If you are here reading this article, I am sure that you are interested in pork.
Well, I do not have to emphasize the sweetness of pork because you know that already. This meat is so delicious that you will find it in a lot of recipes.
Apart from the many recipes that feature pork meat, almost all pork parts are eaten.
Maybe apart from those who might avoid pork because of health or religious reasons, it is safe to say that we all enjoy pork.
Now just like any other meat or food item, the pleasant and delicious aroma evokes and awakens our appetite, and we look forward to when we can delve into the meat. I am very sure no one loves the smell of rotten meat.
So it is a point of concern when you notice that your pork meat has a foul smell or a stench. Sometimes it can smell like eggs.
If this is your concern, let us go straight to addressing why your pork might sometimes smell and what happens when it sometimes smells like eggs.
Before we explore how you can tell if your pork meat is bad, let us first look at some situations that might feel like your pork is bad, but it is still good in the actual situation.
I will differentiate between natural smell, Vacuum packaging smell, boar taint, and egg smell.
Read another related article, How To Tell If Pork Is Bad.
Natural smell and Vacuum Packaging Smell
Typically, every slaughtered meat has a fresh, natural smell, which usually comes from the blood or the animal’s inner intestine before you wash the meat. So it is natural for your slaughtered fresh meat to have a natural smell.
If you are buying a packaged meat from the supermarket, there will be a slight difference. The meat is most lightly to have quite a foul smell when you open the packaging. This smell is a result of the packaging.
Most supermarkets tend to use cryovac, which is a type of packaging to store their meat. What this type of packaging does is that it locks out all the oxygen from the inner material used to preserve the meat.
This lack of oxygen makes the meat develop a sulfur-like smell that bears some resemblance to rotten eggs, and if the meat is still in good condition, you can salvage this.
All you need to do is wash the meat with running water and air for a while. The washing and airing will take away the bad smell from the packaged pork. If you wash it and notice that the bad smell is still around, your meat is probably bad.
Boar Taint Smell and Bad Pork
This boar taint is the closest to making you think that your pork is bad. The explanation for this is that all male pigs contain androstenone, a product found in all-male pigs. If male pigs are not castrated when they reach puberty, androstenone makes your pork smell once you cook it.
So if your pork meat is a male that was not castrated, it is bound to have this foul egg smell when you roast or cook your pork meat. Boar taint does not make your meat bad, and it only gives it an unbearable smell.
Now you might be wondering that if boar taint makes your pork smell like rotten eggs, how can you tell if the pork meat is not rotten?
This is tricky, but you need to pay attention; boar taint only produces an unpleasant smell.
Difference between Boar Taint Pork and Bad Pork
The smell of bad pork, on the other hand, makes you want to vomit; you get a nauseating feeling when you perceive the bad pork.
So the smell from bad pork is worse than if your pork only has a boar taint.
Also, the difference between this and rotten pork is that Boar taint meat mostly only smells when you have cooked it; rotten pork meat smells right when you open the packaging.
To avoid this boar taint, you have to be sure of the producer you get your pork meat from.
If you are buying your pork from a local butcher, it would be nice to ask that you get pork from the male animal that has been castrated.
This will save your meat from having a foul stench that you might find unbearable.
Ways to Identify Spoilt Pork
1. Smell
Although boar taint pork smells like bad eggs, bad and rotten pork smells worse. The stench from bad pork is pungent and uncomfortable. It is not only unpleasant, but it makes you want to vomit.
So if your pork meat has a pungent stench like rotten eggs, then you should probably return it to the store or throw it away.
2. Press the meat
The good thing is that you do not need to rely only on your sense of smell to tell if your meat is bad; you can employ your sense of touch.
Good pork meat is fresh and has a firm texture, and if you press it in, it will bounce back.
So if you touch your meat and discover that it is overly soft or too hard, then you should suspect its condition.
Also, while touching it, if you discover that it has a slimy feel on the meat’s surface, you most definitely have to throw it away.
We all know any food which does not have a natural slimy characteristic is not suitable for eating.
3. Mold
Anything that has mold on it is bad business, and you should not even think twice about eating that meat. Even if you can wash off the mold, you should not eat the meat because it runs deep into the meat you cannot see.
4. Color
You can tell if your meat is fresh or not just from the color; the color of fresh pork ranges from red to pink with few white strands.
This is what you should be looking at when choosing your meat.
If the pork is beginning to look brownish, it is an indication that the meat is aged, and it might be getting wrong.
If you notice that the meat has grey and green colors, you need to throw the meat away because it is already bad and unhealthy.
Should I eat meat that smells like rotten eggs?
As I said earlier, if your pork smell results from vacuum packaging, you can easily wash off ths smell with water and air the meat. If it is a result of boar taint, you could always use spices and seasoning to mellow the meat’s smell.
And yes, you can eat the meat if the smell is a result of these two situations.
If the smell results from the fact that your meat is rotten, you should not even attempt to eat bad meat. The best thing is to put the meat away and buy fresh meat. It is better to purchase another meat than spend more money treating yourself because of food poisoning.
Finally
Before you consider throwing that piece of pork meat away or putting it on the fire, it would be nice to be sure about the meat’s state and condition.
If you are not convinced about the state of the meat from the smell of your meat, you can employ the use of your hands and eyes. I hope that this article has helped you.
