolers or had I rotated meat multiple times daily it would have helped.

The real issue from what I could tell was that the meat never got dry and there was no airflow in the coolers. The spoiling was similar to what happens in the fridge when you leave meat in there for a little too long.

Anyways, after a healthy trim around the edges most of the meat ended up being pretty red and odorless still. It was just the parts near the surface that were starting to go. Unfortunately I didnt figure this out until day 2 of processing, so I'm a bit nervous about those grind bags from day 1. I have been eating red roasts and steaks with no issue. I ate an eye round which was pretty pink all the way through with some gray splotches and maybe it was just in my head but my stomach felt acidic for the rest of the night. No real illness though. We will see about the grind later.

Thanks for the input.

Takeaways:
-If keeping meat thawed for more than 3 days after harvest, dryness and airflow are just as important as cold.

-Consider freezing instead of keeping it in a cooler if more than 3 or 4 days. Losing meat altogether is way worse than losing texture/flavor quality to freezing unthawing and refreezing.

-Process the loose meat bag ASAP. The loose meat bag wont really dry out, and besides, you dont want a rind to form on all those small, fully exposed cuts anways.

-Call ALL the butchers in the area. I had called a few earlier this year and nobody would let me hang meat. That is until after this whole fiasco when I found out about a butcher 45 mins south of me that would let me hang meat at a very reasonable cost. Now I know.

Honestly, it sounds like you are describing discolored meat from wet ice, not "spoiled" meat. I've encountered it a few times. Would describe the outer layer as faded pink. I trimmed most of that although I know I probably did not have to. Unsightly yes, unhealthy no.

The wet age guys all say there is discoloration.

 

[knob221]

It is worth keeping an extra refrigerator or two in the garage/shop for this purpose. If I am ever going to keep an animal on ice, the meat is wrapped in plastic to keep it dry, and I only do it for short periods of time for travel in hot weather. This year I killed in the morning on a day with a high in the 70s, stored the meat in the shade and through the night (lows in the mid 40s), drove it to cold storage the following morning, picked it up 3 days later and let it ride in my pickup bed (mid 60s temps) for the 4 hour drive home, and then I stored it in a refrigerator until a date that was 2 weeks after the kill date. It turned out great.

How does wrapping it in plastic keep it dry? I would think the blood would seep out and the plastic would then therefore keep it wet.

Also, I am reading that you had it hung in cold storage for 3 days? Did a rind form? I am thinking that rind might be the key component to keep for prolonged periods below freezing.

 

[knob221]

Honestly, it sounds like you are describing discolored meat from wet ice, not "spoiled" meat. I've encountered it a few times. Would describe the outer layer as faded pink. I trimmed most of that although I know I probably did not have to. Unsightly yes, unhealthy no.

The wet age guys all say there is discoloration.

I'm sure some of it was okay, but there was also a sour milk smell like meat gets in the fridge when its been in there too long. It was impossible to tell where it was coming from since it was all been mingling together. My nose told me something was wrong, but I used my eyes as a guide for trimming. Again, I'm sure some of it is okay. Now that it has been seperated and frozen, when I unthaw and dry it off I can tell if that piece has an odor or not.

 

[IdahoBeav]

How does wrapping it in plastic keep it dry? I would think the blood would seep out and the plastic would then therefore keep it wet.

Also, I am reading that you had it hung in cold storage for 3 days? Did a rind form? I am thinking that rind might be the key component to keep for prolonged periods below freezing.

"Keeping it dry" is probably not the best wording. Yes, it does lose some of the muscle blood, but I would rather the meat soak in a little of that than wet ice/water.

Yes, a little of a rind did form in the 3 days, and after 2 weeks, it was a good hard layer, but this is good, as you alluded to, it insulates and protects the meat. Some people age cure game meat, let it hang in cold temps for months and then cut in and eat without cooking.

Moderate temps don't worry me too much, but moderate temps and direct sunlight is bad.

 

[Jethro]

I'm sure some of it was okay, but there was also a sour milk smell like meat gets in the fridge when its been in there too long. It was impossible to tell where it was coming from since it was all been mingling together. My nose told me something was wrong, but I used my eyes as a guide for trimming. Again, I'm sure some of it is okay. Now that it has been seperated and frozen, when I unthaw and dry it off I can tell if that piece has an odor or not.

I understand. I'll admit if I question it, I usually toss it. Although I'm not familiar with the smell meat gets when in fridge too long. My wife will throw something out long before its actually bad. Hell if I don't eat a pound of lunch meat in 3 days, she's telling me its no good. Sometimes I argue, sometimes it ain't worth it.

 

[hereinaz]

There are two prerequisite conditions that contribute to meat going bad because of yeast, fungus, mold, and bacteria growth--wet AND warm. There is one condition flesh to rot, and that is warm. Those are the two things that are potentially happening inside the cooler.

Bacteria and such can only grow if the meat wet AND warm. Also, where is the bacteria growing? It's only on the outside of our ungulates. That's why we can eat rare red meat, the outside is cooked to kill bacteria and the inside has been "sealed away". We can't eat "rare" chicken, fish, pig, bear, etc. because there is bacteria, worms, or other nasties on the inside of the flesh.

Meat rots if there is warmth allowing the cells to breakdown. That's "bone spoil" and straight up rotting that will make you puke. We all know the smell of rot. Rotting starts about 4 minutes after death. The blood stops pumping and cells start to build up carbon dioxide, which is acidic. Cell membranes start to burst and the flesh breaks down without bacteria involvement. I didn't find anything on deer with a quick google search, but this is all about human decomposition... https://www.aftermath.com/content/human-decomposition/

Besides rot, there is also flies, mold, yeast, fungus, and bacteria that contribute to the decay.

To prevent nasties from growing on meat, all you have to do is make sure meat isn't both wet AND warm. Meat can be cold and wet, so sitting in ice water it will marinate in the water, drain color, and change texture, but that weird colored meat isn't spoiled. If the water isn't changed it can make the meat taste gamey and pull out flavor, so if you can, avoid that for steaks, but you can put it in burger.

Or, meat can be "warm" and dry, which is why we like to get it hung up and a crust on it ASAP in the field. We can't always get it cold, but if it is warm that can make it dry. That dry meat is also "edible" for a while, but because it has gotten crusty and usually has hair and other contaminants, we cut it off and throw it out.

If it is a warm wet climate where you have rain and it is hard to get it to dry, you can also inhibit bacteria growth by putting salt, pepper, citric acid, etc. on the outside of the meat to make the surface less hospitable.

To prevent rot, you just need to keep it below whatever that temperature that is, to stop or slow down the process. If you can get it cooled down from body temp fast enough, ambient temp in the shade for a day is enough, and hanging in a garage where it is cool is sufficient to stop the cells from breaking down because it arrests the cellular breakdown. I think that the dry aging process might allow some of that cellular breakdown to occur and to let the meat dry. I don't know that aging wild game meat for an extended time has the same benefit of aging beef cows with all the fat and moisture in them.

The problem with meat on top of ice or frozen jugs in a cooler is that the direct sunlight or hot temps is enough to penetrate the insulation and heat the air underneath the lid and above the ice enough for bacteria to grow and the cellular decay to continue in meat that isn't actually in the ice. I didn't realize this, I though the cooler kept everything cool inside.

Test it out, put your cooler in the sun, and then lift the lid and feel the inside/bottom of the lid. It can be very hot here in AZ, so I know what that is like. And, I let some meat get away from me like this, even though there was always ice in the cooler. I spent way too much time thinking about how it happened, lol.

On the other hand, I have kept meat directly in ice water and covered with ice for a couple weeks. And, have kept processed meat in ziploc baggies in ice for a few days as well. As long as all the meat was covered with ice or in the icy cold water, it was good. A couple times there was only a few pieces of ice left, but the water was still very cold. I had no spoilage.

Cool air sinks, so the ice can stay frozen and cold, but if the meat is not covered with ice on top, then wet meat is exposed in the much warmer air at the top of the cooler. Strangely, the meat acts as an insulator to keep the ice cold more than the ice acts to keep the meat cold...

A cooler is very inefficient, so it can be warm on top and icy cold at the bottom. Its why we reach for the cold beverage in the ice water and avoid the barely cold cans on top of the cooler.

When that happens you (I) have created a situation where parts of the meat can warm up enough for bacteria to grow and meat can begin to slowly rot.

If meat is rotten so much to spoil it and definitely make you sick, you should be able to smell it if you cut off the crusty nasty exterior. It will smell bad on the outside and inside. It can also have a different texture. Flesh basically rots from the inside out because that is where it is the warmest and the cycle of cell degeneration is accelerating. No amount of cooking will make it edible. Humans are specially evolved to have a sensitivity and repulsion to the smell of rotting flesh and very high disgust response for a reason...

If the meat has not rotted, then with a little bacteria/yeast/etc. growth, you should be ok with cutting it off and cooking the meat. Remember, the bacteria can only grow on the outside. I'm no expert on all the possible types of bacteria and such, so do your own research if you have cultured up a nasty rainbow of fuzz. But, a friend had a refrigerator go down, and he had some of the white growth going but no rotting. We trimmed it up, froze it and our families at it up.

When it doubt, throw it out. But, a little information can help you make a little better decision than just straight up fear.

 

[Jn78]

Yeah so I guess I didnt clarify how the issue developed. I'm pretty sure the meat was cooled down fast enough. It was below freezing the whole time and although it took me all day to field process, meat cooled down immediately once it was off the carcass. I hung the meat in sub freezing temps overnight before driving home with it in the cooler.

I live in a place where it is humid/rainy and well above freezing, so the only option for me was to keep the meat in the coolers or freeze the quarters/loose meat bag. In retrospect, I should have frozen.

There was ice in the coolers all week long. I even split the meat into 3 different coolers and rotated it every day or 2 to ensure even cooling around the meat. I dont think temperature was the real issue here, although the cooler approach wasnt perfect and I'm sure if it could have been even colder in the coolers or had I rotated meat multiple times daily it would have helped.

The real issue from what I could tell was that the meat never got dry and there was no airflow in the coolers. The spoiling was similar to what happens in the fridge when you leave meat in there for a little too long.

Anyways, after a healthy trim around the edges most of the meat ended up being pretty red and odorless still. It was just the parts near the surface that were starting to go. Unfortunately I didnt figure this out until day 2 of processing, so I'm a bit nervous about those grind bags from day 1. I have been eating red roasts and steaks with no issue. I ate an eye round which was pretty pink all the way through with some gray splotches and maybe it was just in my head but my stomach felt acidic for the rest of the night. No real illness though. We will see about the grind later.

Thanks for the input.

Takeaways:
-If keeping meat thawed for more than 3 days after harvest, dryness and airflow are just as important as cold.

-Consider freezing instead of keeping it in a cooler if more than 3 or 4 days. Losing meat altogether is way worse than losing texture/flavor quality to freezing unthawing and refreezing.

-Process the loose meat bag ASAP. The loose meat bag wont really dry out, and besides, you dont want a rind to form on all those small, fully exposed cuts anways.

-Call ALL the butchers in the area. I had called a few earlier this year and nobody would let me hang meat. That is until after this whole fiasco when I found out about a butcher 45 mins south of me that would let me hang meat at a very reasonable cost. Now I know.

Not sure what you mean by it took all day to field process your elk, but that may be your issue. If it took all day to find your elk and it was laying dead in the sun, you might get some soured meat around the ball joints and the tenderloins.

 

[knob221]

Not sure what you mean by it took all day to field process your elk, but that may be your issue. If it took all day to find your elk and it was laying dead in the sun, you might get some soured meat around the ball joints and the tenderloins.

Nope. In the shade all day between 20 and about 40 degrees at the very warmest. Just took me a while to get all the meat off since it was my third time ever doing this on an animal and I was alone. Meat was cooled off in time as far as I can tell.

 

[WyoKid]

Hereinaz has the best explanation of the relationship between all the major factors for keeping meat from rotting. He must either be a physician or forensic coroner . His theory on uneven cooling in coolers is correct. Meat covered in layers of ice are chilled more evenly in a cooler, and meat hung to dry and crust is dry aging.