Welcome to the EGGhead Forum - a great place to visit and packed with tips and EGGspert advice! You can also join the conversation and get more information and amazing kamado recipes by following Big Green Egg to Experience our World of Flavor™ at:
Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Pinterest  |  Youtube  |  Vimeo
Share your photos by tagging us and using the hashtag #BigGreenEgg.

Want to see how the EGG is made? Click to Watch

Pork loin smells like rotten eggs, is it bad?

13»

Comments

  • BGE4Life
    BGE4Life Posts: 34
    I have had the same smell and cooked it anyways and it was good. Remember in the US the only food item requiring an expiration date is baby formula.  Every other item uses different methods including born on, best by, freeze by, freshest by, and others.  I have also traveled around the world and have seen chickens in 100 degree weather unrefrigerated  cooked and served to customers.  I believe it was probably ok to eat.  Dates don't mean that miraculously on that date they are bad.
  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    Stike agreed if you find it unappetizing and it makes you vomit, you shouldn't eat it. 

    If the smell of limburger makes you vomit, it doesn't necessarily mean that limburger isn't safe to eat.  Point is, a sulfur smell is often a normal byproduct of the cryovac process and to use common sense to evaluate if that food is safe - use CSI common sense - is the packaging breached?  Is there visible biological activity (insects, worms, mold, fungus) in the food?  Does the heat sensitive barcode label show signs (darkening) of high heat ?  Did you leave it in the car overnight?  Was it purchased at a garage sale or a butcher shop? etc.

    obviously have my drink on.  sorry folks.
    ______________________________________________
    I love lamp..
  • stevesails
    stevesails Posts: 990

    i would rinse it off and see if the smell goes away..put you nose up close.   but I certainly would not tell my wife about it. she would have already thrown it away.  but the garbage in the garage wopule have been nasty.

     

    XL   Walled Lake, MI

  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    Once again: a sell by date is the last day the food is considerdd in PEAK condition. It doesnt go bad on that date. Far from it. It is the date at which is is still BEST. Quality may decline after that. But it does not becime unsafe any time soon after that date
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • ribnrun
    ribnrun Posts: 174
    One of the great things about living in the US is I can afford to throw away food if I don't trust it. However, I woulda cooked that badboy (to the old USDA 160) and then given it a try. Tastes wrong, spit it out and toss the rest. One mouthful won't kill you (my wife doesn't buy that line either). My cryovac ribs usually smell kinda bad when they come out of the package, but they taste delicious after they are cooked. It is a right given to us by all our forefathers who fought to make this great nation, if you wanna throw money in the garbage, no one can stop ya!
  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    We survived for hundreds of millennium before refrigeration as omnivores (or maybe it was 6 millennium when we were eating mostly dinosaur meat).  We evolved some serious kung fu defense against common carrion bacteria.  Acid in our stomach kills most of the bacteria that decaying meat host.  We've developed an aversion to stanky smellin meat because it's more likely to make us sick, survival, darwin, all that.  To dogs, jackals and vultures, carrion smells like granny's apple pie.  We're not delicate flowers, we're something in-between.

    Our standards are largely cultural based, and very high.  Midnight in whatever time zone your food expires, that stuff goin' into the trash because ITS POISONOUS!!!  

    Only, the nasty stuff that doesn't mind the acid bath in our stomachs isn't something we can fight off very well.  That's because it's rare, and it hasn't been important enough for us to evolve a defense against.   It's not part of the normal carrion decomposition.  It doesn't make food smell bad, it doesn't form a blue mold on the surface that you can see.  And it's unlikely going to spontaneously contaminate our food in our fridges or counter tops. Probably was there when you bought, caught or stole it.

    Unfortunately, some bad stuff does just pop up, mostly because we're doing something stupid, like storing fresh garlic under EVOO for 6 months. Botulism is an example.  But we have an innate general sense of what not to do.  Not to store our steaks in the trunk of our car.   We know that stuff that's cured (sausage, jerky, prosciutto, etc) lasts longer than raw unpreserved meat.   We use salt, sodium nitrate or pickle with an acid to make stuff last, people think that stuff is done for taste.  It is, but we stumbled upon it because we didn't want our food to go bad.  Everyone know more about food preservation than they think - we just learn this stuff in the background as we grow up.


    ______________________________________________
    I love lamp..
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    edited August 2012
    ribnrun... just be aware that cooking a truly unsafe piece of meat to safe temps doesn't necessarily fix it or make it safe.

    i'm with nola.  people really are ill-informed, ignorant (that's not pejorative), and essentially afraid of their food.  it's a shame.  this stuff has been with us literally forever, and we are more uninformed than ever about it.  turned all our food handling over to factory farms and middlemen, and now are left guessing at whether something is safe or not.

    if you have to guess whether it is good or bad, it's an indication you do not know what you should know.

    it's common to defend a decision as "better safe than sorry.." or "it's my choice...".  those two statements are entirely true.  but the only person who ever uses them is the one who does not understand what he/she is dealing with.

    just as it took time to learn how to use the egg, or it took time to become educated abut different types of barbecue, cooking methods, their rationale, etc., it's time to get educated about food safety.

    your spinach salad is more likely to kill you than your undercooked hamburger.  but which one makes you more nervous?

    know your food. 
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    edited August 2012
    ...sorry.

    i'll go so far as to say that if you base your decisions on the safe-serv certificate standards, you are WAY overshooting.  those rules are overly generalized, designed to be remembered by the least informed of food handling staff (those apathetic teen burger flippers again).  they are not merely conservative, they  are overly conservative.

    read around the USDA website about 'sell-by' dates. why spinach is more dangerous than undercooked pork.  why gramma cooked pork to 180 but you don't have too (USDA dropped even their conservative pork-doneness recommendation to 140), why your supermarket can sell fresh eggs up to EIGHT weeks without them being considered unsafe.  consider the logic behind your throwing away a steak on the sell-by date, but taking your wife for a 28 day dry-aged rib-eye at Morton's Steak house for your anniversary.

    don't be afraid of your food....


    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • BGE4Life
    BGE4Life Posts: 34
    Well said Stike.....
  • I will say that I have learned so much about food, practices, and the like from this forum. As a Newbie I have been worried about several things regarding safe practices, etc. I think in general those of us that are cooking meals everyday, for ourselves or our families are rare in this world. I know for me before the BGE we ate out all the time. The info that Stike publishes is like the stuff our parents learned from their parents. But, somehow this food knowledge was broken with the last 2 generations. Enter the TV dinners, drive throughs, cheap $1 menus: not very many people really cook a anymore. If they do it normally involves a box of pre-packaged or frozen items anyway. Most Americans are reheating,mnot cooking. So I agree with @Stike we are afraid and ignorant of our food! Thanks for telling it like it is, just like a grandparent would do!
  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    Yeah, I second that, Lizzie!
    ______________________________________________
    I love lamp..
  • MaskedMarvel
    MaskedMarvel Posts: 3,136
    Yeah..

    if it smells like **** and the store will take it back - return it...





    I'd love to hear Stike on oysters on the half shell..
    Large BGE and Medium BGE
    36" Blackstone - Greensboro!


  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    Or apples and oranges, maybe?

    Welcome back. We missed your contributions




    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • cortguitarman
    cortguitarman Posts: 2,061
    Everyone needs to sit back, relax, and remember that this is an internet forum. We all have opinions. Some right some wrong. At the end, your own best judgement must prevail. Sure, ask for advice, but getting in a pissing match isn't going to help.
    Mark Annville, PA
  • COegger
    COegger Posts: 58


    your spinach salad is more likely to kill you than your undercooked hamburger.  but which one makes you more nervous?
    Agree with @stike here (on the salad part - I'm not a fan of undercooked hamburger unless you grind it yourself).  Doctors tell patients that when they are undergoing chemotherapy not to eat salads when eating out and if they prepare them at home they must triple wash them.  Since hearing this I've basically given up salads.  Sauteeing spinach and other greens is more nutritious and safe.

    As far as rotten meat smell - return or throw it out if you can't deal with it.  I've noticed the smell before.  If it's a mild smell and I wash it off quick enough and get it cooked I'm usually o.k. with it.  Have returned a pork tenderloin with a strong rotten smell before. There was also a greenish tinge to it.  There was no way I would ever attempt to wash and cook that one!  You really have no idea how your food was handled before you purchase it so I don't think it's worth the risk.  If you're suspicious or uncomfortable at all, just return it or throw it out.
  • The fat side of mine did have that greenish hue to is as well. I am not sure why we keep going on this thread, it is settled. Isn't it? :D



    "Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity, and are able to turn both to their advantage."

  • ccpoulin1
    ccpoulin1 Posts: 390
    Everyone needs to sit back, relax, and remember that this is an internet forum. We all have opinions. Some right some wrong. At the end, your own best judgement must prevail. Sure, ask for advice, but getting in a pissing match isn't going to help.

    Agreed!  we share more in common than we disagree on, so we are all on the same team!  Opinions are good, and differing opinions should motivate you to do your homework and make the decision that is best for you.  (kind of sounds like politics!)  Hope everyone has a great day!

    "You are who you are when nobody is looking"

  • travisstrick
    travisstrick Posts: 5,002

    Everyone needs to sit back, relax, and remember that this is an internet forum. We all have opinions. Some right some wrong. At the end, your own best judgement must prevail. Sure, ask for advice, but getting in a pissing match isn't going to help.

    Well said.
    Be careful, man! I've got a beverage here.