Beef short ribs smell

[Rod]

Hello all,

I did beef short ribs for the first time yesterday. I noticed an odor when I unpackaged them. It's hard to describe, but it smelled kind of funky compared to any other beef smell I've encountered. Is this typical of beef ribs? Bone marrow maybe? I purchased them from a reputable butcher and followed MH's recipe. I dry brined them for 24hr two days after I bought them and put them on my Rec Tec the very next morning for a 10hr cook. They had the same smell after cooking. So do beef ribs smell differently than other cuts of beef?

[DeusDingo]

i never noticed them to be different, but i'm sure you can see that your meat has some odd coloring there. when meat start to get brown it starts to get funky. i think your meat was starting to go bad and get funky. i'm afraid it might not taste like you would want it to either.

[JCBBQ]

First off, those cooked ribs look incredible. I've never had cooked or uncooked ribs that had a bad smell. I wonder if the meat was off. I'm no expert but it looks like there is some discoloration on those uncooked ribs. I'll try to find a pic for comparison.


I found a pic a pic to compare.

[Rod]

Yeah those do look a little healthier. I don't know if I can go off my picture in terms of color. The wife looked at them and nothing stood out to her color wise.

[Troutman]

I like the looks of that brew in the background too !!!!

[jfmorris]

Sometimes when you open a cryopac vacuum sealed package of meat there is an odd smell, but it should dissipate quickly, and if you rinse and dry the meat, it should have no off aroma before an especially after cooking,. That greenish hue to some of the fat on your ribs is a red alert flag to me that the ribs are not fresh.

[Rod]

I did fail to rinse them, but after the cook they had the same odor. Costly lessen learned!

[jfmorris]

Even if you did not rinse, no off odor should have survived the cook. Bad meat. Did you eat them?

[Rod]

We tasted a tiny piece each. Just couldn't get over the smell. My step daughter said they smelled like dog food. I'll be disposing of them when I get home.

[Troutman]

I’d go back to your butcher. It’s one thing to buy in Costco or a grocery store but reputable butchers make their living off selling meat. Bad news if they make someone sick....

[JCBBQ]

Definitely.

[Dale Case]

Yeah it definitely looks like bad spots on em. You can usually trim all that off until all is good, just in case it ever happens again, but having to do that is kinda gettin screwed by the store :/

[Spinaker]

I have never noticed any off smells when I am doing beef ribs.

One this I will say is, "When in doubt, throw it out."

It is not worth making you or your family and friends sick. That being said, those ribs do look really good!

[Rod]

Like I said, costly lessened learned! I did contact the manager (who was there when I bought them) and let him know. I got no response. In exchange for his non-response, he won't get any more of my money.

Thanks everyone for your responses.

[jfmorris]

Sad that they don't stand behind their product. Next time if you ever smell/see anything like that, I guess the lesson is not to proceed with the cook. I've marched back to stores with bad meat in hand and demanded my money back before. I had a bad pack of chicken one time that about knocked me over when I opened it....

[HorseDoctor]

...and be sure to let him know that you will take your business elsewhere and warn all your friends to do the same.