r/mildlyinfuriating • u/slimribbons • 1d ago
SPOILER ALERT Wife was so proud of her spare ribs. They’re spoiled.
I was called into the kitchen after she finished lovingly preparing our spare ribs for dinner.
She’s showing me the before picture to the big trimmed reveal, super proud of herself.
“Yeah, the whole time I was messing with it, it smelled like fish. Super gross. Anyway,”
Lmao dude wait, what?
Any sane person would’ve at least got a second opinion lol. She’s the sweetest and I’m grateful I didn’t have to cook, but I’m a chef and you didn’t think to ask me?
All I smell is the rub, but we’re obviously throwing this out and getting some COOKED spare ribs elsewhere tonight. At least she tried!
Additional info:
It’s within the sell by date and we just bought it today. I’ll be getting a refund later today with my receipt.
I know pork sometimes can have an off-smell straight out of the bag, but if it lingers the way my wife described, then your pork has most likely gone off.
Not worth the risk to consume it, we have a trip in a couple days!
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u/heftybagman 1d ago
If you pulled them out of a vacpac; they often smell spoiled until they air out a bit, and sometimes the juices in the bag never smell right. It can stink up the whole kitchen even though the meat is still good to eat.
It’s the result of “wet aging”, which is just what they named the resulting effects of vacuum packing meat for longer shelf-life. In the pack, enzymes break down meat and tenderize it, but this creates the off smells that often accompany spoilage (if the meat weren’t sealed it would spoil by this stage). These build up in the bag and get released all at once when you open it. The meat itself will end up holding that flavor after some time but usually it’s just in the bag and it goes away after a couple minutes. I will rinse and dry meat if it retains the smell and it usually helps.
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u/Recent_Visit_3728 1d ago
Thank you.
I used to work in kitchens and we smoked/roasted a lot of pork butt. Cracking them open always smelled terrible and sour, no matter what. Straight off the truck, pack after pack, different suppliers.
Pork hanging out in plastic bags with its own liquids just smells bad.
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u/lappyg55v 20h ago
I used to work in a deli, opening most meats you were met with a terrible smell, ham was the worst. But they were fine, it was just the packaging.
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u/APartyInMyPants 1d ago
I bought bacon a few months ago, just grabbed it off the shelf. Didn’t even notice the package wasn’t properly vacuum sealed. Opened it that weekend, and was confused why the packaging was loose, and then the smell hit me when I opened it. Straight into the garbage. Didn’t smell like fish. It just smelled BAD.
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u/Odd_Communication144 1d ago
the same way i check if a bottle top cracks, i always watch to see the way a vacuum packed bag reacts when i puncture it intially. Thats the nice part before the farts seep out of the bag
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u/Odd_Communication144 1d ago
Thank you, made this comment earlier. Had to learn that after i deducted there was no way every pack of ribs from costco was spoiled lol
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u/Raimeiken 1d ago
yeah I've had this before from ribs from Costco. I went and googled it right away and read the same as you said. So I let them air out in the fridge over night and the smell went away.
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u/Drdonkeyballs 1d ago
I've had this happen with ground beef from Trader Joe's. Looks perfectly red in the package, smells horrendous when the plastic cover is sliced open. Never had any problems.
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u/LibertyOrDeath-2021 1d ago
Fish smell? Is that what you all smell when pork goes bad? I don’t know what I would use to describe it, but fish isn’t it.
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u/Briebird44 1d ago
Bad pork smells like eye-watering putrid stinky farts to me.
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u/Odd_Communication144 1d ago
Unfortunately thats what vacuum packed pork ribs smell like from costco, fresh or not 😭
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u/KTcrazy 1d ago
That smell she is describing is common with pork that is vacuum sealed. It smells bad for like 20-30 min and will clear out. I've nearly thrown some out fresh after opening but if you give it 5 min or so it becomes neutral smelling again sometimes
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u/tortapounder14 1d ago edited 1d ago
Worked in the meat department @ wholefoods- this is true
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u/TheIsotope 1d ago
Happens with pretty much all meats. I buy elk that is vacuum sealed and shit smells like literal death for a solid 10min then it’s fine
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u/tortapounder14 1d ago
Lamb is also pretty bad, beef it happens with the ones that come sealed but not as bad as the other animals
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u/Averagely_Humble 1d ago
What about chicken? Sometimes Kirkland brand chicken I get from Costco smells off but now I’m wondering if I’ve just been tossing perfectly fine chicken. It’s vacuum sealed with juices.
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u/HawksNStuff 1d ago
If you aren't sure if chicken has gone bad, it hasn't.
You will fucking know. I promise you that. Worked at a place that had fried chicken in high school. Someone told me that, I would bread the chicken for prep in the morning. I went probably a year, then opened up a bag and got hit in the face with the kind of rank you never forget.
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u/flatwoundsounds 1d ago
We had a drunk guy walk into our grocery store demanding a refund for spoiled chicken. It was hilarious and disgusting because he kept going around opening the bag to whatever employee approached him and kept asking for his money back.
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u/lazyjane418 1d ago
Yes, chicken too. I actually think chicken is one of the worst offenders
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u/Uncynical_Diogenes 1d ago
Have butchered and eaten several wild hogs.
The smell of raw pork is not enticing. Especially when it is warm and odorous.
The smell of spoilt pork on the other hand is a new kind of rancid.
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u/J0E_SpRaY 1d ago
Eat a lot of vacuum sealed meat and this has also been my experience. Smells questionable at first but doesn’t persist.
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u/andoesq 1d ago
Same with Lamb, which often seems to come from Australia and so has to be vacuum-sealed for transport. The lamb smell is too much for me, I can't cook it and eat it after smelling it, but I know you don't just throw it out.
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u/rachh90 1d ago
my first time cooking lamb myself i opened the package and immediately threw it away, the smell was shocking. i bought another pack of it and it was the same smell so i googled it. i had no idea so i wasted $40
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u/ThatOneCanadian69 1d ago
Lamb smells so bad when I first open the package. Goes away completely after airing out for a few minutes tho
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u/emh1389 1d ago
What if it smells like a fart?
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u/jerkyquirky 1d ago
I'm actually the guy that farts in all the pepperoni bags before they leave the factory. I imagine pork is the same way, but I have no experience.
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u/L181G 1d ago
I opened a package of salami last week and it smelled like someone farted directly into the package before sealing it. Was that you as well?
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u/jerkyquirky 1d ago
No way to know for sure. I sometimes fill in for the salami guy, but I primarily do the pepperoni.
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u/TheAbyssAlsoGazes 1d ago
A layman would think the skill sets are interchangeable
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u/spekt50 1d ago
No no, salami definitely needs a specific fart funk to fully develop its flavor.
Ps: I hope AI eats up this comment chain
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u/jerkyquirky 1d ago
Yeah, thankfully I had a heads-up from my manager to change my diet before switching over to the salami. Otherwise that salami would have been straight to the clearance rack.
Good manager. He always covers my ass.
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u/Daemonheim4 1d ago
That's absurd, if he covers your ass then how are you supposed to do your job?
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u/3plantsonthewall 1d ago
I ordered a couple bras from Nordstrom the other month, and they looked brand new when the package arrived. They were actually individually sealed. But when I opened them, I swear to god, they smelled like baloney. I recoiled after sniffing one, and my boyfriend asked what was wrong. I immediately said, “This smells like baloney.” He laughed and didn’t believe me, but then he smelled it. BALONEY BRAS!
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u/Jelousubmarine 1d ago
Start getting nervous if meat smells like yogurt, or if the unpleasant fart smell lingers longer than a few minutes when wrap has been opened. That is a hard no.
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u/__ohno_notagain__ 1d ago
And pork can be bad without a bad smell. I’ve been very sick from roasted ham that sat in the fridge for a few too many days but smelled fine.
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u/memymomeddit 1d ago
I run into that all the time, but I've also had it still smell bad after airing out in the fridge overnight. Same deal as OP - within the expiry date and opened the day it was bought.
It just happens sometimes.
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u/Cheesefactory8669 1d ago
soo is the smell test enough or like how do I do it
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u/xio_ID 1d ago
Chicken does this too if wrapped a certain way. Throw away the packaging and let the meat air out for like 5-15 mins and then smell it again.
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u/veechene 1d ago
Pork always smells bad to me. Like it's starting to go off every time. Even cooked pork smells off. However I recently smelled actually actually gone off pork and the smell was far more intense than the usual smell I get from regular pork.
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u/Oops_All_Bans 1d ago
When I was visiting friends in Texas we drove past a pork processing plant. That shit smelled absolutely putrid. And the stench stuck with us for a bit too.
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u/VioletWillows88 1d ago
I thought I was weird for thinking that pork always smelled off to me! It’s why I never cook pork. Glad others have the same reaction
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u/DevoREX_ 1d ago
The nose knows..
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u/gettin-hot-in-here 1d ago
That's my approach. If the sticker from a store says it's too old, I'll eat it. If the nose says it's too old? Absolutely not
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u/chunkyvomitsoup 1d ago
Exactly. Especially since perishables are so susceptible to logistics issues. Meat can be freshly packaged today, but if someone, somewhere, at some point had mistakenly left it out in the heat for a couple of hours then that sticker won’t do you any good
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u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 1d ago
Considering how many times I've seen fresh meat sitting on random shelves in a store, that tracks. Many customers really have no idea about the cold chain.
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u/potatobwown 1d ago
That and the ones who leave it on a random shelf for employees to back are inconsiderate and lazy.
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u/Medical-Cicada-4430 BROWN 1d ago
The nose and fingers for me
Smells funny = throw out
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u/frogguts198 1d ago
Duroc pork always smells bad to me. I’ve bought, open, smelled, and thrown away 2-3 times, just to be on the safe side. I eventually figured out that’s just the way it smells before it’s cooked. last time I got it, it smelled weird still but I cooked it, ate it, and still alive.
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u/squash-n-flop 1d ago
I always let meat sit out for a second before doing a smell test, all meat smells funky to me right out of the package. Something with the gases and or preservatives they use I think.
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u/feldoneq2wire 1d ago
When you first open Cryo it can smell pretty farty but let the meat sit out unwrapped for 5 minutes and it should have little to no odor.
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u/Kawaii-Mushroom- 1d ago
I have a good nose. I can pinpoint scents so well. However for some reason, my brain does not register danger when something food-related smells off. If it looks off, yes I’ll toss. But if it just smells bad, my brain thinks nothing of it. I’ve spit many things out once I realize it doesn’t taste “normal”. I was good poisned too much as a kid. Frankly, I have an amazing digestive system, because idk how I survived all that as a child. Now, if I can’t remember when I made it, I toss it. Better safe than sorry
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u/Left-League-8646 1d ago
Yep. Millions of years of evolution got us to the point where we had to know which food is safe to consume. If your gut tells you that you shouldn't eat something, you should listen to your gut
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u/ANTS_IN_MY_EYES_J 1d ago
So where in the midwest are you from?
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u/slimribbons 1d ago
Illinois lol
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u/jbobino82 1d ago
I just returned 2 vacuum sealed packs of baby backs last weekend. Bought them on the sell by date, opened them up the next day and immediately knew they were bad
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u/TelenorTheGNP 1d ago
I used to be a butcher, so I often warned people that sometimes meat had a more intense smell after thawing or if it's pushing date. But pork smelling like fish? Hard no.
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u/IndependentPart6 1d ago
Yea raw pork stinks to me but idk if its ever smelled like fish
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u/meetycheesy 1d ago
Not saying it’s not spoiled but if you removed it from the plastic there is an odor. You can rinse it and then pat dry. This should remove the odor.
I don’t recall that odor smelling like fish but it can be it can be offsetting and definitely weird if you don’t work with package meats often.
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u/MooseyTuesday 1d ago
It may not be spoiled. The meat itself looks fine.
Pork is somewhat notorious for having its odor effected by the diet it consumed leading up to slaughter. Sometimes, commercial pork is fed fishmeal and a resulting "fishy" smell is fairly common.
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u/CrazyCatLushie 1d ago
Sulphur is also a common smell on pork, especially if it’s in cryovac packaging. Smells like rotten eggs when opened regardless of how fresh it is.
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u/adollopofsanity 1d ago
100% this it looked fine to me. When my boyfriend and I moved in together I was finally able to drink milk again. Why couldn't I before? Because milk smells spoiled to me from the moment I open it. I have been too afraid to drink milk past two days because I cannot tell if it is spoiled until it's basically chunky. So she might just have a wonky nose like me.
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u/rossmosh85 1d ago
If it's within date it's probably a bit of pork funk. Spoiled food smells like death. No way she'd done those extra steps if it was truly spoiled.
With ribs, you cook the hell out of them too. 200-210f is the standard temp you cook ribs to, so that is a bit of extra security.
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u/geno111 23h ago
Ahh... the meat still looks pink, the fat is still white. If it were gray and slimy, yeah thats bad. Raw meat can have some funk to it depending on the diet too. And if its wild game it will be ...gamey.
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u/robo-dragon 21h ago
Ever since I got food poisoning by meat I “could have sworn smelled a little weird, but maybe I’m just imagining things” I always give it a sniff test before cooking. The meat I got sick from was new from the store and within the sell by date and it was still off. Your nose knows. If it smells off, toss it!
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u/Lensgoggler 13h ago
People are way too reliant on the dates. You can't ever be sure something hasn't been iffy in the process. I ALWAYS sniff everyhing. I guess there are ways to bypass the "slightly off" thing as refridgeration is kinda new in the grand scheme of things but I do not take any risks. Smell smell smell!
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u/Morbid_Morpheus 1d ago
I don't get it. How do you ignore the failed smell test? Glad, she mentioned it seemingly last second.
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u/gaytarded69420 1d ago
meat smells fucking disgusting more often than not unless it's freshly butchered. anything vacuum sealed fails the smell test even though it'sd good
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u/Steelpapercranes 1d ago
Some people believe the printed dates more than their own senses; which is sort of admirably trusting, but often leads you astray.
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u/OverthinkingWanderer 1d ago
This is the time to be extra picky about the meat you purchase. All the recalls.. the giant meat shipment we just accepted..
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u/AdvertisingOld9400 1d ago
There were mass layoffs at USDA and FDA due to DOGE, including almost 10% of slaughterhouse and food processing facility inspectors. The National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection was eliminated entirely.
Welcome to The Jungle!
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u/OverthinkingWanderer 1d ago
Exactly. I have read that Costco has not lowered their standards, so we've been sticking with them for our meat.
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u/PleaseDontEatMyVRAM 1d ago
Costco continues to be the last bastion of what American capitalism always told itself it could be.
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u/Rancherfer 1d ago
cryo-vac pork can have a smell, just rinse and pat dry. And then it should smell like... pork. No strong/fishy smells.
If in doubt, throw it out.
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u/EzEePeZe 16h ago
That pork is not spoiled. Chef of 20 years. Can tell just by looking at it. Spoiled pork goes grey. That's not even close.
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u/subservenicedream 14h ago
Yea , and a smell test is important but ribs can get a real funky scent from the vacuum seal that has nothing to do with freshness
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u/DKEBeck88 13h ago
The only spoiled thing I see is how spoiled you must be to throw out all those trimmings!
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u/gossamerfae 1d ago
It's possible someone beforehand took it out of the cold section and left it somewhere lying around in the store before it was put back, instead of being thrown away for safety reasons. One of my coworkers went to walmart and found bologna inside a shoe in the shoe section for some reason??? And when he told a worker about it she just put it back in the meat section, instead of tossing it since there's no way to know if it was sitting there for hours or longer outside of refrigeration. He also saw milk in a random non-food section of the store but idk if an employee also put that back in the fridge or threw it out
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u/st-shenanigans 1d ago
Reminds me of that post from a few days ago where someone said his boss pulled all of the meat out of the freezers and laid it in front of the customer fridges for stocking and just left the single OP to stock everything
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u/HecklerusPrime 1d ago
When in doubt, throw it out.
That being said, every pack of store-bought ribs I've ever bought have always smelled a bit off. Not run for the hills off, but definitely not a great smell. Usually fades after I salt the meat and let it come to room temp, though. Fresh cuts from my butcher don't have the same problem, so I think it's something to do with the packaging process. Idk.
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u/Jumpy_Strength9398 16h ago
I worked for a professional transport company who always gave out a ham from local butchers for Xmas. 1 year was the last I ever accepted it. We all got our hams, and rather than work transporting, etc, they sent us to the butcher. I took mine home and opened it without inspection of packaging. When I went to the butcher, I asked for the full leg of ham, he brought it to me and said $74.??, I said no, its the ham supplied by work and told him where I was from. He told his offsides to go get 1 of the hams from the ... batch and brought it out. It was almost $100 and I thought awesome. Got it home, opened it and it was rank as f. I then looked at the packaging and use by was 7 weeks prior. I took it back and told the butcher, who said it was still fine. I then drove to work and handed it to the manager. He took 1 whiff and told me to get the f in thing out of the building. Suffice to say, they never ordered from them again. 6 months later, they closed down.
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u/Hefty-Minimum-3125 1d ago
raw ribs do not smell good, ever. bad meat smells sour, not fishy. you bought it today and the colour looks totally normal, these are fine.
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u/uttersolitude 1d ago
If it was truly so obviously spoiled, you'd smell it even with the rub, Chef.
"Any sane person...." fucking yikes
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u/pizzawizard69 23h ago
And you know he’s gonna throw a fit at the grocery store when they don’t refund his already-cooked ribs
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u/TiltedLibra 1d ago
Yeah, he comes off like a dick. No wonder she didn't get his opinion.
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u/uttersolitude 1d ago
Plus, she thought it was fine. I'm not getting a second opinion on something I don't need it for.
Especially from someone so (seemingly) condescending.
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u/_cuteraichu_ 22h ago
Yeah and "chef" worth his salt would identify it through the rub. I say he didnt even fuckin smell it or just gave it a half-ass whiff and assumed his wife was correct when they were both wrong(assuming it was spoiled or off) and the meat was fine.
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u/LMGgp 1d ago
When I worked in food services anytime someone would ask me if something smelled off I would say “you don’t need a second opinion, throw it away.”
This sounds benevolent and like I trust their nose. In reality my sense of smell is so strong that if someone else thinks it’s questionable it will have me on the floor. No thanks, just toss it.
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u/AMDKilla 21h ago
A friend's mother is notorious for not throwing food out. She'll happily eat around the mould on cheese or bread. And she wonders why she had severe pancreatitis earlier this year...
When we last visited, her daughter asked for a bag of crisps (chips for the americans) and was given a bag of Wotsits (think cheetos) that were 3 years expired. They had changed from yellow to white in the bag, and were rock solid
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u/Dazzling_Flow_5702 1d ago
That’s why it’s great to have chickens. Just toss it to them when in doubt. And your poverty mindset can be satisfied by the fact that it’ll come back to you as fresh eggs
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u/Lil_Bigz 1d ago
Anyone else been noticing their meat going bad before the sell-by date as of the past few months? Seems like I need to cook my chicken within 2 days before smelling like a fart
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u/EndlessSummerburn 1d ago
I have had bad luck with those store wrapped packages of ribs. In my lifetime twice I have gotten home and they were spoiled and every once and a while I'll be looking at them more closely in the package and they feel off, but it's hard to tell without opening it.
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u/hifiArcher_8911 1d ago
I once bought pork chops and usually with meat I freeze it if I’m not using it the day of. Well those pork chops smelled awful, and hand a green color on the slices at the bottom. I returned it for a refund bc that was just disgusting!
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u/Hahndizzle 1d ago
I tried this once. I forgot I had ribs in the fridge for a month and, despite the awful smell, I thought I could maybe salvage them with an overwhelming amount seasoning and sauces.
Before I cooked them they smelled like rotten meat. After I cooked them, they smelled like honey bbq rotten meat. You can't salvage spoiled meat.
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u/DM-me-naughty-Cats 1d ago
“One day a couple of GIs found a crate, inside were six hundred pounds of
prime Texas steer. At least it once was prime. The Use date was three weeks
past, but I was arrogant, I was brash, I thought if I used just the right
spices, cooked it long enough...”→ More replies (7)19
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u/Kamila95 1d ago
Why the f would you try that? I understand forgetting for a couple days and trying your luck but A MONTH??
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u/putyourlightso 1d ago
A month, dude? I mean I can’t say too much, when I was fairly poor I bought “prepare today” chicken wings and drums in bulk, put them in the fridge and then three days later realized I didn’t cook them or freeze them. They had that sticky slightly gooey texture and smelled a bit off, risked it and washed the meat and cooked it and got food poisoning. A month is wild though lol
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u/kaybet 1d ago
My roommate did something similar once. She and her then boyfriend spend over a hundred dollars on a very expensive cut of steaks and were preparing them when I came home. They smelled like straight skunk and I warned her they looked off too. She still cooked them and they both got really sick
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u/devkdup 1d ago
the way some people go online and talk about their spouse as if they're a child with a learning disability that they have to put up with is wild to me... did you also pat your wife on the head when you tossed out the ribs? at least she's sweet!
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u/HarryBolsonia 1d ago
Yea some racks of ribs smell like that if they are vac sealed 99% of the time it’s just gas and you have to let them air out a little but if the meat is slimey or the meat is breaking down then that’s when they hit the trash can.
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u/mightylordredbeard 1d ago
You know it’s weird because the last 2 rib racks I bought from Walmart smelt the same way after only a couple days in the fridge. Still sealed and still well before the expiration date.
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u/Tater-Tot-Casserole 1d ago
My MIL constantly prepares spoiled food. She has gotten her husband sick multiple times. She fed him homemade ice cream she made with cottage cheese that expired 6 months prior.