How to tell if minced meat has gone bad: smell, color, what other signs are there?

Eliminating the stale smell of different types of meat

In some cases, traditional methods of getting rid of odor are powerless. For example, the meat of a boar or wild animals: wild boar, elk, hare - initially smells unpleasant. Therefore, a number of special manipulations are required.

Removing odor from boar meat

You are unlikely to find boar tenderloin in stores, since it is not raised for slaughter on an industrial scale. If there is a hunter in your family who can bring the carcass of a wild boar into the house, then you are very familiar with its scent, so you need to know how to remove the smell of boar from pork meat by soaking the pulp in a vinegar solution (no more than 2%). After preparing the vinegar marinade, put parts of the wild boar into it and leave for 4 hours. In the same way, you can remove the smell from the meat of a domestic boar.

Pork and lamb

You can detect the ammonia smell from pork even when purchasing it. Heat the selected piece with fire from a lighter: if there is a characteristic odor, refuse to purchase. Not everyone knows how to get rid of the smell from pork meat once it has appeared at home. You need to stock up on a lot of milk and patience. Remove all fatty particles from the pulp, cut into portions and soak them in milk for 6-8 hours, changing the liquid every 2 hours.

The same should be done with lamb. Carefully remove the fat from it, cut it into small pieces and put it in milk. Don't forget to drain the milk and add fresh milk every 2 hours. When starting to prepare the soaked pieces, do not skimp on seasonings, otherwise a thin trail of aroma will be felt.

Let's revive rabbit meat

Rabbit meat is tender and tasty, but sometimes you come across a carcass with a specific smell. To remove the unappetizing “aroma” you need to put it in a deep saucepan, fill it with cold water and keep it in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours. If you don’t want to wait that long, you can use marinating.

For the marinade you will need:

• lemon – 1 pc.;
• orange – 1 pc.;
• garlic – 5-6 cloves;
• mayonnaise – 100 g;
• Ground black pepper and salt - to taste.

Orange sauce
Preparation:

1. Chop the garlic. Mix it with salt, pepper and mayonnaise.
2. Cut lemon and orange into thin slices.
3. Coat the rabbit carcass with mayonnaise and spices. Cover with citrus circles and wrap in foil. Transfer to the refrigerator and leave for 1 hour.

After this procedure, rabbit meat acquires amazing citrus freshness and piquant taste. The same can be done if you have a wild hare.

Complex goat meat

Goat meat is perhaps the most finicky meat in terms of odor control. If the goat was not castrated, and even slaughtered incorrectly, then it will smell terrible. Professionals advise not to mess with such a product and get rid of it immediately. If you have a strong desire to enjoy a goat meat dish, get ready for a complex odor elimination process.

To begin, rub the pulp with salt and sugar, leave for 2 hours, then soak in a vinegar solution for 4 hours (the water and vinegar must be changed every hour). When starting to cook, add more garlic, adjika, mustard, and spices to the dish. Perhaps they will kill the disgusting smell.

Wine marinade

Many people are wondering how to remove boar smell from pork meat? Housewives use wine marinade to bake pork in the oven or for barbecue. To prepare the wine marinade, you will need 250 grams of dry Cabernet or Sauvignon wine (you can use other brands, but only dry ones). A little (pinch) of dry rosemary. Three tablespoons of olive oil, 2-3 cloves of crushed garlic. Mix all ingredients before use and add fine table salt to taste. The amount of ingredients is calculated for one kilogram of meat.

To process pork, you will need a regular medical syringe with a large needle. Before marinating, after soaking, wipe the product with a towel and cut off the fatty films. Then, using a syringe filled with wine, inject it into the piece of meat. Several punctures should be made on all sides. After this, coat the pork with the prepared mixture and place it in a bag for one hour. Pork, soaked in marinade and completely free of unpleasant odor, can be placed in the oven and baked at 200°.

If you need to cook meat on a spit (grill), then you should use dry red wine. “Kadarka” or “Isabella” are suitable for this. Pre-soaked pork neck of a boar and marinated in a wine marinade is perfect for barbecue.

Ingredients: 500 g of any dry white wine. Two medium-sized lemons. One tablespoon of sugar. 100 grams of table vinegar (9%). Seven large onions (approximately 1 kg).

Lemons should be cut into slices and onions into rings. Then prepare the meat - remove layers of fat and cut into small pieces. Place all this in a saucepan (not an aluminum one) and pour in wine, adding sugar and vinegar. Pepper and salt - to taste. Mix all this and place in the refrigerator for at least seven hours, preferably overnight

Suffocated in a bag - what to do

For various reasons, the product may turn sour in cellophane. Not all meat can acquire flavor: fatty meat and chicken skin are most prone to acquiring “aroma.”

This may be due to faulty operation of the freezer or carelessness of the housewife. Is it possible to save spoiled meat?

Follow the meat washing methods described above. If you are not going to cook it right away, then cut it and put it in a clean container. If you decide to cook it right away, it is best to boil it, you need to do this with two onions: the meat broth will spoil, but the meat will be very tasty and sweetish from the onions. Pork lends itself especially well to this method.

I added a lot of onions to the minced meat - the taste became like soda, what should I do?

Girls, I decided to make cutlets. I defrosted the minced meat, beat the onion with a blender, added 3 pieces of it per 0.5 kg of minced meat, added salt - it tasted like soda. Can you overdo it with onions? How to fix it? Or is it better to throw it away and make a new one?

Girls, I decided to make cutlets. I defrosted the minced meat, beat the onion with a blender, added 3 pieces of it per 0.5 kg of minced meat, added salt - it tasted like soda. Can you overdo it with onions? How to fix it? Or is it better to throw it away and make a new one?

Smells sour, contains very little meat

On the evening of July 13, 2021, I bought minced pork and beef “Lyubitelsky” from. I rarely buy such semi-finished products - and for good reason.

I opened it and immediately got a surprise from Miratorg. The minced meat smells sour, the smell is somewhat similar to vinegar. In the official VK group, the manufacturer responded with the same dissatisfaction, saying that these are supposedly gases that help the meat to be stored well.

As you understand, the gases have not evaporated anywhere. In the frying pan, the minced meat continues to smell sour, but when heated, a strong smell of pork fat is added. is felt stronger than the smell of onions with which the minced meat is fried. It’s impossible to eat, I threw it away.

I definitely do not recommend this company's products. I bought it because it’s almost “local” - the production is an hour away. If the package says "pork, beef", I expect there to be pork and beef inside. But the guys can’t cope; it doesn’t even look close to high-quality minced meat.

How to check the freshness of minced meat?

I bought minced meat, its smell bothers me. Maybe you can tell me how I can verify the freshness/staleness of the minced meat?

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If the smell bothers you, it's better to throw it away. Why take the risk?

1, I won’t throw it away. I'll take it back. A year ago there was such a situation, the money was returned without any problems, the store was not far from home. Just wondering if there are any ways to check freshness other than relying on smell?

fry cutlets and eat If at 3 o'clock in the morning the diarrhea is profuse and breaks out. that means the minced meat is good. In general, it’s better to return it and throw it away!

We recommend reading: When to Harvest Cauliflower and How

What does it smell like? rotten meat? maybe the refrigerator is not cleaned well and it smells like a refrigerator (for example)

4, it seemed that the smell was slightly rotten. I opened it as soon as I came from their store. I hope the refrigerators are cleaned regularly)))

Related topics

Well, if it’s rotten, I wouldn’t cook with it. What are you going to cook?

It’s better not to eat anything at all than to eat rotten minced meat, author, throw it away. business then)

7, potato casserole))

Well, of course you can cook it, but realizing that it smelled like rotten stuff, you still won’t eat it. Once you can take it to the store, bring it, they won’t take it, feed it with this fash))) How can you sell spoiled food, is there really no merchandiser.

9, who cares what you cook, it won’t make it fresher)

Jo, I was just wondering if I could cook it for dinner too)))

10, what can we do, our stores are unscrupulous.

13, well, not all. I myself worked in retail trade, where they were very strict with products, and they monitored expiration dates conscientiously.

The question is what this stuffing consists of. If it is ground with the addition of crushed skin or chicken skin, the smell may be initially unpleasant. The same goes when adding eyes, udders and tripe. ps After the stories of a friend who makes dumplings, I don’t even go close to dumplings, ready-made minced meat, or pancakes with meat.

Eyes. what a horror. The hide, skin, udder, and entrails can still be tolerated. On the other hand, they need to put all this somewhere, and also get stuffed. Well, I bought similar minced meat. it was not quite red, pink with gray splashes, at least the meat was not entirely fresh, and besides, there was a lot of veins and cartilage. In general, I know places where the minced meat is good, and I buy it there. Or I grind it myself in a meat grinder - then I already know what kind of meat it is from.

We once devoured cutlets and stale minced meat, as someone already wrote here, and then the whole family stood in line for the toilet for half the night. It was funny

Is it possible to cook something from minced meat with a sour smell?

Sometimes it happens that you buy minced meat in a butcher shop, and then when you smell it at home, it smells bad. Or when you defrost the minced meat, and then put it in the freezer again, and then defrost it again, and it already smells bad. Or onions in the minced meat begin the fermentation process.

What to do with such stuffing? After all, this is a meat product, money was paid for it. Throwing it away is a pity, and it’s expensive, and the smell is sour and unpleasant. Is it worth reviving such stuffing?

If we were talking about a catering outlet (cafe, canteen, restaurant, eatery, Doner, and other catering outlets), then it would be possible to revive such minced meat there. After all, you can boil it (cook for at least an hour), you can fry it harder, you can add a variety of spices, you can put more garlic. And then there will be no smell, at least it will not be strongly felt. And the taste can be masked well.

But such minced meat is not safe for consumption. The processes of rotting and fermentation have already begun in it. Harmful bacteria began to multiply in such minced meat. This means that such minced meat can cause serious poisoning.

Of course, you may be lucky to avoid severe poisoning, but your stomach will probably hurt, or diarrhea may begin, or your stomach and pancreas will ache. And then you will have to spend money on medications.

But all this can be avoided if you simply follow the lead of reason and throw out the minced meat with a sour smell.

Therefore, if your minced meat has a bad, unpleasant, sour smell, then it is better to throw it away. After all, you can spend more on medicine than on this stuffing.

Possible reasons

There are a number of reasons why meat loses its natural flavor. In some cases it was not there in the first place. This happens when meat:

• completely rotten;
• a little spoiled;
• it was in the refrigerator in a plastic bag and developed an unpleasant odor;
• a rabbit that was not fed properly or was slaughtered incorrectly;
• boar pork;
• lamb with a peculiar smell.

A spoiled product in the form of rotten meat will have to be mercilessly thrown away, since its consumption, even after heat treatment, will lead to poisoning of the body. In other cases, you can successfully remove this flaw and prepare decent food.

Cellophane bag - the cause of unrest

If you leave meat in a plastic bag in the refrigerator, an unpleasant smell cannot be avoided. And the point is not that it has deteriorated, but that the chemical elements of cellophane provoke the appearance of a strange “artificial” aroma.

Refrigeration storage is a delicate matter. Instead of cellophane, there are parchment and paper towels. And only as a second layer is it wise to use cling film to protect the space in the refrigerator from easily spoiled product.

If an error occurs, you can use any of the methods that are suitable for spoiled meat. There are others that are milder.

• For 1 liter of water - 2 tablespoons of salt and a piece of charcoal. They will give an original aroma, giving a specific taste of a fire, forest, nature. Soak for 3-4 hours.
• Decoction 1 tbsp. spoons of chamomile per 1 liter of water.
• We use any herbs with a strong aroma (basil, cardamom, rosemary, nutmeg, or even better - a mixture of them) for rubbing and leave for 1 hour.
• Sprinkle small pieces with pomegranate juice, rub in and leave for an hour.

In any case, this will help not only get rid of the unpleasant smell, but also give it a new, unique and very appetizing one.

Suffocated in a bag - what to do

For various reasons, the product may turn sour in cellophane. Not all meat can acquire flavor: fatty meat and chicken skin are most prone to acquiring “aroma.”

This may be due to faulty operation of the freezer or carelessness of the housewife. Is it possible to save spoiled meat?

Follow the meat washing methods described above. If you are not going to cook it right away, then cut it and put it in a clean container. If you decide to cook it right away, it is best to boil it, you need to do this with two onions: the meat broth will spoil, but the meat will be very tasty and sweetish from the onions. Pork lends itself especially well to this method.

The problem is storage in cellophane

Polyethylene bags contain recycled cellulose, which gives products a strong “chemical” smell.

Beef in cellophane is saturated with the odors of other food products in the refrigerator

It is not recommended to store lamb, beef and pork in cellophane because the product begins to become damp and moldy. Before you put the meat in a plastic bag, you need to wrap it in thin paper.

Beef in cellophane is saturated with the odors of other food products in the refrigerator.

To eliminate extraneous aromas, you should use these tips for soaking meat:

• Soak any meat in a mixture made from salt and birch charcoal for 3-4 hours. After this procedure, the unpleasant “smell” will disappear.
• Rub the beef with spicy spices (basil, oregano, cardamom) and leave for 60 minutes.
• Soak chicken in lemon juice or chamomile decoction (add 1 tbsp dried flowers to 1 liter of water).

Fragrant marinade

Make a small bag from several (3-4) layers of gauze, put spices in it, add chopped onions, wrap tightly and pour boiling water over it. Cook for 3-5 minutes. Remove the mixture from heat, add garlic and a coffee spoon of citric acid. Wait until it cools down completely. Pour the cold marinade over the prepared meat and refrigerate overnight.

Read also: How to disassemble the impact mechanism of a rotary hammer

For this marinade you will need 10 juniper berries, 6 clove flower buds, one tablespoon of dried mint, 15 grams (1 tablespoon) of dried marjoram and 6 pieces of ground allspice.

Eliminating the smell of stale meat

If the lamb not only smells unpleasant, but is also not particularly fresh, a solution with antiseptic properties will be required to process it. The most effective and safe substance that allows you to destroy pathogenic flora is potassium permanganate.

Mode of application:

• pour clean water into a saucepan or other suitable container;
• add several crystals of potassium permanganate to it and ensure their complete dissolution;
• the solution should acquire a pale pink tint;
• immerse the product in water;
• put in the refrigerator for 3-6 hours;
• Rinse the lamb with clean water.

Vinegar has antiseptic properties, but its use will result in the meat having a sour taste after cooking. To avoid this problem, you can use chamomile decoction.

Procedure if the meat smells:

1. Brew 4 filter bags with boiling water. This amount of grass will require 0.5 liters of water.
2. Cover with a lid and let sit for 2 hours, then squeeze out the filter bags.
3. Pour the cool infusion over the meat.
4. Leave for half an hour, then rinse with clean water.

If the meat is not fresh, then it needs to be cooked longer and at high temperatures.

Acceptable storage periods

According to existing GOST, minced meat from any type of meat can be stored refrigerated for no more than 24 hours. This document does not contain recommendations regarding other forms of storage; for this purpose, technical specifications are used.

In a refrigerator

If the product is in a regular bag or container, then its shelf life at a temperature of 0 to +5 degrees depends on the raw materials:

• meat and poultry – 24 hours;
• fish – 6 hours;
• mushrooms and vegetables – 4 hours.

If minced meat or poultry is packaged using a vacuum or gas-modified environment, it can be stored at a temperature no higher than +5 degrees for up to 7 days. To extend the shelf life of semi-finished fish, vegetables or mushrooms, such technologies are not used.

Attention! It is unacceptable to store the product in damaged or heavily wrinkled packaging.

In the freezer

At subzero temperatures, bacterial growth slows down, which means the shelf life is extended.

At temperatures from –12 to –18, the storage duration of minced meat from various raw materials is:

• meat and poultry – 90 days;
• fish – 30 days;
• vegetables and mushrooms – 90 days.

After the specified time, the semi-finished product will be edible, but its taste and nutritional characteristics will change for the worse.

At room temperature

Storage at room temperature is not advisable. The maximum safe storage period for all types of minced meat in this case does not exceed 2 hours. In this case, the product should not be exposed to direct sunlight, and it should not be located near heating devices.

Minced meat, like any other food product, requires special storage conditions. If these requirements are not met, pathogenic bacteria develop in it, which leads to serious food poisoning.

Date: 02/27/2021.

Features of removing amber for various types of meat

Different types of meat have their own characteristics in cooking and preparing the product for processing. For some species, a slight odor is natural and does not indicate spoilage.

Duck

Duck initially has a specific smell. To deal with it, soaking is used. You can use regular cold water. After this, the duck is wiped dry and rubbed with herbs. It is better to cook duck with spices that will overpower the aroma and make the dish delicious.

Beef

Beef lends itself well to marinating and soaking. You can start by soaking not too large pieces in a solution of vinegar and salt. After this, the meat is washed and, depending on the severity of the smell, marinated.

Chicken

In chicken, the main source of unpleasant odor can be fat. It is the first to start to deteriorate and smell bad. To solve the flavor issue, the fat is trimmed and the meat is marinated or soaked according to any recipe. Read more here.

Pork

Fresh pork does not have an unpleasant odor.

If there were no problems with storage, but the smell was unpleasant, most likely the meat of an uncastrated boar was put on sale. Such a product will have not just an unpleasant, but a stinking aroma that will persist even after cooking.

Deep freezing for several hours can partially eliminate it. If the smell remains, you can try soaking. Before this procedure, a large piece should be divided into thin slices, and fat should be cut off as much as possible.

For pork, a good option is to soak it in milk for 12 hours, changing the liquid every couple of hours. Additionally, you can use garlic.

Another option is to soak the meat in a salt solution with the addition of vinegar. For this processing you will need:

• 2 l. water;
• 4 tbsp. l. salt;
• 5 tbsp. l. vinegar.

The meat is soaked in the prepared solution for 6-10 hours. After this, a new one is prepared and soaking continues for another day.

To avoid buying boar meat out of ignorance, you can set fire to a piece of lard from a piece. If the smell turns out to be sharp and repulsive, it is better to refuse the purchase, since this is a boar.

This article will tell you how to remove the smell if the pork smells.

Mutton

Before cooking, excess fat is removed from the lamb, the flesh is rubbed with spices and placed in the refrigerator for several hours. Pickling can also be used. This article will tell you more.

Rabbit meat

Rabbit meat has a specific smell that is easily removed.

If the product is not spoiled, then simply soak the carcass in cold water overnight. After this, it is marinated to make it softer and more tender.

Lemon juice, wine, and kefir can be used as marinades. In addition, spices are added to the marinade.

The duration of marinating depends on the age of the rabbit. For a young person, 3 hours is enough, for an old person, up to 8 hours.

Goat meat

Goat meat is the most difficult meat to remove odors. Soaking in a vinegar solution for several hours and cooking with plenty of spices, including garlic, will help. Meat from an uncastrated goat cannot be processed and will have to be thrown away.

Game

The meat of elk, roe deer, beaver and other wild animals may have a specific smell, since the animal lives in its natural environment. The older the animal, the more pronounced the smell may be.

After cutting, individual pieces that will be eaten are soaked in salted water with the addition of vinegar, and rinsed in running water. It is better to cook game on the grill so that the smell of smoke permeates the meat.

Fish

Fish is a perishable product that should not be stored for a long time. If the location rules are violated, it will quickly become smelly. This is due to the structural features of the inhabitants of reservoirs.

The proteins found in fish are not stable and quickly begin to decompose, much faster than the proteins in meat. Fatty acids, which are part of fish products, also contribute to oxidative processes.

Stale fish is determined by the following signs:

• mucus and stickiness;
• strong repulsive aroma;
• the appearance of uncharacteristic spots;
• dull yellowed eyes;
• dark gills.

If these factors are present, such a product should not be consumed in food. For fresh fish that is not spoiled, but has a characteristic smell of a pond, recipes with marinating and adding spices can be used. Read more here.

What to do if that chicken in the supermarket smells funny

For some of us, peeling the cellophane layer off packaged chicken at the supermarket comes with crossed fingers. The expiration date may be a week away, and the chicken may look fresh inside the package, but until you open it and smell it, you won't know for sure whether it's good or not. Fresh chicken shouldn't have anything to do with the smell, so what should you do if there's a slight smell?

If you bought a package of chicken for dinner and bring it home only to find that it doesn't smell quite right, the idea of ​​going back to the supermarket only to exchange it and sing the whole song and dance again can be very unpleasant. But with On the other hand, spending two days with terrible food poisoning is also quite unpleasant.

Good news: If you eat chicken that smells a little, you'll probably be fine. Pathogenic bacteria such as salmonella, listeria and E. coli pose the greatest risk when eating raw chicken, and cooking it to 165 degrees Fahrenheit will render them harmless. What you are actually smelling is spoilage bacteria (as opposed to pathogenic bacteria), which are not harmful when consumed. Even meat that looks and smells perfectly fresh can make you very sick if it was not stored correctly or was not cooked to the right temperature. So, even if it's counterintuitive, meat that smells a little can still be fine; it all comes down to the type of bacteria in it.

Whether you throw away smelly meat or cook it all depends on what kind of person you are. If you're the type of person who sniffs questionable food scraps and says, "Eh, I guess it's okay," then you probably already know that even though the resulting product may taste a little off, it probably won't cause you feel nauseous. .But if you're in the "better safe than sorry" camp and don't mind the inconvenience of having to drive back to the grocery store or ditch it and order pizza, then there's certainly nothing wrong with being cautious. No one will blame you for being a firm believer in the "when in doubt, throw it out" mentality, but don't think that eating mildly flavored meat will automatically make you sick.

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Fragrant rabbit

If a rabbit is not slaughtered correctly or has not been fed according to standards, its meat will have a specific odor and taste. There are several methods specifically for this type of meat.

• Soak in cold water for 10-12 hours. If you have time, it is best to do just that, gaining freedom in further use. The meat will be absolutely neutral and ready for any processing method.
• Marinate. For this purpose, you can use kefir, olives with tomatoes, a mixture of wine, sour cream and juniper. The meat will be ready within an hour and will acquire the flavor of the spices and bases used in the marinade.

Slightly rotten smell

If left in a warm room even for a short period of time, various microbes and bacteria will happily get to work, receiving a nutrient medium in the form of an appetizing cut of meat.

The smell appears very quickly. You can remove it using the following methods.

• Soak in cold water with a spoonful of vinegar for an hour, then rinse.
• Soak in lemon juice or wine for an hour. If the piece is large, it should be cut into pieces. After this, rinse.
• Spread small pieces in mustard and leave for an hour. After this, rinse thoroughly.
• Soak in salt water (there should be a lot of salt), then rinse thoroughly.
• Soak in a weak, barely pink solution of potassium permanganate, then rinse in running water and leave in cold for 15 minutes.
• Chop onion and garlic into a container with meat, add herbs and leave for an hour.

If during this time the desired effect does not occur, the meat can be considered completely spoiled. In addition, if the smell returns during cooking, you should not waste the effort and money spent - you must throw away the product immediately.

How to remove the “aroma” using improvised means?

You don't have to go to the store to deal with the smell of rotten meat. In every home there are means to destroy bacteria that cause a persistent unpleasant odor. These include:

1. Soda. To prepare the cleaning solution you will need a liter of hot water and 4 tablespoons of soda. Soak a rag in the resulting mixture and wash the refrigerator. After wiping one area, you need to rinse the rag under running water, and only then dip it again in the soda solution. When the treatment is complete, wipe the refrigerator with a clean damp cloth and then with a dry paper towel.
2. Vinegar. The acid perfectly neutralizes all foreign odors. A weakly concentrated solution is suitable for cleaning the refrigerator (take 1-2 tablespoons of 9% vinegar per 1 liter of water). Soak a rag in it and wipe all accessible surfaces with it. They are then rinsed with clean water.
3. Ammonia.
   To prepare a detergent, 5 drops of ammonia and 1-2 liters of water are enough. Being a source of a pungent odor, such a solution will kill the plume left from rotten meat. Wash off the product with clean water. If after such treatment the refrigerator smells of ammonia, you should not worry; the smell will disappear in 2-3 days.
4. Alcohol. It not only neutralizes odors, but also disinfects surfaces. To clean the refrigerator, you can use vodka, diluting it with water in equal proportions. To give the solution a pleasant aroma, you can add the juice of half a lemon or an orange. Wipe all shelves with the resulting product, leave for 15 minutes, then wash with plain water.
5. Potassium permanganate. Based on it, a solution of low concentration is prepared. It should be slightly pinkish. They wipe all the elements with it, after which the remaining product is washed off with water. Potassium permanganate disinfects surfaces well, destroying microbes.
6. Hydrogen peroxide. This is an affordable recipe that will not only help get rid of the smell of rotten meat and bacteria, but also whiten yellowed plastic surfaces. 3% peroxide is poured into a suitable container, a soft cloth is placed in it and the shelves and walls of the refrigerator are wiped with it. After 15 minutes, treat them with clean water.

Using available means, you need to take care of your own safety. When washing the refrigerator with disinfectant solutions, wear gloves and in a well-ventilated area.

If a few days after the procedure the smell appears again, the treatment is repeated, paying more attention to hard-to-reach places.

From meat to sweets: the history of mince pie

Today there is nothing even remotely savory about meat pie. But it was not always so. Like many other dishes, minced meat has been prepared for centuries.

We recognize them as the quintessential Christmas confectionery, filled with dried citrus fruits, infused with brandy, seasoned with spices and wrapped in crumbly pastry. However, long before Nigella introduced salted caramel to the nation, the British were fascinated by the combination of sweet and savory.

Take one coffin...

Our mince pies are undoubtedly of medieval origin, although we might not immediately recognize them. Pie crusts were known as coffins and were used as a vessel for preparing delicacies or homemade pre-cooked meat fillings. The confectionery was little more than flour mixed with water to form a pliable dough. It was designed to be thrown away after the contents of the pie were eaten, although perhaps the poor could eat the discarded leftovers.

The pies were usually large, as they needed to serve several people. However, smaller pies known as chew pies (possibly so called because the scored tops resembled small cobs or chouettes) were also available.

Add sweetness and spice...

Many medieval recipes combined sweet and savory ingredients, and pies were no exception. Desserts as we know them didn't really exist, so using sweet ingredients in meat dishes was perfectly acceptable.

The sweetness came from honey or dried fruits as sugar was not widely available. Along with spices such as saffron and ginger, dried fruits such as figs and dates were the preserve of the rich as they had to be imported into the country. Heavy use of spices in your food was one of the ways to show your peers how much money you had.

Detail from "Tart de brymlent" or "Tartes of flesshe" from the University of Manchester Picture Library

A fourteenth-century "form of kuri" gives a recipe for a meat pie (above), which contains figs, raisins, wine, pine kernels, lard, cheese, minced pork, honey and spices. A similar recipe using lamb rather than pork also gave Gervase Markham in The English Mistress, originally published in 1615. Sounds familiar?

And the baby in the manger...

Due to the high cost of ingredients, spice pies were not an everyday food. They were served on important holidays such as Easter or Christmas (which were preceded by long periods of fasting).

Because the pies were often baked in a rectangular shape, people began to associate them with the manger that Jesus started. Soon, dough figurines of the baby Jesus were placed on the pies to strengthen the religious connection.

It is a myth that Christmas and mince pies were banned by Oliver Cromwell and reinstated during the Restoration, but some seventeenth-century Puritans disapproved of such "idolatrous" depictions of sacred figures. By the end of the century, mince pies began to be made round, and the child was completely absent.

And bake for centuries until meatless

It is difficult to say exactly when the meat was dropped from the mince. Eliza Acton's recipe for mince in Modern Cookery for Private Families (1845) includes ox tongue, and Mrs Beeton's Household (1861) originally gave two recipes for mince minced meat, one with meat and one without meat (although later editions included only a meat-free version).

Suffice it to say that by the twentieth century the only trace of meat in the eponymous mince pie was lard, and even that could be replaced with a vegetarian alternative.

1591 Recipe for real mince pie

Compound

For filling:

• 1 1/2 lbs (700 g) lean lamb or beef
• 4 oz (100 g) lard
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground mace
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• pinch of saffron
• 2 oz (50 g) raisins
• 2 oz (50 g) currants
• 2 oz (50 g) chopped prunes, pitted

For confectionery:

• 1 lb (450 g) plain flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 oz (100 g) lard
• 1/4 pt (150 ml) water
• 4 tablespoons (60 ml) milk

For the glaze:

• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) butter
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) sugar
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) rose water

Method

Grind the meat and mix with lard, spices, pepper, saffron and dried fruits.

To make the dough, sift the flour and salt together into a large bowl and make a well in the center. Heat lard, water and milk to a boil and pour into the well. Quickly whisk the mixture with a spoon to form a soft dough and knead until smooth on a lightly floured board.

Cut off a quarter of the dough and cover until the lid closes. Shape most of the dough to form the base and sides of the pie into an 8-inch (20 cm) diameter, 2-inch (5 cm) deep, loose-bottomed pie pan.

Place the meat in the pie and moisten the edges of the pie wall. Roll out the remaining dough to form a lid and press firmly. Trim the edges, using the excess dough for decoration, and make a hole in the center of the lid.

Bake in the center of the oven at gas mark 7, 220C/425F for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to gas mark 4, 180C/350F for a further 1 1/4 hours. Remove the sides of the pan, brush with glaze and return to the oven for another 15 minutes. Serve cold.

If you try this recipe at home, we'd love to hear about it - leave us a comment below and share your photos with us on Twitter @EnglishHeritage

• This recipe was originally published in A Cookery Book Very Essential for All, such as Terin's Delight, printed by Edward Allde, London 1591 and reprinted in Food and Cookery in 16th Century Britain - History and Recipes by Peter Briers Heritage, 1985)

More minced meat? Watch our Victorian cookery series

Mrs Crocombe, cook at Audley End House, makes enough traditional mincemeat (using ox tongue) to last all Christmas...

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How to get rid of the unpleasant smell of chicken meat

1. Trim excess fat: sometimes it is the source of the unpleasant odor.

2. Wash the carcass well, soak for a couple of hours in cold water. For greater effect, add table salt (2-3 teaspoons per liter).

Soaking in salt water is the easiest method.

3. Soaking meat in a weak (light pink) solution of potassium permanganate helps a lot. Duration of soaking is 2-3 hours. After this, wash the bird thoroughly under running water.

4. Generously rub the carcass (fillet, wings, drumsticks) with finely ground table salt, rinse after two hours.

5. Flour has an absorbent effect (any flour will do, be it wheat or corn). Roll the fillet in it (you can add fine table salt, the ratio of products is 1:1), rinse after 30-40 minutes.

Eliminate odor during cooking

If after all the manipulations the meat is barely perceptible, but still smells, use proven culinary “tricks” that will help remove the smell of chicken directly during cooking.

1. Rub the meat with finely chopped onions or garlic passed through a press. The pungent aroma will “drown out” all foreign odors.

2. Marinate the chicken: store-bought marinades, lemon juice, mustard, soy or teriyaki sauce, and balsamic vinegar are suitable.

3. Use spices that have a pronounced aroma: tarragon (tarragon), basil, red pepper, rosemary, marjoram, oregano, curry, cardamom.

4. When cooking the broth, do not skimp on any seasonings, roots, or vegetables. Cook the onions and carrots whole in it, and then throw them away.

5. In “dacha-field conditions”, cook the meat on the grill or grill. The smoky flavor neutralizes unpleasant odors.

Uncastrated boar meat: how to get rid of the smell?

You should not immediately classify the purchased product as inedible; perhaps it can still be corrected. How effective your efforts will be depends on the concentration of skatole in muscle tissue. As a rule, the older the animal, the more persistent the smell will be, and the more difficult it is to get rid of it. Culinary experts recommend the following methods:

How to soak boar meat from smell

photo from the site https://mossudmed.livejournal.com

This is the most common method, which is usually used before all other options for saving pork:

• For soaking you will need cooled salted boiled water, with the addition of 5 tbsp. vinegar per 1 liter of water. To determine if there is enough salt, place a raw egg in cold water; it should float, not sink.

• The effectiveness of soaking increases if portioned pieces are used. Therefore, if you have a clear plan of what you will cook, immediately cut it into goulash, for smoking or frying.

• Soak the pork in an enamel bowl for 6 hours and leave in a cool, dark place. Drain the water and refill with new water for 24 hours, change the water again.

• The next soaking cycle should last two days, after which you should check whether the product has been sufficiently cleaned. To do this, light a small piece and smell it - if the smell is clearly noticeable, then change the water and leave for another 2-3 days. With barely perceptible amber, you can proceed to pickling, which will neutralize its remains.

Boar meat: how to remove the smell by freezing

photo from the site https://parazity.com/

When exposed to low temperatures, skatole is destroyed and the quality of the product increases.

• You need to freeze it at the lowest possible temperature (-25⁰C and below), for at least 3 months, dividing the meat into pieces of 400-500 g.

• Before resorting to freezing, it is better to soak the pork according to the procedure described above for at least a day.

• Keep in mind that the smell is easily transferred to nearby products, so carefully pack the meat in several bags, and place the rest of the frozen food at some distance, without direct contact.

• After the allotted time, check in the standard way (by setting fire) how effective the measures taken were.

As a rule, soaking or freezing eliminates the unpleasant odor typical of uncastrated domestic boars. And if you are not hypersensitive, then you can continue to cook according to your favorite recipe.

First steps when detecting the smell of rotten meat in the refrigerator

Once a damaged product is discovered, emergency measures must be taken. We need to get rid of the source of the stench - rotten meat. Microorganisms have formed on it, which actively multiply and spread the smell throughout the refrigerator and the entire kitchen. Don't throw it in the trash. It is better to take it out of the house and bury it in the ground.

Then you need to disconnect the refrigerator from the power supply, remove the remaining food and defrost it. Wash all containers, cells, shelves, parts with water and detergent. You should thoroughly wash the area where the rotten piece of meat lay. If you can’t get rid of the smell by simply washing, then household chemicals or folk recipes will come to the rescue.

The SmellOff kitchen odor remover will effectively deal with this “aroma.” The neutralizer acts precisely on all microparticles of unpleasant odor, removing it at the molecular level. Recommendations for processing the refrigerator: 1. Find the spoiled product and throw it in the trash bin outside. We go through the rest of the products, throwing out those that have managed to absorb the smell of rotten meat. 2. Disconnect the refrigerator from the power supply and defrost it completely, not forgetting to drain all the water released. If possible, we remove all parts of the refrigerator that can be removed - shelves, handles, drawers, connecting rubber bands. We treat all this separately with a neutralizer and leave it until completely dry. 3. After the refrigerator has dried from the defrosted water, apply the product by spraying. The product should be poured onto the area where the rotten meat was located and those closest to it so that it penetrates as deeply as possible

It is important to treat all hard-to-reach places - corners, elastic bands, handles, etc. 4

After finishing the treatment, leave the refrigerator with the door ajar until completely dry for 12-24 hours, and then ventilate. Treating the floors with water with bleach and ventilating will help get rid of the rotten smell in the kitchen. To completely remove the smell, you can turn on the burner and pour a little salt on it or put an orange or lemon peel on it.

How to remove smoke smell from clothes

Clothing can pick up the smell of smoke in different ways. Whether you're sitting around a fire or indoors near a wood stove, the smell can permeate your clothes and really cling to it. Even safe tasks like barbecuing can create a smoky flavor.

How to get rid of wood smoke smell from clothes

Image Credit: Warchi/E+/GettyImages

It can be annoying when the smell lingers on clothes even after you've tried to clean them using traditional methods. And if you have an item that can't be washed with the rest of your laundry, removing wood stove smell can be very difficult. Luckily, there are a few tips and tricks that can help you.

Why is tree smoke so common?

One of the reasons why wood smoke odors seem to stick to clothing is because the human nose is sensitive to these odors. This means that you can actually notice them, even if the smell isn't particularly strong.

Wood smoke sticks to odor because odor molecules stick to clothing in two ways. They get trapped between the fibers of the fabric and can be absorbed by the fibers. The fabric has a large surface area, especially when you consider the tiny spaces between each of the fibers. This may mean that washing methods that usually help remove odors are simply not effective enough for wood smoke odors.

How to get rid of the smell of smoky clothes that can be washed

Before washing smoky clothes, you should soak them in a special odor-removing solution. Fill a bucket with warm water, then add about 8 ounces of vinegar and 1 cup of baking soda. Place affected clothing items in a bucket until they are completely submerged in water. Allow clothing to soak for at least 30 minutes, but longer if possible.

After you finish soaking, wring out the clothes and wash them in the washing machine according to the instructions. You can repeat the soaking and machine washing process as many times as you need until the smell goes away.

How to make your campfire smell like clothes you can't wash

If you need to get campfire smoke out of a jacket or other item of clothing that isn't easy to wash, there are other methods for removing odor.

Place clothes that cannot be washed in a sealed food bag. Add about 30g of baking soda and two dryer sheets to the clothes. Seal the bag and shake it to distribute the baking powder evenly. Leave the bag for at least 12 hours, but longer if possible.

When you open the bag, shake the outside of the clothing to remove the baking powder. You can clean the product with a brush or lint to ensure that the powder is completely removed. You can also go over the item of clothing with a vacuum cleaner. If you prefer, you can continue this odor removal process by sending your clothes to the dry cleaner.

Other Tips for Removing Smoke Odor from Wood

If you're in a pinch, you can at least minimize the smell of wood smoke by using a fabric scent spray. Make sure you buy one that's designed to eliminate the smell and not just mask it with artificial and sometimes not-so-pleasant scents.

Air circulation is also important for removing smoke or campfire odors from clothing. Once you have used any of these methods, hang your clothes outside if possible. Simply allow air to pass through the fibers to enhance the scent.

If your smell is persistent, you can use an alcohol spray. Mix cheap vodka or rubbing alcohol with warm water and spray on affected areas of clothing. However, this is not recommended for delicate fabrics.

There are also a number of products on the market designed to remove odors. They can be used on clothes that smell like smoke. To get the most out of the product, try sealing it with your clothes in a bag and waiting overnight.

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Do I add baking soda to meat?

I use soda not only for minced meat, but also add bicarbonate to regular meat. Here's why:

• Sometimes I buy packaged steaks at the store, and often they turn out to be quite dry. To prepare a truly tender dish, I soften the steaks in soda: prepare a soda solution, put the pieces of meat in there for 10-15 minutes, rinse them with clean water and put them in a frying pan.
• My kids don't really like beef because of the distinctive "cow taste". I also solve this problem with the help of bicarbonate: after using soda, the smell disappears, the meat itself becomes softer.
• I also use baking soda when preparing pork shish kebab. The meat not only becomes softer, but also develops an appetizing crust. I do it as follows: I chop the meat, put it in a small saucepan, sprinkle it with soda, stir it, leave it for 2 hours, then rinse it with clean water.

Bread for cutlets

To the chopped meat and fat, add a crumb of white bread, soaked in milk or broth and then squeezed out. Of course, you don’t need to put a lot of bread in the cutlets, a fifth of the volume of the whole minced meat will be enough, also the bread should not be too fresh, this can give the cutlets a sour taste.

There is often an opinion that “they invented adding bread to cutlets in Soviet public catering because of poverty and lack of meat, that it was superfluous there...”. These conversations are nonsense. Bread was also added to cutlets under tsarism. And they added it there not out of poverty, but solely in order to retain juice in them, since the bond of fibers in the chopped meat is broken and most of that juice will simply flow out during frying. The bread will absorb this juice and, thus, the cutlets will not turn out hard and dry.

What to do if the minced meat turns out liquid?

What housewife, bustling around in a cozy kitchen, doesn’t want to please her family with a delicious dish? In advance, perhaps even in the morning, she plans the delicacies that she will spoil her family with today. And imagine her disappointment when, having opted for cutlets, having spent a lot of time and effort on preparation, the minced meat for future cutlets turns out to be too liquid! The mood drops, the desire to continue doing anything disappears completely! But under no circumstances should you despair or panic - the situation is not hopeless and can be quite easily resolved.

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Adding Products

There are many options to correct the situation. The very first solution, which an experienced housewife immediately resorts to, is to beat the minced meat in her hands or on a board, as a result of which the excess liquid disappears. If it doesn’t help, then you should move on to simpler methods that are familiar to everyone. Let's first consider those that require the addition of additional ingredients that will absorb excess liquid:

• You can boil the potatoes, mash them well and add them to the minced meat. Don't worry that the delicious cutlets will turn into potato dumplings. The meat will significantly predominate and will give its effect - the cutlets will remain cutlets. If you don't have time to prepare the puree, add potato starch, which will instantly thicken the minced meat. Some people add regular starch, but this is a last resort option.
• Boiled rice, buckwheat, oatmeal or some other porridge are perfect for liquid minced meat. You can grate fresh carrots or raw potatoes. It will not add additional flavor that is inappropriate for meat cutlets.
• The banal addition of bread or crackers has always been a wonderful solution to this problem. Most people add white crumb, but black or gray bread is also suitable for this. You may feel some sourness, but it’s not scary - it will add a peculiar piquancy to the cutlets.
• 1-2 tablespoons of semolina will absorb excess liquid in 10-15 minutes. The main thing is to wait patiently, allowing the semolina to swell well. Thanks to this, the cutlets, among other things, will turn out more tender. It is important to strictly observe all proportions, otherwise the semolina will be strongly felt.
• Regular breadcrumbs will create the necessary volume to absorb liquid. You can add milk powder to the breadcrumbs in the bundle.
• The correct solution would also be to cook meatballs instead of cutlets. To do this, you need to add raw rice to the minced meat, mix well and let it brew for half an hour.

These tips will be useful for those who are not too picky about the composition of future cutlets and are willing to put up with additional, “forced” ingredients.

Additional procedures

For those who still fundamentally prefer meat to predominate in cutlets, some simple procedures will be useful:

• If you don’t want to add anything to the minced meat, but there is excess liquid, you should put the minced meat in a fine sieve and leave to drain for a while. Instead of a sieve, you can also use gauze folded in half. When performing this simple procedure, it is important not to overdo it, since minced meat completely devoid of liquid will result in very dry cutlets.
• You can place the liquid minced meat in the refrigerator for about half an hour. After it “gathers” in a cold place and becomes thicker, you need to start frying without delay.
• Regular wheat flour can also help, although some sometimes prefer to use only corn flour, since it has a coarser composition. You just need to roll the cutlets in it and put them in a frying pan. This will somewhat strengthen their surface.
• In order not to fuss with failed minced meat for a long time, you can get out of the situation without unnecessary procedures by frying the cutlets in a properly heated frying pan on both sides. High heat will seal the edges of the cutlets, preventing them from falling apart. After this, cover the pan with a lid and let simmer for about 15 minutes. These cutlets will turn out very juicy and soft.
• You can simply fry the cutlets like pancakes without stewing. The main thing is not to put too much minced meat in the frying pan and heat the oil in it before doing so.

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Whatever the cause of a small accident, in the form of liquid minced meat, a skillful housewife always has the opportunity to correct the situation. There are many dishes besides cutlets that can be made from failed minced meat: cabbage rolls, meatballs, stuffed peppers and ordinary navy pasta. You can also get out of the situation by taking frozen puff pastry out of the refrigerator and baking a pizza, placing “failed” minced meat on the dough instead of meat and sausage. The same dough will make wonderful chebureki or belyashi. Whatever method is chosen for emergency rescue of minced meat, the most important thing is that the family is fed and happy!

• You can boil the potatoes, mash them well and add them to the minced meat. Don't worry that the delicious cutlets will turn into potato dumplings. The meat will significantly predominate and will give its effect - the cutlets will remain cutlets. If you don't have time to prepare the puree, add potato starch, which will instantly thicken the minced meat. Some people add regular starch, but this is a last resort option.
• Boiled rice, buckwheat, oatmeal or some other porridge are perfect for liquid minced meat. You can grate fresh carrots or raw potatoes. It will not add additional flavor that is inappropriate for meat cutlets.
• The banal addition of bread or crackers has always been a wonderful solution to this problem. Most people add white crumb, but black or gray bread is also suitable for this. You may feel some sourness, but it’s not scary - it will add a peculiar piquancy to the cutlets.
• 1-2 tablespoons of semolina will absorb excess liquid in 10-15 minutes. The main thing is to wait patiently, allowing the semolina to swell well. Thanks to this, the cutlets, among other things, will turn out more tender. It is important to strictly observe all proportions, otherwise the semolina will be strongly felt.
• Regular breadcrumbs will create the necessary volume to absorb liquid. You can add milk powder to the breadcrumbs in the bundle.
• The correct solution would also be to cook meatballs instead of cutlets. To do this, you need to add raw rice to the minced meat, mix well and let it brew for half an hour.

Goat meat and its smells

How to get rid of the smell of goat meat? It's practically impossible. The owners of this animal had to take care not only of castration, but also of proper slaughter. If the meat smells terrible, then it is better to refuse to cook it, because even the most spicy seasonings will not remove the smell completely.

If you feel sorry for throwing away this product, you can try rubbing it with sugar and salt, leaving it there for a couple of hours, and then soaking it in a vinegar solution for four hours, changing the water every hour.

When preparing such meat, do not skimp on garlic, mustard, adjika and herbs.

Now you know how to get rid of the unpleasant smell of meat. We hope that this article will be useful to many housewives and will help them avoid additional costs associated with purchasing a new piece of meat. Simply eliminate the smell of what is already in the refrigerator!

Mustard. Meat does not have a long shelf life, and it often develops a rotten smell, which can be removed in several ways. But when the smell is strong and pungent, then it is better to get rid of such a piece. To remove the unpleasant odor from the meat, it should be smeared with ready-made mustard, after which the piece is placed in a pan and placed in the refrigerator for 2 hours. After this time, you need to take it out, rinse it with cold water and start cooking the planned dish.

Wine. When thinking about how to remove unpleasant odors from meat, you should purchase red wine, thyme and rosemary. After this, you need to take a piece of meat, put it in a pan and pour in red wine, which should be in excess so that it covers the product completely. After this, you need to add thyme and rosemary, in this form the meat should lie for an hour. After this, you can start cooking the meat, but it is better if it is fried, so the taste will be more piquant.

Potassium permanganate. It is worth noting that all meat odors can be removed using potassium permanganate, because this is the method used by unscrupulous sellers to give the product a good appearance, color and aroma. You will need to make a weak solution of potassium permanganate, pour it over the meat and leave in a cup or pan for 3 hours. After this time, you should rinse the meat thoroughly; as a rule, it will not have an unpleasant odor, but rather will acquire a good presentation.

Chamomile decoction. You can also get rid of the unpleasant odor from meat using chamomile decoction. You will need to brew chamomile, cool and strain it through cheesecloth. After this, you need to lower the meat into the broth and add a little sugar to it. The meat should lie in the pan for only 20 minutes; after this time, it should be removed and washed in lightly salted water; not a trace of the smell will remain. Sometimes it happens that the meat emits a very pungent odor, which you can get rid of, but it is better not to risk your health, since most likely it has already gone rotten.

Saline solution. When meat has an unpleasant odor, it can be destroyed with a saline solution. You need to cook it in a saucepan and put the meat there for 2 hours. After this, you will need to rinse it with cold water and not even a hint of the smell will remain. You can also rub the meat first with sugar and then with salt and rinse it immediately; this quick method will help out when you urgently need to cook something. Using one of the above methods, you need to be sure that the meat is not rotten, otherwise you can harm your health.

Meat with flavor

always raises certain concerns and conflicting feelings. You have to make a choice whether to eat it or throw it away. The first option is most often used. However, in other countries, in particular in southeastern cuisine, the approach is slightly different, where rotten meat is in some cases considered a delicacy. The main thing is to process and prepare it in a special way.

History of domestication of the wild pig

Over a long period of time, people gradually domesticated wild pigs, and it is not known when certain animals, which by nature reproduced quickly, began to be restricted from fertilization. At first this was due to the possibility of keeping track of livestock, then meat eaters noticed a difference in taste and quality between a pig from which the reproductive organs had been removed and a representative that had the ability to give birth. This is how the concept of “boar” and “hog” appeared. A boar is a breeding producer of offspring, and a hog is fattened for subsequent slaughter.

What to do if the chicken smells - ways to solve the problem

The specific smell of stale chicken is inherent even in fresh meat. To make the chicken smell, just leave the chilled carcass in a plastic bag for several hours. Also, the characteristic “amber” may be a consequence of the use of certain types of feed for poultry raised at home rather than in factory conditions.

Examination. If you're concerned about how meat smells, check to see if it's spoiled. The color of fresh fillet is pinkish, while meat that is not suitable for food has a grayish tint. The fat should be white, not yellow. The normal smell of chicken meat is without “sourness”. Feel the sirloin. If the meat is dense, it means it’s fresh; if it’s sticky or slimy, the carcass will have to be thrown away. You cannot eat spoiled food!

Fresh fillets should have a pink tint

How and how long to store minced meat in the freezer

All rules for storing minced meat in the refrigerator also apply to storing minced meat in the freezer. But there are several additional conditions for proper freezing.

• Only fresh minced meat is used for freezing.
• Salt, onions, bread, milk and various spices should not be added to minced meat for long-term storage. All this worsens the taste and appearance of minced meat and promotes the proliferation of microbes. Very often, housewives freeze minced meat along with onions, believing that this will not spoil the taste of the meat, using frozen dumplings, cutlets, meatballs and other meat products as an example. But these semi-finished products are frozen using the blast freezing method, that is, very quickly and at a fairly low temperature. In such products, harmful microorganisms simply do not have time to appear, much less multiply.
• Household refrigerators do not have this ability, because the temperature in them is not low enough. Therefore, it is advisable not to pack minced meat for freezing in plastic containers. The best option is to divide the minced meat into small portions, put each of them in a plastic bag, press down on top so that all the air comes out and the minced meat takes a flat shape. In this form, minced meat freezes very quickly and takes up minimal space in the freezer.
• If all the rules for preparing minced meat for storage have been followed, then such minced meat can be stored in the freezer for up to three months without losing its beneficial qualities. Despite the fact that minced meat will not disappear in the freezer even after a year (unless, of course, it has not been defrosted before), it is still not worth storing it for so long, since it freezes and its quality deteriorates significantly.

These simple rules will help housewives to always have a small supply of frozen and high-quality minced meat in the refrigerator.

All rules for storing minced meat in the refrigerator also apply to storing minced meat in the freezer. But there are several additional conditions for proper freezing.

How to Tell if Ground Beef Has Spoiled

This article was produced by our experienced team of editors and researchers, who reviewed it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

We recommend reading: How Many Spoons of Salt Should You Put on Horseradish?

Number of sources used in this article: 8. You will find a list of them at the bottom of the page.

wikiHow's content management team carefully monitors the work of its editors to ensure that every article meets our high quality standards.

Ground beef is a versatile ingredient for making burgers, tacos, homemade spaghetti sauce and more. Do you have beef in the fridge but aren't sure if it's still good to use? You can check the minced meat using several simple methods. And, most importantly, never eat meat that has spoiled!

How can you tell if the minced meat has gone bad?

Signs of spoiled minced meat

Grayish-greenish color and a sharp, unpleasant, putrid odor. Normal meat should be uniformly light pink and have almost no odor. The truth about the smell is very subjective; to some, any meat seems spoiled, while others can easily eat rotten meat, depending on how often a person deals with raw meat.

Fresh minced meat should have the color of meat, from pink (if it is pork) to dark red (if it is beef), the very first signs of not fresh minced meat is a gray color, the minced meat usually turns gray at the edges, so in stores they simply mix it. You need to make sure there are no such inclusions

The second sign is the smell, nature has taken care of us, non-edible products have a smell that is repulsive to us, so if you hear an unpleasant smell, you shouldn’t mask it with spices and deceive yourself, it’s more expensive for yourself.

And the consistency, spoiled minced meat will become sticky, the same as sausage forgotten in the refrigerator, at this stage, if you start cooking the minced meat, the smell will be very pungent, if there are no problems with your sense of smell, you will hardly be able to eat it!

To determine whether the minced meat has gone bad, you need to do the following:

1) Smell it, if it starts to rot you will feel an unpleasant smell, if it doesn’t smell, this does not mean that it has not deteriorated, since perhaps the process of rotting has not begun, and bacteria may already be developing

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2) It is necessary to touch the minced meat; if it is slimy, then this is a sign that it has gone bad;

3) Look at its color, there are no shades of green, this indicates that the minced meat has deteriorated.

4) If you have packaging, you can also see what expiration date is indicated there.

These are the ways to check the suitability of minced meat.

Just today I was wondering whether to cook with this minced meat or throw it away. We mince the minced meat ourselves at home, buy the meat and mince it, then put a little bit into bags and freeze it. It so happened that the minced meat in one bag had to be defrosted and then put back into the freezer a couple of times. Today I took out this package, defrosted it, and felt a sour smell, unusual for meat. And the color of this minced meat became darker, closer to brown, and not fresh red. Deciding not to risk it, I threw the package away. Signs of spoiled minced meat in this regard are as follows:

1. It's the smell. As noted above, it is unusual for meat, unpleasant, and if it is badly spoiled, then it is very unpleasant.
2. Color. Fresh minced meat will be bright red. The stale one will begin to darken and also acquire shades unusual for meat - green, gray, etc. In my case the color turned brown.

1) Smell it, if it starts to rot you will feel an unpleasant smell, if it doesn’t smell, this does not mean that it has not deteriorated, since perhaps the process of rotting has not begun, and bacteria may already be developing

Spicy meat in southeastern cuisine

• The questionable freshness of the ingredients used to prepare dishes is a strange feature of Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine. There are many products out there that undergo lengthy preparation before use.
• For example, Chinese “rotten eggs” are prepared by placing fresh eggs in a special solution for a couple of months. There they acquire a specific color of both the white and the yolk, as well as a disgusting smell.
• Almost everyone has tried sushi, but few people know how this product was originally prepared. And this was done like this: they took fish that had undergone the fermentation procedure and placed it under its press mixed with rice, which helped speed up the rotting process.

There is still no exact answer to the question of whether it is possible to eat meat with flavor. It all depends on adaptability to such food and nutritional culture in general.

Flavorful dishes from all over the world

Housewives from all over the world know what to do if the meat tastes bad. Cooking slightly rotten foods is especially popular in the hot East, where it is difficult to store them. In India, animal dishes are served with curry, and in Thailand, always with pepper. Curry will kill the remaining smell, and hot pepper will remove the unpleasant taste and disinfect.

Products of questionable freshness are actively used in Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese culture. Many high-end restaurants serve food that has spoiled in advance. It is believed that the unpleasant smell drives away evil spirits, although the cooks are silent about the harm to the stomach. Be very careful with meat products in these countries: if it is not written anywhere that the recipe calls for slightly spoiled meat, which it is, it is better to refuse to eat it.

In the middle zone, the smell of rotten meat is often eliminated with onions and garlic. Chop onion and garlic into the container, add pepper, herbs, and vinegar. Within a few hours the smell goes away and it becomes ready for cooking. Kebabs and kebabs are prepared with such seasonings. So, if your meat has spoiled, it’s okay, it’s served that way in many countries around the world.

Determining the freshness of pork

Each type of meat has its own characteristics. For example, there is pork on the counter in a store. How can you tell if meat has gone bad? Here again we need to remember three main features.

The color of a piece of pork must be soft pink. A darker shade indicates that it is either no longer fresh, or the meat of an old animal is in front of you. In this case, it is better to refuse such a purchase. A dish prepared from such pork will taste disgusting and will not bring pleasure. If the meat is very pale, then growth hormones may have been added to the animal feed. It is not safe to cook food from such products. If the meat looks normal outwardly, this does not mean that it does not need to be smelled. Sometimes sellers try to hide the unpleasant odor with spices or table vinegar. The presence of any foreign aromas indicates that the product is not as good as it seems. When pressed with your finger, pork, like any other meat, should be elastic. When buying a product on the market, you must not forget to check for the presence of a sanitary inspection stamp.

Meat, like any other product, cannot remain fresh all the time. Over time, under the influence of various enzymes, microorganisms, and molds, it deteriorates and becomes unsuitable for consumption. Any housewife should be able to identify a low-quality product. But how can you tell if the meat has gone bad? Advice from experienced chefs will help you deal with this issue.

Do you use expired food for cooking at home?

Yes, the main thing is to process it if it is meat or expired kefir for pancakes.

27.83%

No, it is very dangerous and not useful.

36.7%

If the products have fungus or mold, then we throw them away; if they are a couple of days past their expiration date, we use them for food, even without heat or other treatment.

35.47%

Voted: 1139